Mum says "disgusting" damp-ridden flat is making her kids ill

Laura Burch says Whiefriars have told her the problem is to do with a leak in the wall



A mum and her two young children say the damp in their home is so bad it has left all three of them with breathing problems.

Laura Burch, 23, her seven-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter are all struggling because their Whitefriars flat has had a damp and mould problem for three years.

The family say the front door of their flat in Bridgecote, Willenhall, is brown with mould, part of their bath has turned “to mush” and some walls are crumbling behind their kitchen cabinets.

Laura’s mum Barbara has been helping out with housing the two young children because she says the flat has become “uninhabitable”.

Barbara said: “As soon as Laura moved in three years ago, the problems haven’t stopped.

“It was in a bit of a state when she moved in, but it has just got worse - to the point where they are now all getting ill.

“Laura’s seven-year-old son now has asthma, and his breathing can get really bad, but now all three of them are suffering due to the damp.

“The paint is coming off the walls, and the walls are just crumbling away behind the kitchen units, which could pose a serious problem.

“We haven’t stopped phoning to report it but nothing has been done to get Laura out of their or the flat repaired.

“Even when workmen come out to try and repair it, all they’ve said to Laura is that it is uninhabitable - well she already knew that.

“One of them even got their hand stuck in the bath because one end of it was just mush.

“The walls are just covered in brown crumbling mould and damp, and it is now getting to the point where all the carpets have been brought up.”

Laura and her two children sometimes have to stay with her mum because it has got that bad.

Whitefriars have told Laura that there is a water leak coming from somewhere inside the walls which is why everywhere is damp, but when they came to investigate the kitchen, Barbara says they unplugged and moved her freezer, but failed to tell Laura - losing all her food.

Barbara added: “The kids have stayed with me all weekend so Laura could rip the carpets up. The concrete underneath has even been affected by the mould.

“It is disgusting, and nothing is being done about it.

“When they came at the weekend to take the kitchen out to look for the leak, they unplugged the freezer, didn’t tell Laura and now she has lost all of the food for her and her kids.

“All Laura wants to do is find a home for her and her children where they won’t get ill, but she just can’t afford to move them.”

A spokesman for Whitefriars said: "A number of repairs have been carried out to the property over the last 12 months, including emergency attendance to a serious water leak over the weekend of the 4th February 2017.

"The leak has caused damage within the property that will require attention in a number of rooms. Our technical team are liaising with Ms Burch to resolve any problems arising as a result of this."

It's all talk with Whitefriars. They say "We're going to replace this" and "We're going to replace that" then do nothing.

As I ve said for years our own citizens get the damp ridden slums while immigrants get the new builds .

A lady I know well, used to have several properties that she let out. A few years back she started letting the properties to recent immigrants (I can't quite remember where they were from but possibly Bosnia). What she had to supply was unbelievable. Every time there was a change of tenant, she had to supply things new again. It got to the stage where she couldn't afford to do it and she stopped housing the newly arrived.

We had many a discussion over this and at the time she gave me a list of what she had to supply. As she said, if letting to our own, she was under very few obligations to supply anything other than the bare essentials.

Makes me wonder does it pay to be British .

I'm puzzled. How could there be a leak in the wall. No too mention the water bill must have been a bit high if the leak had been going on for the 3 years she moved in to the flat.

Depends if she was on a water meter or not.

I'm un-metered. We use quite a lot of water (Mrs R is a washing machine pervert!) If we went metered it would cost us quite heavily.

Immigrants mainly go into the private rental sector.

I think it depends on which article you read. I've read plenty that say private, equally I've read plenty that say 'social' housing. As I've said before, actually getting to the truth about immigration isn't easy. And people are 'swayed' by their own experiences and what they see with their own eyes.

As I ve said for years our own citizens get the damp ridden slums while immigrants get the new builds .

Not true. Immigrants mainly go into the private rental sector.

This article is about social housing.

I think you have that the wrong way around. mate areas I visit frquently .

My estate for one then Wood End in the new builds social housing Holbrooks Radford also rear of Jubilee Crescent the large 3 bed social houses which my children who worked and was bought up in Radford and Keresley was refused one then Keresley Green where I use to live they are housed in social housing Keresley village where I use to live but still have relatives living in most of these areas . Lower Coundon social housing as well .

My daughter had to go into private as she was homeless with 4 children 7 years she had to wait to be offered a house along with a lot of my friends children who was born and bred here yet a Samalian family just come in this past year has been given n a large 3 bedroomed house no far from Armold Avenue in Fenside mother and father no where to be seen now the daughter and son are blocking a small caul d sac selling their cars from the house .

You wont see many in Canley as a Whitefriars housing officer told my eldest daughter they are racists over there when she was bidding on a house.

My other daughter had to move in with me then I had to chuck her out with a baby in order for her to be housed .

My friend lives near the Memorial Park she has told me most of the bug houses around there are being bought up by immigrants.

One of my relatives lives in a disabled bungalow one neighbour from Coventry had to wait 7 years for that bungalow with a child who now is dead sadly the next Coventry neighbour who moved in waited 3 years his wife now dead sadly now a refugee which was housed in a hotel in Birmingham waited one year from being placed into the Birmingham hotel to moving into the bungalow .
Radford/Keresley I was born and bred and bought up in a decent area when I left the housing classed it as a desirable area now I read on forums for god sake dont move to Radford.

I'm puzzled. How could there be a leak in the wall.

Some old homes have pipes encased in the wall even my new house has. Whitefriars encased into the wall at my sons a sewerage pipe on a disabled extension which leaked causing black mould onto their bedroom wall.

Most ex-council houses in Willenhall are breeze-block construction and very susceptible to damp.