Three seriously injured in house collapse which left homeowner £200k out of pocket

A Wraysbury builder has been given a year-long suspended sentence after his negligence caused a client’s house to collapse in Windsor.

The incident ‘seriously injured’ three workers and left the homeowner footing a £200,000 bill to rebuild their home.

On August 6, 2020, Jack Savva, 70, of Friary Road, was doing a loft conversion in Springfield Road when the house collapsed in itself, destroying the first floor.

The gable wall had fallen into the building after the roof was removed.

Two days before, Savva told the homeowner that work was needed on the chimney breast, the section of wall that juts out around fireplaces or where a fireplace used to be.

He explained that part of it had already been taken out in the first-floor bathroom, so it wasn’t complete and would need a temporary support to prevent collapse.

However, on the day, he instructed his workers to remove key supporting timbers and steels, resulting in the collapse of the brick gable wall.

This wall struck the workers, injuring them, and destroyed the first floor of the home. The house was occupied at the time.

One of the injured workers said: “I still suffer from nightmares of the day of the accident. I haven't slept more than two hours a night over the last four years.”

As a result of the disaster, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety, launched an investigation.

It found that Savva not taken steps to address the unsupported chimney breast before dismantling the roof, which is what caused the gable to collapse.

He also ‘failed to take the right steps to prevent danger to any person’ while the building was in a temporary state of weakness.

Moreover, Savva’s public liability insurance was invalid – meaning the householder faced a bill of £200,000 to rebuild their home.

Savva pleaded guilty to breaching construction management regulations and was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on September 17.

He was given a 13-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years – and was ordered to pay £2,000 compensation to the homeowner.

HSE inspector Dominic Goacher said it was ‘lucky nobody was killed’ in this ‘completely avoidable incident’.

Savva ‘should have taken precautions’ to protect people from the risk of collapse, he said.

Had Savva acted on his findings regarding the unsupported chimney breast and taken steps to support the gable wall before removing the roof components, this wouldn’t have happened, Mr Goacher said.

HSE publishes guidance about managing structural stability during alteration, demolition and dismantling. Read more here: hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/buildings.htm