‘It’s disgusting’ Man left in daily distress by noise and ceiling leak
AVULNERABLE man who had to deal with a collapsed bathroom ceiling and “continual” noise from his neighbours was left in “daily distress”.
Jerry Daly, 57, has lived in his Cotham flat for 27 years.
His bathroom roof collapsed after his landlords, the housing association Curo, failed to fix a leak from an upstairs flat.
He has said he has been dealing with excessive noise from his upstairs neighbours for more than a year, which he says Curo failed to deal with.
Curo has apologised to Jerry for the delays in fixing the problem, and a spokesperson said that they “accept this took much longer than we would have liked”.
Jerry suffers from aphasia, a condition which makes it difficult to speak, as the result of a stroke, so his friend Eunice Newman spoke to the Post on his behalf.
Eunice said: “I just feel really desperate for him because I know that he’s had this stroke, so life’s kind of stressful for him anyway.”
According to Jerry, the bathroom ceiling in his flat leaked nine times in a six-month period, which Curo did not fix.
Eventually, plaster from the ceiling collapsed on to his floor, and Jerry said that he was left to clean up the mess.
Curo said that the leak was hard to locate, while restrictions around working in residents’ homes because of Covid-19 also made it difficult for them to fix the problem.
After the ceiling collapsed, it was left unfixed for 18 days, according to Jerry, and in this time, he was exposed to what appeared to be mould on the ceiling.
Curo said they couldn’t fix the ceiling immediately because it had to be allowed to dry out.
But Jerry’s friend Eunice said his treatment has been “disgusting”.
She added: “Imagine if he was on the loo even, and that came down on him. It could have been potentially really dangerous.
“This flooding has been ongoing
for months since May, and Curo didn’t solve the problem.”
As well as the problems with his leaking roof, Jerry says Curo failed to intervene when he was dealing with persistent noise from his upstairs neighbours.
A letter written by his support worker from Second Step, a mental health charity based in Bristol, says there was “continual” noise from the flat between 7am and 1am each day from the upstairs flat, which caused him “daily distress”. Jerry said the problem had been going on for 14 months, and he often walked his dog for several hours in the day so he could be away from the flat.
An email from October 2020 shows that Curo were aware that Jerry was struggling to deal with the noise from the upstairs flat.
Curo and Bristol City Council allegedly installed a recording device which recorded noise from the flat upstairs, and they reportedly issued a noise abatement order to the upstairs flat, but were unable to move forward with legal proceedings due to noise mainly being produced by the two children living there.
A letter written to Curo by Jerry’s GP, dated August 2020, says he had turned to alcohol to manage his upset and was receiving support from Alcoholics Anonymous to maintain his sobriety.
It also said that he was taking antidepressants and sleeping tablets to cope with the problem.
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “The council is unable to act without the legal framework to do so, with only the landlord having the power to intervene in this case.
“Noise equipment was installed following the receipt of a complaint in November of last year and evidence to support it was subsequently gathered.
“While attempts to find a legal solution do not appear to be possible, the council asked the landlord to intervene in this case and take appropriate action to support the tenant.”
Curo did not comment on the noise complaints made by Jerry. A spokesperson for Curo said: “We have apologised to Mr Daly for the damage to his home and the distress caused, and we apologise again now for the delays in identifying the cause of the problem.
“We accept this took much longer than we would have liked; the damage to Mr Daly’s ceiling was caused by a long-standing leak from the property above which was very difficult to locate.
“Restrictions around working in residents’ homes because of Covid19 made this especially challenging, and eventually we had to move the family in the property upstairs into temporary accommodation so that we could remove their entire bathroom and get to the source of the leak.
“We visited Mr Daly as soon as the incident happened and have been working closely with him since then.
“We offered him temporary accommodation while we carried out repairs, but he decided he’d prefer to stay in his home.
“We couldn’t fix the ceiling immediately because it had to be allowed to dry out. We have now repaired the ceiling and made good all the damage in Mr Daly’s bathroom, and we have also offered to pay him compensation for the inconvenience and upset this has caused.”