An Edinburgh family has shared the horrifying extent of the dampness and mould in their council flat after trying to move out for the last five years.
Initially moving into the ground floor property in West Pilton nine years ago, Sara Martin, 42, and her partner Alistair Stuart, 59, told Edinburgh Live they have been dealing with the issues for nearly a decade.
Experiencing both dampness and black mould, the family of six have now seen multiple investigations and surveys carried out into the problem, but have claimed they have been given no longterm solution.
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Despite council works trying to remove the dampness, Sara explained that the mould has continued to spread, with the family forced to rip up their "soaking" carpets this winter.
Raising children including their youngest aged four inside the ground floor flat, Sara said the conditions have worsened their asthma, as well as breaking their beds and spreading into their clothes.
She added: "It's horrendous, we've had three housing inspectors, two damp-proof surveys done and they just don't want to do anything about it.
"Four and a half years ago we got decanted to a two bedroom flat so they could do insulation in the walls which we were told by the inspector would be brick, but they just seemed to do a whitewash and put plasterboard over it and within two or three months it was starting to come back through.
"It's just getting worse. Since I've had the insulation done I've done everything, cleaned, used the washes and the solutions. We have towels on our windows as well as the dehumidifiers which are full every couple of hours, and even with the towels it's constantly dripping. It's in every room in the house.
"They redecorated the girls bedroom and bathroom which was supposedly to seal it but it's still coming through in the girls room. We most recently had the inspector out and they said to get it needs repairs or a damp surveyor out so he's ordered one for January but we've done this before. It's ridiculous."
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Forced to pull up the majority of their carpets due to the damp, the family have also experienced a worsening in their health in recent years, with almost all of the children now suffering from asthma.
Sara added: "Since I moved in my son has developed asthma, my two older daughters had asthma before but it's gotten worse and they're on stronger steroids and inhalers, I've had pneumonia in the summer in this house and my partner now needs an x-ray on his lungs because the doctor thinks they don't sound right.
"My youngest daughter, she's four and all she does is cough constantly. If she's not got a cough she's got a cold. In this house, it's cold enough with carpets and things but with no carpets the second the heating goes off the heat is gone. With the cost of living crisis right now it's a big concern.
"It's that bad that my son's has a duvan bed that's collapsed with black mould, we had to get rid of bean bags because the carpet was soaking, and recently we had to pull the carpets out because my daughter's bed collapsed underneath her and she's only four."
"We want to get out of here because it's not healthy for any of us, we've been bidding on four beds and getting nowhere for five years. Nothing at all. Even, with our housing officers, there's been a real breakdown in communication. We feel like we're getting ignored."
Councillor Jane Meagher, Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, said: “We take the health and wellbeing of our tenants very seriously and carried out repairs back in January to deal with condensation and dampness in the property. We are looking into the latest reported issues and will update the tenant on our plans to resolve this.”
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