An 80-year-old Newcastle woman was left to live in a room with suspected asbestos for a week after a British Gas workman pulled out her old back boiler behind her sitting room fire.
Sheila Sneddon even swept up the debris left from the work without knowing that she was being exposed to a potentially deadly substance, after the fitter reportedly told her that the hole left in the wall of her sitting room would not be bricked up as part of the £5,000 job.
It wasn't until her daughter and son-in-law, who is a builder, contacted British Gas on Mrs Sneddon's behalf that the company sent out a specialist to test for asbestos, which the family say was found both in the exposed wall where they boiler had been and in a very high reading in the air. The sitting room in Mrs Sneddon's Chapel House bungalow was immediately sealed off and the widow, who has very poor mobility, was forced to live in her bedroom for around six weeks until her sitting room was made safe earlier this week.
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And now Mrs Seddon faces a Christmas without furniture and carpets in her sitting room, as she wrangles with British Gas over who will pay for the goods that had to be removed from her home after they were contaminated in the week before the room was sealed off.
The pensioner, who has breathing issues and uses sticks and a walking frame, had agreed to the new boiler after becoming concerned that the parts for her old one were becoming more difficult to source. She says that she was told by the boiler salesman from British Gas that the switch from back boiler in her sitting room to a combi boiler in her kitchen would be 'stress and hassle-fee ' and that she would not need to move her furniture and carpets for the work to be carried out. She chose British Gas to carry out the work as she felt it was a trustworthy and reputable company.
The first problem came when the engineer arrive to carry out the work in early October, and immediately told Mrs Sneddon that her furniture did need moving and the carpets needed to come up. She says she lucky was able to get her neighbours to come in and help as her daughter and son-in-law were both at work and she is not fit or stable enough on her feet to carry things.
When her daughter arrived that evening, she found he mum 'in a state' at the mess, which the two women started to tidy up with dustpans and brushes. However, when her daughter's husband arrived, he said that he immediately saw that there was what he suspected to be a damaged Asbestos insulation board (AIB ) in the hole where the back boiler had been. He immediately told his wife and mother in law to stop sweeping, as he was horrified that there seemed to have been no procedure put in place when suspected asbestos could be present.
"I am a builder I am am well aware of the steps you have to take when asbestos is thought to be found, and British Gas had followed none of the steps," he claimed.
Advice on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website is: "If during your work you discover materials which you believe to be asbestos stop work immediately. Put up a warning sign and ensure nobody enters the area. Report the problem to whoever is in charge and arrange to have a sample of the material analysed. If it does not contain asbestos then work can continue."
But Mrs Sneddon claimed she was made to feel liker a nuisance when she contacted British Gas to ask for a test to be carried out, and it wasn't until a full week later that a test was arranged, asbestos was found and the room was sealed off. In the meantime, the pensioner had been using the room as normal. Once the room was closed off, the pensioner was forced to live in her bedroom 24 hours a day, as he poor mobility meant that she could not move to her daughter's house as she could not manage the stairs.
Six weeks later, British Gas has arranged for the work for the asbestos to be removed, but Mrs Sneddon is still unable to use her sitting room as she has no furniture and carpets and was horrified when she was told that British Gas would only pay for 50% of the replacement costs.
"My whole family feel they we have had to push each step to try to find out what is happening and to try to get a plan in place," she said. "They have always had to contact BG for updates and have been made to feel a nuisance for asking when things will be happening. We were told to get estimates for replacement furniture but now we've been told that British Gas policy is only to cover 50% of the cost. I was not planning to replace the items and have no money to do so, so it's now very likely I will be without carpet and furniture for Christmas.
"My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter all spent time with me in the sitting room before it was sealed off and we are all really concerned about their health, as it's often not until years later that damage caused by exposure to asbestos becomes apparent. I dread to think what harm we could have been doing when we were sweeping up the mess on the day the boiler was removed."
A British Gas Spokesperson said: ‘We have been and remain in regular contact with Mrs Sneddon and are working to investigate this thoroughly.’
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