A mum from Swansea has claimed mould and damp in her privately-rented house are "tipping [her] over the edge". Harley Chase, from Sandfields, claimed her bedroom floor was soaking wet and her clothes and furniture were "covered" in mould. The 21-year-old also claimed she was worried about the health of her three-year-old daughter Ava, who has asthma.
Miss Chase, who works in a jewellers, and her boyfriend, Nicky Butcher, 23, claimed they first noticed damp and mould issues in their home in Burrows Road, Sandfields, Swansea, in November, 2020, around three months after they moved in.
Describing the condition of her home now in May, 2023, Miss Chase claimed: "The second you walk into the house there's damp and mould on the doors. There's mould on my front room windows. I have a sofa in my front room and being a 21-year-old and saving up to have a lovely sofa was one of the hardest things I ever did." You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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She added: "But I did it and now my expensive sofa, which is the same amount as my rent, is covered in disgusting, thick, green, dirty mould." The mum claimed that her biggest concern was her daughter Ava's health as she alleged that doctors had told the family after seeing pictures of the mould in her home that it would not be helping Ava's condition.
The couple rent their property from a Mr John Powe. A spokesperson for Mr Powe claimed Miss Chase and her family moved into the property as a favour by Mr Powe and Miss Chase was informed that the house was not ready and needed more work done to it, which he claimed she did not mind at the time. There were no damp and mould issues at the property at this point, he claimed.
Over the time issues had been raised, the spokesperson said Mr Powe had taken a number of actions, while facing delays due to tradespeople not turning up, which he said were not his client's fault.
Miss Chase claimed she reported issues with her home to the local environmental health department and that in January, 2022, an inspection of the property was carried out by a caseworker. "The mould is on every single wall, every single room, it's on my daughter's bed. It's everywhere," claimed Miss Chase.
In February, 2022, Miss Chase claimed they received a letter from their landlord informing them that their rent would be going up from £500 to £600 which she felt was a "spiteful" response to being reported to environmental health, something their landlord denies. They were given two month's notice of the rent increase but Miss Chase claimed the issues which had been raised by environmental health were still not fixed at this point.
Miss Chase explained that, following the damp treatment being carried out and another inspection in January, 2023, a caseworker from environmental health stated that significant works had been undertaken since January, 2022, to solve the damp and mould issue. But Miss Chase claimed the damp had spread since the treatment and the issue was now worse. "Everywhere that treatment has been done is once again damp and full of mould," she claimed.
On why she had not been able to find an alternative place to rent, Miss Chase said: "At the minute, it's literally just money that's keeping us here. If I had the money that landlords are asking for nowadays to get up and give three month's rent or a month in advance or a deposit and all the rest of it, I would 100% do it. But it's impossible for us to save at the minute," she said.
Since giving birth to her daughter, Miss Chase said she had experienced issues with her mental health and claimed living in the property was affecting her mentally. "Being in this house and waking up and seeing it everyday is tipping me over the edge," claimed Miss Chase, tearfully. "I feel like people don't take it seriously because they think it's just a bit of damp or mould. But it's taking over this whole, entire house.
"I can't even have a bath without looking up at the mould. It's spreading over the walls. In my bedroom, literally every single item of clothing I've got is covered in mould," she claimed. "I need to wash my clothes everyday. They're the clothes I have to wear for work it's just embarrassing. I'm having to spend more money on sprays and perfumes because where it's spread so bad now the carpet in my bedroom is soaking wet. This house, all of it's ruined. I would rather not do private-rented again if I can help it because this has traumatised me for life."
She claimed that when reporting issues, "we'd go days without messages being answered". She claimed they would then get the odd message from their landlord explaining he did not have the money that month and she would have to wait. Mr Powe also denies this.
After seeking support from Swansea Council, Miss Chase claimed she had been put on the waiting list for council housing and awarded 20 "damp points". Miss Chase explained this amount of points, which were used to prioritise people on the waiting list, was relatively low. "I'm at the very bottom of the list and we could be here for another 10, 15, 20 years," she said.
Mr Powe's spokesman claimed his tenant's allegation that he did not respond to them for days or weeks was "simply untrue". He said the landlord arranged for new windows and doors to be fitted by January, 2021. In March, 2021, the pine end was repaired in an attempt to completely stop the damp, said the spokesperson. Until the winter of 2021 there were no further issues with the house, he claimed, suggesting Miss Chase and Mr Butcher expressed they were happy. When Miss Chase and Mr Butcher contacted their landlord to let him know the damp had come back in the winter of 2021, he claimed Mr Powe got in touch with several damp proofers who were all unavailable until the new year.
He claimed that, on January 3, 2022, the day before Mr Powe received a phone call from environmental health to discuss the house, a damp proofer had visited to inspect the issue and given him a quote. Mr Powe visited the house with a case worker to discuss the issues raised by Miss Chase and once he received an improvement notice from Swansea Council, he ensured all issues were resolved before the deadline, claimed his spokesperson.
With regard to rent, he said it was raised to reflect the market value and previous renovations which were made to the house. The rent was still lower than some of the other properties in Burrows Road, claimed the spokesperson.
In April, 2022, there was another environmental health inspection and work subsequent to that was finished in June, 2022. The tenants raised no issues over the rest of the summer, claimed Mr Powe's spokesperson, who added that it was not until the winter of 2022 that the landing area outside the bathroom collapsed. He claimed Mr Powe arranged for a damp proofer to come out and fix it, but was let down and had to put a temporary floor down until it was fixed. The tenants were happy to wait until December, 2022, for a permanent fix, claimed the spokesperson.
He claimed he contacted several damp proofers at the start of the year but they were all unavailable. When Miss Chase and Mr Butcher then raised their complaints with him, he contacted a roofer to assess where the cause of damp was coming from. The spokesperson said Mr Powe was let down by the roofer and the tenants therefore had to wait a further eight weeks before the roof was fixed.
The spokesperson added: "Our client then spoke to a different damp proofer who advised to improve the ventilation in the property and provided our client with an action plan. It is no fault of our client that the tradesmen have failed to show up for certain jobs. While our client has been proactive in attempting to resolve the matter. Our client believes that while the tenants remained in their property, they [our client] were proactive in dealing with the issues. Any delays were no fault of their own. They believe that the comments within this article do not represent the true reflection of the situation."
The spokesperson also claimed that the tenants had not correctly ventilated the property as requested and had turned off the extractor fan and wrapped a garment around it, only removing the garment when Mr Powe reported this to environmental health. Additionally, the spokesperson claimed the tenants did not pull the sofa away from the wall to allow it to breathe as requested and instead allowed mould to spread.
Miss Chase, in response, claimed she explained multiple times that the extractor fan was broken and complained it was not fixed for months and that the fan was burnt on the inside and gave them electric shocks. "We have always tried our best to keep the mould away," claimed Miss Chase, who explained she moved the sofa away from the walls as much as possible but due to the small size of the front room there was nowhere else for her to put it.
Miss Chase also claimed that she told Mr Powe that all the fan was doing, as it was broken, was "sucking the heating out of the house so we were left freezing cold at night" and that is why they covered it. Miss Chase claimed that as soon as Mr Powe told them to uncover the fan they did.
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