Banbury family suffer health problems due to excessive mould in flat

Amy Laverick moved into the property on Newbold Close last August when she was heavily pregnant with her son, but her dreams of a perfect family home were soon abandoned.

The property, which is managed by the Stonewater Housing Association, was completely damp and had mould on the walls and windows from the first day of her tenancy.

When Amy spoke to the housing association about the issues, they could only advise her to keep the heating on and make sure the windows were left open.

Amy said: "I had a new born baby and couldn’t possibly leave the window open with the freezing cold weather.

"We were supposed to have had over 100 repair jobs done to the flat since we moved in, and only a few of them have been done, and that’s only because Stonewater has hired private contractors to do them, otherwise it would just get left.

"I suffer from asthma, and my son has been very ill recently because of all the mould growing on his bedroom walls. We have been told it's not safe to live here with the constant leaks and damp."Amy contacted Stonewater to fix the growing mould problems in her 18 month-old son's walls, fearing that the young child could end up seriously ill if nothing was resolved quickly.

Amy continued: "Stonewater contacted their local contractors, Ian Williams, who informed me that they couldn’t send anyone to visit our property for over a month.

"Whenever I tell them or the contractors about the mould, they can never find the cause of it, and they never do anything about the problem.

"It feels like they just want us to sort the problem out ourselves, and we have tried to fix the issues ourselves by using the mould spray and painting over it but nothing seems to work."

The mould in the property, which is growing on the walls, windows and roof has even resulted in Amy’s son being admitted to hospital with a severe chest cough and Amy has also suffered numerous chest infections.

Amy has said that when she asks the housing association about moving to a different property, they inform her that she would have to go back on the council’s waiting list, which could take months to rehouse her.

"We can’t be living in this situation. I can’t risk my family’s health because of the lack of care from the housing association.”

A spokesperson for Stonewater Housing said: "We are really sorry that one of our customers in Banbury has mould in her home, our specialist contractor is at the property on Tuesday, January 17 to repair a section of the damp proof course.

"Along with work completed last year to repair a window and work scheduled to replace the front door, we expect this to resolve the problem."

Amy responded to this by confirming that workmen had visited the property and they did find mould in her son’s bedroom, but have yet to start work.