Midland Heart tenant says he's being forced to wash in a BUCKET in his garden

[dutchman]

Midland Heart say they have attempted install a new shower but have been denied access to the flat



A dad with a newborn daughter claims he has been forced to wash in a bucket for two months after housing association workers removed his shower.

Mamabou Diallo, 36, from Cheylesmore, said he moved into his Midland Heart flat in April but the shower was removed by contractors at the start of June after developing a fault.

Midland Heart said Diallo's flat is not suitable for a bath, as requested, and that workers had attempted on several occasions to gain entry to the premises to install a new shower.

Diallo says he, wife Hadija, 25, and five-week-old daughter Rama have been left with nowhere to wash for weeks.

The security guard said he has been forced to wash in a bucket in his garden while forking out hundreds of pounds on taxis for his wife and daughter to wash at a friend's house.

Photographs show an empty space where the shower was previously fitted.

Diallo moved into his one bed housing association flat on William Bristow Road in Cheylesmore on April 9.

He said he had repeatedly requested a replacement for the shower, preferably a bath to be able to bathe Rama, but his requests have fallen on deaf ears.

Diallo, who works as a security guard at locations across Coventry, including the Conservative Association, says he has phoned and visited Midland Heart at their Birmingham offices, but the group has so far failed to give him somewhere to wash.

He told CoventryLive: “We are human beings, we have a new baby, or course we need to have a bath.”

“The tenancy was from April 9. I have all these charges, for cleaning, 'tree-lopping' and electrics maintenance they never do, but now I have to take a shower with a bucket outside.

“Every morning I pay for a taxi so my diabetic wife can wash at a friend's house in Highfield Road.

“I can't even bath my little daughter in our house.”

“Now they want me to pay for the bath, and they want me to pay for a contractor – it could cost me thousands.

"Why am I having to fight for this bath? They are putting me through too much.”

Diallo's housing support officer at Coventry City Council had intervened on his behalf, and was told by Midland Heart that: '[The association told] Mamadou to stay with family and friends, and would not accept a complaint on how this was handled as the phone operator did not believe there was a service failure.'

Though Midland Heart had claimed a workman could not access the flat, Diallo said there was no evidence of this: “If anyone turns up they should leave a calling card or phone me, they never have any evidence.

“There was a shower because of the disabled woman who was a previous tenant, but now we have a baby here we need to bathe her. We need a bath.”

[rebbonk]

Somehow, I don't think we have the whole story here. I heavily suspect that the tenant is attempting to use public sympathy to help him gain a bigger home.