Residents living in luxury flats overlooking Bristol's Floating Harbour have launched a £1.5 million legal action after they were forced to prop up their collapsing balconies.

They are taking developer Crosby Homes to court next month after balcony ceilings at the award-winning £14 million The Point development caved in.

The 115 people living in the apartments, built near the ss Great Britain in Wapping Wharf in 2001, have been forced to shell out thousands of pounds on repair work and wooden struts to prop their balcony roofs up.

They have also complained of rainwater leaking through their balconies and problems with electrical fittings inside their flats.

Don Joyce, 57, a semi-retired management consultant who owns two apartments at The Point, criticised the standard of workmanship on the development.

He has lived there for five years and paid £260,000 for his two-bedroom apartment and £350,000 for his three-bedroom property.

Mr Joyce said: "The workmanship could have been a lot better. I've had interior work done and tradesmen who've been here have said 'who the hell put this up?'

"It appears the work was rushed, not properly planned and not properly supervised. All of my light units have had to be replaced because the transformers have been badly wired.

"We all want this sorted because it's a wonderful place to live and the management company do a wonderful job."

Problems with the balconies began on New Year's Day in 2007, when a soffit fell on one of the balconies on the Westgate building, one of the five buildings in the development.

Wooden props were put up on the balconies of 16 flats to stop the cement boards falling and they remained in place for 10 months because Crosby and subcontractor Skanska failed to repair them, say residents.

Residents eventually raised £50,000 for repairs to 50 apartments but in summer 2008 a soffit on a flat in the showpiece Pennon Rise building also gave way.

Surveyors were called in by the management company and all the remaining balconies in the development were propped up.

Alan Brewer, 60, one of the directors of the management company, says residents are taking legal action for £1.5 million to cover the cost of getting the balconies put right and to recover money they've already paid out.

Retired software engineer Mr Brewer, who paid £280,000 for his two-bedroom apartment in the Liberty Gardens building in 2002, believes problems arose because the cement boards were fixed to thin strips of wood called packers rather than wooden joists.

He said: "If one of the boards had come down on someone it would have been dangerous - it would probably kill someone.

"There have been a number of other problems as well as the soffits but we can't go into those because of the court case."

The Point, which was designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley and constructed by Skanska, won a string of awards in 2002 including the Building for Life awards from Cabe and a RIBA award.

Judges at the Housing Design Awards 2002 said: "There is a scale, sweep and assurance to this scheme which is all too rarely seen in private developments, and an attention to the quality of design extending from the internal planning to the treatment of the public realm, which makes it an excellent augury for the future."

A hearing has been set for next month at the Technology and Construction Court.

Crosby declined to comment. Skanska and FCB, which are not involved in the dispute, also made no comment.