Ruby Watson moved to Cardiff Bay for a fresh start, wanting somewhere she could feel safe and happy in. But instead, she claimed, "I'm living in hell."
The 43-year-old has lived in Cogan House for nearly 18 months, in which time she claimed she had endured foul living conditions that had left her and her eight-year-old son traumatised and fearing for their safety. The apartment block she calls home was completed only in 2016 as part of a redevelopment of Cardiff Bay, but she claimed that living in the building had pushed her to the edge.
She also felt like there had been a complete lack of support and care from Trivallis, the housing association which own the apartment block. Bosses from the organisation have insisted, however, that they take people's complaints very seriously and work hard to fix any problems that are reported. You can get more Cardiff news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
The list of allegations made by residents against the housing association makes for long reading. Walking through the corridors of the building and visiting some of its 73 apartments - more than a quarter of which appear to be empty - residents are quick to detail in full the "nightmarish" conditions they claim are ruining their lives.
Cogan House, they claim, is a hotbed for anti-social behaviour, with people smashing bottles, taking drugs and spitting, and urinating and defecating on the floors in the communal areas of the building. Outside, they claim cars have been torched and broken into, while huge piles of rubbish appear to be dumped on the grassy area that many of the flats overlook.
They claim there is spit all over the doors and buttons of the lift, which residents claim they have ended up stuck in due to it breaking down. Families claim there have also been incidents of people sleeping rough in the corridors, who allegedly were under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Nearly all of the residents I spoke to claim to have severe damp in their homes, which they allege has affected their health. Fire alarms and sprinklers are claimed to have stopped working on a number of occasions. Others claim there have been incidents of bricks and tiles coming loose and crumbling.
Residents insist that Trivallis has been made aware of all of these issues, but yet they claim there has been a distinct lack of action to fix the problem or to try and prevent them from happening in the first place. Trivallis has said it has "responded directly" to reports and is "committed to working with tenants to address issues".
Ruby claimed: "All my life I've wanted to live in Cardiff Bay. It's always been the most beautiful part of Cardiff and I just fell in love with the view from this apartment. I've had a difficult past and I wanted somewhere where I could feel safe and bring up my boy, somewhere we could both be happy. This building has loads of cameras in it and so I thought it would be really safe, but it's been the complete opposite."
After moving into her apartment in November, 2020, she claimed her dream move soon became a nightmare. She alleged: "The building is only a few years old, but the amount of problems with it is ridiculous. We have people who shouldn't even be in this building going to the toilet and doing drugs in the lift and all the corridors, they smash bottles, they drop rubbish everywhere and they spit all over the lift, on the buttons and on the door. I have to use the lift every day and it's always the same, it's absolutely disgusting.
"These people have threatened me - shouted and sworn at my boy, they make everyone feel frightened to walk through their own building. They've kicked against people's doors, tried to grab some people walking past, I even saw a man s**t on the floor in the middle of the corridor. Yet nothing is done about it.
"There is a huge pile of rubbish I can see from my window that has been there since before I moved in, and there's rats everywhere because of all the mess. The whole building looks disgusting and smells even worse. It's worse than hell here."
While Ruby said she had worked hard to keep her flat clean and tidy, she claimed it was still not immune from the problems that plagued the rest of the building. She claimed: "I'd like to be proud of where I live. But here it's impossible. I know my flat is not even as bad as other people's here but it is still awful. My fire alarm doesn't work properly. There are bricks outside that are cracking and crumbling and the slabs on the balcony outside my door are so loose and uneven, they move under your feet."
Ruby claimed that life in Cogan House had "pushed her to edge," but the conditions had been equally damaging to her son, Heath, who earlier this year was left traumatised after he got trapped in the lift by himself for around 45 minutes. When he pushed the help button, Ruby claimed, he was not met with assistance, but rather laughter from people who assumed it was a prank and hung up. Now, he's absolutely terrified to use the lift, you can see the fear in his face."
The lift incident, Ruby claimed, was reflective of the level of assistance she and other residents received from Trivallis. "I've lived all around Cardiff and under a few housing associations," she said. "I've never had a problem with any of them, when I've reported issues, they've come out and sorted it quickly - not Trivallis.
"I've been cleaning the lift three or four times a week every since I moved in because they're left in such a state. One time there was blood all over the lift.
"There are cameras all over the building, but there may as well not be, because they don't seem to ever be used. When I've reported people sleeping rough in the stairwells or heard shouting and violence at 2am, Trivallis have actually asked me to go and identify the people myself. Like I'm going to go and put myself in danger like that, confronting a stranger in the middle of the night."
After nearly 18 months at Cogan House, Ruby said her mental health was the worst that it had ever been. She added that her son Heath, who had "always been a happy boy," had lost his smile, which had been replaced by regular panic attacks and night terrors.
"My son has always been my sunshine," she said, overcome with emotion, "but now I feel like I'm losing him. He has been absolutely traumatised by living here, he's seen things that no child should ever see. He's frightened to walk through the building or even go to school some days. We both just feel so trapped. I don't want this life for him, myself or anyone in this building - that's why I'm doing this. I want to help all the other families in this building, because nobody deserves to live like this. It just can't go on and people need to know the truth."
Georgia Morby was one of the first residents to move into Cogan House in 2016, and admitted that she had been looking to leave ever since. While living there "wasn't so bad at first," she claimed, conditions had got "worse and worse", with anti-social behaviour running rife in the building.
"Just after I moved in, there weren't many problems," she claimed. "The paving slabs on the balcony were loose but that was about it. But it didn't take long before things started to get worse and worse. There's so much anti-social behaviour here, people have been attacked, threatened and had other people spit on their door or try to get into their house. I woke up one Boxing Day with 40 people outside my door who tried to get in and just refused to leave.
"My car got set on fire in the car park last year, but apparently Trivallis couldn't see anything on the cameras, so nothing could be done about it. What's the point of having them if they don't work? My children are traumatised by living here, and there's no escape for them, nowhere for them to safely play or anything. I’m living in a nightmare really. Nobody wants to live here. I’ve been on the transfer list since the year after I moved in."
Other long-term residents I spoke to claimed they had waited for years for Trivallis to sort out maintenance issues in their flats, with damp being a prominent feature in many of the apartments I visited. Cheryl Thomas claimed she first reported damp in her walls to the housing association over five years ago and was still waiting for any action to be taken.
"When it rains, the water just leaks through my windows," she claimed. "So my walls are nearly always wet most of the time, and it's been this way for years. My son has asthma and he can't sleep in his bedroom because it's all mouldy, he has to sleep in the living room and kitchen area. We're both ill all the time and we have been ever since we moved here. We've both got really bad coughs, we're both aching and in pain."
Another original resident, Naima Omar, had a story almost identical to Cheryl's. "There is so much damp," she claimed. "Rain leaks in through the windows and there is damp all over the walls of my bedroom. Whenever I report it, people come here and have a big chat and take a picture, but they never sort it out. It has been happening since we moved in but yet all these years later it still isn’t fixed."
Another Cogan House resident, who didn't want to be named, claimed that the list of problems in the building was "endless" and that residents there were "sitting ducks". They said: "I was one of the original people to move in here, and back then it was so nice. The building was maintained properly with cleaners coming in regularly and the paintwork was kept fresh. But now, the amount of things wrong with this building is a complete joke."
They further claimed: "I just go into my flat and close the blinds and pretend none of this is happening. We should not have to be scared to walk through our own building. I do not feel safe here and I haven’t for a very long time. I’ve tried to swap from here for years but nobody will swap as they know about how bad this building is. I don’t blame them, in my opinion they would be better off re-housing the remaining tenants and knocking it down completely. At the moment, we’re just sitting ducks."
After being approached for comment, a spokesperson for Trivallis said: “We take complaints very seriously and commit to working with the tenants of Cogan House to address the issues raised. We have held several open days in the area, which we will continue to do. These open days are designed for tenants to meet with their neighbourhood manager and discuss any questions or concerns they may have regarding their home. We are also working with our contractors and residents to carry out significant works to the building, including the recent installation of upgraded alarms and sprinkler systems.
“We encourage any tenant, especially those who have concerns around their health and safety, to please report issues through our official channels. The safety of our tenants and colleagues is our priority, so it is vital that we have knowledge of any concerns so we can action surveys or repairs as quickly as possible. We have this week had surveyors on site to review our communal areas and address the apparent vandalism, including that of the ceiling tiles and plasterboards.
“We have responded directly to tenants who have officially reported some of the issues raised and detailed what we have done and will continue to do to resolve them. For example, we have reviewed the schedule of cleaning of communal areas and are working in partnership with the local authority to promote responsible waste management with residents. We are taking enforcement action on people who are coming on to the site to fly tip and, because of these actions, there have been noticeable improvements in recent months. We will continue to monitor this situation closely.
They added: "Trivallis provides a secure door entry system to Cogan House to ensure the safety of residents and prevent unauthorised persons from entering the building. We were recently made aware that a tenant was allowing somebody into the building to sleep in the communal areas. We addressed this, reminding the tenant of their tenancy obligations and changed the door entry codes to prevent non-residents gaining unauthorised access. We have been advised that this problem was resolved but urge tenants to contact us immediately if they witness this happening in the future.
“We have an escalation process for any issues with lifts, whereby South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and our contractors who manage the lifts for the building are notified. We can confirm this process was followed in response to a recent incident by Trivallis staff who were on site at the time. We can confirm we were not aware of any fault with the lift prior to or since this incident and will investigate claims that the response team answering the in-lift help button dealt with the help button request in an inappropriate manner.
“We commit to continue to support tenants with any concerns they may have, offering appropriate housing advice and liaising with the organisations that offer additional support where required. Again, we must remind tenants to please reach out to us with any issues through the appropriate channels, so we can address them accordingly.”
