Pregnant mum fears for baby’s safety in mouldy ‘health hazard’ home

APREGNANT Torbay mum claims she has made repeated requests to her landlord to fix damp issues in her privately rented accommodation.

Sophie Holiday-Scott, 26, moved into a home in Brixham in 2019 and says damp and mould have been an issue ever since.

She says it is so bad mushrooms are growing in places and her midwife has said the home is not safe to bring a new-born baby to.

Ms Holiday-Scott says at first her landlord told her she wasn’t airing the property enough. When a problem was identified with her fuse box in 2021, she says the landlord fixed that but continued to ignore the damp.

She said: “It started with damp and when I told my landlord, he blamed me. I bought a dehumidifier back in 2019, constantly have my windows open, I’m really conscious about drying stuff in the house.

“Fast forward a few years, it’s still happening and he’s still blaming me. This is during Covid. I was pregnant at the time and I fell down the stairs because the lights went out only to find out that my fuse box was Bakerlite so that system was near enough 100 years old. I got the council involved, my landlord updated the fuse box and left it at that even though there were other hazards on the hazard awareness report.”

Ms Holiday-Scott shares the home with her two-year-old daughter Eliza, who has reportedly been to hospital multiple times due to chest infections, thought to have been brought on by the damp conditions.

She says she was sitting with her daughter in December 2022, when a chunk of ceiling fell down. While this was fixed two months later, she claims she was told the landlord wasn’t going to install insulation to prevent damp.

Ms Holiday-Scott says she eventually resorted to contacting Torbay Council, which she says sent an environmental health officer to visit. A report identified a number of category one hazards, the most dangerous level.

Torbay Council said it first attended the property in 2021 and the landlord made some improvements. Following a second inspection in March this year, the authority issued a housing improvement notice, giving the landlord 60 days from September 4 to carry out improvement works. Failure to do so can result in prosecution or a financial penalty of up to £30,000.

So far no action has been taken and instead she says she has now been issued with a Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction notice.

Now she is just days away from giving birth and says labour could be induced due to stress. She says her midwife has also raised serious concerns about the risks mould could pose to a new-born infant.

Ms Holiday-Scott said: “I said to my midwife that I’m scared to bring a new-born baby back here because of pneumonia.

“I’m with Devon Home Choice on a band B but my mental health services are trying to get it escalated to a band A due to my midwife now saying this house is unfit to bring a new-born baby back to.

“I’ve repeated that to Torbay Council and their reply was ‘we’ll put me into temporary accommodation, you won’t be able to have friends and family come and visit, you’ll be moved every two weeks, it will be shared accommodation and it won’t be in Torbay.

“I’ll have a new-born baby and toddler that needs to go to a nursery in Brixham, how am I going to cope if I can’t even have someone come round and help me or have a cup of tea?”

Ms Holiday-Scott’s landlord was contacted for comment.

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I’ll have a newborn baby and toddler that needs to go to a nursery in Brixham, how am I going to cope?

Sophie Holiday-Scott

6Mushrooms growing in the skirting board of Sophie Holiday-Scott’s privately rented home in Brixham Sophie Holiday-Scott

6The hole in the ceiling that was repaired, although insulation was not installed