Poltics
A mum says her ‘scare’ rented home has seen her many times hospitalised – including falling by means of the bottom and a ceiling collapsing on her head. Disabled mother-of-three Victoria Parkhill, forty five, has been living in the sheltered housing after an accident left her with a damaged neck.
She says the home has heinous floors, flooding and extreme mildew – and left her having to consume and sleep in the lounge. Victoria has lived in the property in Watchet, Somerset, since October 2010 – after she moved in following an accident where she broke her neck.
She hoped the original home would accommodate her accessibility wants – but she said “everything that may possibly possibly perchance perchance crawl ghastly, did crawl ghastly”. A downstairs wet room which used to be built so Victoria may possibly possibly perchance perchance shower became mouldy and lined in rust.
When Victoria notified her housing association she said they sent workers to paint over it. However the underlying concerns went unresolved, resulting in the heinous wet room floor collapsing all of sudden and Victoria suffered a violent tumble into the bottom.
She damage up begin her head and used to be taken to hospital – and later used to be in A&E again after her ceiling crashed down onto her and left her. Victoria said the incidents contain left her with a damaged disc and ongoing points along with her inspire.
Victoria said: “I in actuality contain cried each day I feel esteem I in actuality contain the burden of the arena – my childhood are severely in unhappy health, terribly poorly. It’s been awful as me and my son, 15, are so poorly coughing again he had an bronchial asthma assault closing evening and aloof no information. It has been hell.”
However the violent tumble used to be unprejudiced appropriate the beginning of Victoria’s concerns with the home. Her family’s festive season used to be ruined when Victoria’s 8-three hundred and sixty five days-old school daughter Isla woke her up shouting ‘Mommy the home is flooded!’
A leaking upstairs faucet had stuffed the bottom floor with a foot of water in a single day, blowing out the electricity, destroying appliances and wrecking the kitchen. Victoria said: “I could possibly possibly perchance perchance no longer ever neglect waking up and seeing water pouring out of a faucet that wasn’t even turned on. It used to be horrific, my ankles were in water.
“On the opposite hand it’s now day 43 since this flood – and they aloof have not accomplished a single thing. “The floors aloof contain water below – it be fully devastating and the smell is good disgusting.”
She said Magna housing association, who have the property, failed to aid to the waterlogged ceiling for over a month, till it deteriorated so unparalleled the plaster blew and rained down on Victoria and her dog in early February. Whereas a Magna surveyor agreed they would fix the ceiling, they supplied no date, and failed to create any strive to fix it earlier than it in part fell down, she says.
The crumbling plaster ceiling left the family unable to consume in the dining room and retreating to the lounge for breakfast lunch and dinner. She said Magna contain refused to fix unparalleled of the hurt, leaving Victoria and her family with waterlogged floors, warped doorways, and a moist home.
The humid home is now aggravating a protracted-term damp subject in the property, which has left 8-three hundred and sixty five days-old school Isla off ailing from college, and 28-three hundred and sixty five days-old school Ashley sleeping downstairs with his younger daughter when she comes to talk over with. Victoria said: “My daughter has overlooked half of the term with extreme coughs and colds, she is now on antibiotics.
“My son is terribly poorly – now we contain slipped by means of the gain and will were put in sheltered lodging.”
Magna supplied the family with a dehumidifier, but it completely has accomplished diminutive to sort out the thick gloomy mildew growing during the windows and partitions of the property – which stubbornly returns no topic being on a standard basis cleaned. In an strive to air the home the wet room window is left begin, but due to this ivy is now invading the property and has to be minimize inspire from the interior partitions.
Victoria said there used to be no hope of winning the fight against the mildew when water used to be coming up from under the floorboards and said the topic had left her crying so badly she used to be unable to talk. She said: “I’ve lost so unparalleled cash than unprejudiced appropriate my flooring.
“My carpets aloof stink upstairs and but I’ve tried to no longer be a kind of oldsters that express for ridiculous things to be grasping. I’m so poorly – it’s awful I feel esteem I don’t know where to begin.
“The kitchen’s falling apart which used to be donated to me in 2014 to abet me be extra independent with cooking it’s unprejudiced appropriate ruined.”
She added that a Magna housing officer used to be ‘alarmed’ her family had no longer been supplied replacement lodging following the flood. Victoria has said she has been left “extremely concerned” after claiming Magna contain “all of sudden gotten rid of her calls” – and feels she has been handled “appallingly” by the agents.
She said: “To those highly effective firms, the diminutive person would no longer topic, the tenant would no longer topic – I in actuality were reporting this for years. ”
In a statement from Magna, they said: “We’re in actuality sorry that Ms Parkhill has outstanding repairs in her home that contain taken longer than we would routinely query. Ms Parkhill contacted our out-of-hours team in behind December to symbolize a leak from a heinous faucet, which we answered to the following day.
“We were ready to be certain that the lights were made precise, old school a wet vac to effectively-organized the affected situation, and supplied a dehumidifier. On the opposite hand, it wasn’t till after Ms Parkhill contacted us again on 18 January that we visited the very next day to inspect the water hurt.
”This ought to contain came about sooner, and now we contain apologised to Ms Parkhill that it didn’t. We contain now organized with Ms Parkhill to talk to her any points she has presently with damp and mildew and any other enhance her and her family may possibly possibly perchance perchance want.”
Victoria said wasn’t till after she asked her MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger, to intervene that her landlord rebuilt one room.
