A Brislington mum with a four-month-old baby is worried about damp and condensation in her housing association property, claiming there is 'yellow fungus' growing next to her front door, black mould on the walls and 'mushrooms' growing on the mat in the communal area of her building.
The young mother, who did not want to be named, said she continually cleans her walls to try to get rid of black mould, but she was shocked to find what appeared to look like a fungus growing next to her newly-installed front door. She said her door had been broken down by paramedics when she was pregnant last year, and was repaired in December.
Currently on maternity leave from work, she said she was shocked to find something growing next to it. She said: “I’m glad my baby is not crawling and couldn’t reach the yellow fungus that was growing at the bottom of the door.”
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She said she also has ongoing problems with black mould, describing her walls as “wet to touch”. “I try to keep on top of it all and spray once a week with a mould and algae spray and do a deep-clean once a month. I open my windows daily and have a dehumidifier,” she said.
She said there were also mushrooms growing on the mat in the communal area, sharing an image appearing to show several sprouting from the fabric. As well as reporting problems with damp, she also raised some security concerns following a burglary at the end of last year.
Her housing association Clarion Housing as acknowledged "vandalism to the communal doors" and said it is working to provide a "more robust" entry system. It has also visited the property and said it is working on a plan to address the problems.
During pregnancy the Bristol mum said she had a bad turn and called paramedics, but as the ambulance took too long to arrive, she ended up being taken to hospital by a friend. She said when the paramedics eventually arrived they broke her door to enter, but she claims Clarion Housing took months to replace the door.
She claimed her flat was broken into and burgled in November, and only then did Clarion take action and have the door repaired in December. She said she is also worried about the front door lock on the building and said a homeless person had been gaining entry to sleep in the communal area.
She also claimed that when her baby was two months old, she was left without hot water and the temperature in the flat "dropped to 13 degrees", after her radiator was broken by workers which had also resulted in her boiler being off. Having complained to her housing association, she had been advised that a surveyor will come out to assess the situation.
A Clarion Housing spokesperson said they were sorry to hear about the issues of damp and mould. She said: “We recently visited the property to review the issue and to establish a plan to address this and any other repairs that are needed.
“Our housing team are also aware of the vandalism to the communal doors and have consistently attended to complete repairs whenever it’s been reported that they have been broken. We are currently reviewing the problem with the view to replace these with a more robust communal door entry system and will continue to work with residents to try to reduce the incidents of deliberate damage.”
She added that their housing team will also continue to “communicate and provide support to all residents in the building".
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