‘I had to wash outside after mouldy home fell to pieces’
DAD’S DISPUTE WITH COUNCIL
AN ill Hull dad was forced to wash outdoors after his “mouldy” council house fell to pieces and left his family without a bathroom floor for a week.
Neil Dawes, 58, and his family, moved into their home in west Hull in February 2016 after he returned from working offshore in Africa due to kidney failure, which saw him requiring dialysis and adapted accommodation.
Despite everything going smoothly initially, Neil says problems began to arise when his wet room starting to leak into the kitchen. He claims this eventually led to the house “falling apart” with mould.
After being told by Hull City Council that the wet room job would take only 24 hours, Neil said: “There’s me, my wife, and our children and we had no bathroom for a week.
“We couldn’t go in to wash, so we all had to go outside and have a strip wash. I’m not well and I’ve tried to tell them this. I’m shielding and we’re in the middle of a pandemic so we couldn’t go to any relative’s house.”
Responding to the issues raised, a Hull City Council spokesman said: “The resident has a number of repair works pending, including one that has been delayed on a number of occasions due to the resident not being available.
“The repair request for the hole in the floor was raised on January 13 with an appointment date to complete the work given for January 27. The tenant also had an appointment booked for a damp inspection on January 15.”
Neil added: “Over the years we have been complaining about the same things and one of the dampness in the house.
“The council kept saying the issue is condensation and that we need to open the windows to let air circulate.
“The walls are black with mould and all the wallpaper is hanging off – that isn’t condensation. We just spent more than £1,000 to have the house renovated.”
The unwell man also says he saw the stairlift he relies on peel from the wall due to the amount of mould collecting in the house.
Despite reporting the problem to Hull City Council, Neil claims he had to get a private company in fix the problem, adding that the family could “not longer live like this”.
He claims that the council came out to look at the issues and told the family that the walls would be replastered, but the work is still to be completed.
Describing the house as “a bomb site”, Neil said: “I went into the cupboard in the living room and all our stuff inside is ruined and wet through.
“The wood at the bottom is soaking wet and rotten and now we’ve got a big hole going through to the bottom of the ground.
“It really has taken its toll on our health and everything. It’s cost a lot of money to fix the problems before we even buy the house.”
Despite his wife giving him her kidney in 2016, Neil still faces health issues. And he says the condition of the house has deteriorated his health further: “The smell and everything is affecting my health, I have had a kidney transplant and that’s why I’m shielding. This has been going on for months and months and we are fed-up.” things is