The tenants still suffering with damp and mould

Date published: 21 January 2024

Some claim they were told ‘too much breathing’ was the problem… others fear breathing could end up killing them.

Each lives in social housing around Rochdale, in estates managed by the same social landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), in whose property a toddler died.

Awaab Ishak was killed after exposure to damp and mould which his parents had repeatedly complained about.

Now, over a year after an inquest which outlined RBH’s failings in the months before his death in 2020, other tenants of the housing association claim they fear that damp and mould could be slowly killing them.

A group met at the White Lion pub last week in the heart of the town to band together against their landlord.

On Tuesday 9 January, huddled around the pool table in the local pub, tenants swapped stories of a constant battle against mould, children left with breathing problems and the fight to get heard.

Responding to news of the meeting, RBH says its Damp and Mould Taskforce has been in place since December 2022 and that they are ‘working hard to identify and resolve issues around damp, mould and condensation at the earliest opportunity’.

Tenants who attended the meeting claimed the problems have got worse since 2022. They claim it’s difficult to get through to RBH to report the issues, spending ages on hold, and being ‘fobbed off’ with ‘short-term’ fixes for what they see as long-term problems.

They all said they had been told to use bleach, open their windows or put the heating on – leaving one tenant, Sean Doyle, asking ‘if they are paying to heat their homes or the street’.

He lives with his partner Corrie Foster, on Gainsborough Drive, Rochdale. They claim their children are being exposed to green and black mould.

“We’ve been living there for over nine years and we’ve had every problem [mould, damp and water ingress] you can name with the place – and it has been going on for eight years now,” Sean said.

“We’ve had our 10-year-old son diagnosed with asthma now and the doctor said it is because of this property and bad living conditions.

“We’re not parents who would put our kids through that, I’d die for them. That’s why we’re here today to make sure my kids’ health and their future is sorted.

“It gets me upset knowing my daughter is struggling and on steroids – we have furry green mould growing around where she sleeps. I am paying to kill myself, bluntly we are paying rent to slowly kill ourselves in these conditions.

“Every person with an issue needs to get onto it, cruel as it is – no one else wants their children to end up with the same fate as the little boy who died. I’m a dad and I can’t seem to stop this from happening to my kids.”

Sean claims he has waited in for workers that do not turn up, costing him wages. RBH says they are ‘truly sorry’ to hear tenants are ‘experiencing issues’ with their homes, and that their ‘absolute priority’ is to ‘put things right’.

Leah Nuttall claims the air in her bedroom feels so ‘heavy’ with damp and mould that she is living downstairs on a mattress at her home in Century Gardens just next to Rochdale town centre. She said they had reported their mould issues time and time again.

Speaking to the group in the back room of the White Lion, she claimed, to gasps of shock, that she had been told by RBH that the problems with mould in her flat were “due to them breathing too much at night”.

 

 

“Since we moved in back in 2014 we have had problems with green mould,” Leah said, alongside step-dad Steve Rodwell.

“I was due to get a tonsillectomy at the end of last year and a few weeks before my surgery there were questions over whether I could get it because my lymph nodes were so swollen.

“This was because of the mould. I was fighting an infection and my asthma was getting worse. It was touch and go whether I could get the surgery.

“The mould is that bad in my room, I’ve been on a mattress in the living room recently. I wondered whether to go into a hotel for a few weeks just to recover.”

The pair claimed that problems returned within weeks of remedial work being done by RBH.

The stories told at the meeting appear against the backdrop of a campaign to hold social landlords to tougher standards.

Awaab was just two when he died just over three years ago, his parents having raised concerns about their living conditions time and again. The landlord had blamed the family for causing the hazardous mould.

Awaab’s Law, named in honour of the late toddler, would see new legal requirements for social landlords brought in. This would require housing providers to investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours. A consultation on these timescales was launched on 9 January.

Billy Howarth organised the tenants’ meeting after seeing concern over more RBH issues in the community.

He is hoping that campaigning from the community of Rochdale, alongside the legislation will prevent any one else dying from mould and damp.

Tania Walsh is among those who fears her child is at serious risk. She became visibly upset as she described recurring mould at Queensway home.

“My youngest son has heart problems and he spent the first year of his life in hospital with bronchitis,” Tania told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. “So with the heart conditions on top of that it makes it a difficult place for him to live.

 

 

“There are constant chest infections from the mould for me and my other kids as well. It is just wet. They paint over it and it just comes back through and it is just not nice to live with in general.

“Other problems come with it, we have surface water that doesn’t go away. The mould gets into the kids toys and the sofa, and once it is in you can’t get it out – so you have to throw that away.”

Tania claims she has spent a small fortune replacing personal belongings riddled with mould, and countless hours cleaning.

She claims she currently sleeps on the couch, and that the kids sleep in her room, as some rooms in the house are uninhabitable because of mould, or filled with items in order to protect them from the mould elsewhere.

She would move out, but does not believe there is enough housing going to have options.

“It is just draining, I don’t get upset often, but it’s like talking to a brick wall with (RBH),” Tania continued. “They promise you the world and get your hopes up, and then you’re waiting and waiting and then nothing happens.

“We are paying rent for what? Having kids with health conditions is awful in these conditions. I am just on high alert constantly.

“We’re labelled as moaning tenants, but we just want something done. It’s not liveable. Home is somewhere to go back to but it’s not even a nice place to be.”

 

 

What RBH has said…

Amanda Newton, RBH chief executive, said: “We are sorry that Mr Doyle and Ms Nuttall have experienced issues with their homes. Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of our customers and we are working hard to carry out the repairs required.

“We carried out mould treatment at Mr Doyle’s home in 2021 and again in February and August 2023. In August we identified some additional work to help prevent a further reoccurrence of the mould and we are making arrangements to carry this work out as quickly as possible.

“Like many housing providers, there is high demand for contractors to support work relating to damp, and we are doing our best to prioritise the homes and families affected. We are sorry for the delay in carrying out this work. We inspected the home again in December 2023 and there is an appointment scheduled for further treatment on 19 January 2024.

“As Mr Doyle has advised that things have deteriorated since our last inspection, we’ve tried to make contact and have left messages so that we can look into whether this can be brought forward.

“Ms Nuttall reported damp and mould to us in early November 2023 and we inspected four days later. Treatment works were booked in for 2 January 2024 however our customer text us to cancel this appointment.

“We’ve been in touch and now have a new appointment scheduled for later in January where we will undertake checks to the external walls and complete the work required. I must reassure all customers that any feedback from them is taken seriously and we absolutely do care about the experience they have with RBH.

“We are sorry that Ms Walsh is experiencing ongoing issues with damp and mould in her home. We have carried out a number of treatments and have undertaken remedial works aimed at addressing the mould problem.

“We will also be fitting additional ventilation and carrying out other repair works. We would like to apologise to Ms Walsh that the measures taken to date have not fully resolved the issue.

“We are now arranging to undertake a more detailed inspection of the property and we will complete any additional works as quickly as possible. We will also undertake a review of the action taken at Ms Walsh’s property to identify what we could have done differently and any lessons that we need to learn to prevent the issues arising in the future.

“We have a comprehensive training programme in place for our contact centre to ensure that we handle all calls from customers in the right manner and provide callers with the support that they need. We record all our calls, and if any customers feel that we have not handled their call appropriately, we encourage them to get in touch with us so that we can listen to the call and investigate their concerns.

“Over the past year colleagues from across the organisation have undertaken customer service training to ensure that we are in the best place possible to support the people and families living in our homes. We encourage all of our customers to contact us immediately about any concerns they have with damp and mould or other issues in their homes so we can investigate and resolve them as quickly as possible.

“I also encourage any customer not receiving the service they need to make a formal complaint – this can be done by phone, by email or in writing. Customers who still feel this is not working for them can contact me directly or any one of the Executive Team. We are here to listen and help.”

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter