A 37-year-old woman who died after falling from a sixth-floor Hackney Council flat was trying to fix a blocked drainpipe, an inquest has found.
A coroner concluded it was ‘more likely than not’ that Sarah McGreevy, who fell to her death on 16 June, had climbed outside to clear the pipe and accidentally fallen from the balcony.
Police attending the scene heard from other residents about problems with their guttering and drainpipes, and that people living on the fifth and sixth floors would climb onto their balconies to manually unblock pipes.
Assistant coroner Sarah Bourke told Hackney that this practice was likely to continue unless it fixed the problem, and warned that more deaths could occur.
She gave the London borough council until 1 January to set out its plan in response.
A council spokesperson said: ‘This is a tragic case and our thoughts are with the friends and family of Sarah McGreevy.
‘We do not expect anyone living in a Hackney Council home to clean their own guttering and like the coroner we want to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again.
‘We will be carefully going through her report and responding as quickly as possible.’
