The company overseeing the evacuation of an apartment building in Southampton has warned that a disaster could have occurred at any point over the past 20 years.

Residents of Sundowner Court in Ocean Village were instructed to leave their homes two weeks ago following an inspection that revealed the building’s steel structure lacked fire resistance.

Engineers who conducted the assessment informed the building’s new management company that, in the event of a major fire, the structure would be at risk of collapse.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue has confirmed that similar inspections will be carried out on other buildings within the complex.

Over the past 18 months, the waterfront development, which consists of 40 flats, has already undergone fire safety measures, including the removal of cladding and the closure of its underground car park.

On 22nd February, leaseholders and tenants received a letter from HMS Property Management Services instructing them to vacate the premises by 19:00 GMT.

Although HMS was originally set to take over management of the building in April, it intervened earlier after fire engineers conducting an "invasive survey" alerted them to the crisis during a late-night phone call.

Leasehold owner Penny Bowen recalled: "I messaged [my tenant] and said 'you're going to have to get out of this building by seven o'clock'. He thought it was a joke, and then he panicked."

Tenant Remy Kirk, who was away in Cornwall at the time, rushed home to pack after receiving the evacuation notice.

She said: "I grabbed my bag in 10 minutes and stayed somewhere else that night."

At a residents’ meeting on Monday, HMS revealed that the survey also uncovered concerns about the separation between individual flats and communal areas, potentially affecting how quickly a fire could spread.

HMS director Sean Eckton stated that residents had been fortunate that no disaster had occurred in the two decades since the building was constructed.

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