ACHA tenant ‘wants repairs done properly’
The boss at Argyll’s largest housing association says his organisation is keen to complete repairs to a Furnace property amid a row over the condition of the former council house.
William Fisher, who lives with his family in the house at Queen Elizabeth Cottages in the Loch Fyne-side village, has accused Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA) of failing to properly repair various issues with dampness despite repeatedly being asked to do so.
The Fisher family moved into the property around a decade ago, at which point the house seemed fine, but Mr Fisher said: ‘Within a few months we had to redecorate with mould coming through the walls.’
The association has carried out work to repair damp areas around windows, internal walls and applied a new external render to the house.
But Mr Fisher, who is 57 years old and has a number of health issues, believes that the work done is just masking the problems rather than fixing them.
‘The bricks have gone to mush in places and I had to re-plaster some of the walls before I redecorated. What it [ACHA] did was come in and put a bit of wood over the top to hide the problem.’
A property survey arranged by Mr Fisher in 2016 concluded among other things that windows had not been properly sealed internally and externally, the chimney could be a source of water ingress and a flat roof extension was not wind and watertight.
In 2017 Mr Fisher took ACHA to court, and in January this year he was offered £8,000 in compensation from ACHA. The offer came with a confidentiality clause and no admission of liability.
Mr Fisher says he did not accept the offer because of what he describes as the ‘gagging notice’ clause.
‘They want us to settle and shut up. That isn’t going to happen. They don’t care,’ he added. ‘We want to stay here and for it to be properly fixed.’
Alastair MacGregor, chief executive of ACHA, said: ‘The current situation is that the association is involved in live [civil] legal proceedings regarding Mr Fisher and due to respect for that process the organisation cannot comment in substance on matters pertaining to those proceedings.’
He added: ‘The association is keen to complete any outstanding repairs and we have been trying to arrange access to carry out these works, if Mr Fisher is willing to work with the association to address any outstanding repairs and allow access to his home.’