A mum is ‘really scared’ for the safety of her family due to a 'nightmare' mould issue at a property managed by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH).
The mum, from Middleton, who asked not to be named, shares her home with her four children and husband — and has been battling a persistent mould problem ‘for three years’, she has told the Manchester Evening News. The situation means she has to sleep on the floor, as her bed has been mould-damaged, she claims.
The problem has been plaguing her home on and off during that time frame, but came ‘back with a vengeance’ in September last year, she's added. Despite raising concerns with RBH, the mum says she only received a meaningful response from the housing association after she made a formal complaint just before Christmas.
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For its part, RBH says it attempted to treat the mould in November 2022, but couldn’t because staff were unable to gain access to the home. More mould treatment was completed in February, the housing association says.
However, the mum remains ‘really scared’ for the safety of her children following an MEN investigation bringing the tragedy of two-year-old Awaab Ishak to light. The tot died due to mould exposure in another RBH property, on the Freehold estate, after his father repeatedly complained to the organisation.
“This is really scaring me,” the desperate mum said. “I go to bed crying. I need help. I have to think of my kids. I cannot see my kids going through all this anymore.
“I am still waiting for jobs to be done. People cannot believe it when they see it. People say I should not really be in this house. I am in a predicament because I will have to be in a hostel with four kids [if I move]. I am lost. I don’t know what to do.”
The mum says mould first appeared in 2019, and a visit by an inspector towards the end of that year recommended two positive input ventilation units (PIVs) be installed, in the attic and bedroom.
“We got one in the bathroom, but not the attic,” the mum claimed. “That was in May 2020. Nothing was done [to install a second PIV]. They blamed it on Covid-19.
“In early 2020, a painter came out and did the ceiling because the mould was really, really bad. They said it was a gutter overspill. That seemed to make it alright for some time.”
Due to other circumstances, the mum says her ability to chase up repairs had to take a back seat during most of 2021, when the situation appears to have been under control. However, the family say it did not stay that way.
“It came back last year, in about September,” she went on. “We got black mildew. That’s when I started to press on with this. It did not get looked into.
“There was no real bother until I put a complaint in and somebody called me back. That was how the process started. That was around Christmas 2022.
“It came back aggressively. It’s back with a vengeance. They were slow. They would come out, wipe it, and treat it very quickly. So long as they could say they did something within 20/30 minutes, they would go. It would come back in a week. That happened over three months.”
The situation reached breaking point earlier this year, when three of the children began coughing during the night ‘in separate rooms on separate nights’ in the same week, she claimed. That led to a grim discovery, she added.
“I couldn’t understand why [they were coughing],” she recalled. “One night, they were coughing for an hour and fifteen minutes. I thought it was just a tickle.
“The next day I thought ‘I need to find out what’s going on’. I do not know why, I pulled the drawers out. It was full of furry mould.
“I could have cried.”
Another reported issue at the home is a lack of cavity wall, which has been identified as an area for repair by RBH. The housing association says it is in the process of arranging for it to be refilled, and scheduling delivery of the second PIV.
“We carried out mould treatment on our tenant’s home in Middleton in early 2021,” a spokesperson for RBH said. “Following a report that the mould had returned, we carried out further treatment in autumn 2022.
“We made appointments in November 2022 and January 2023 to fit a PIV ventilation unit to the loft and a new fan in the bathroom, but we were unable to gain access to complete this work.
“We subsequently completed further treatment work in February 2023. We are currently in the process of arranging the cavity wall extract and refill and the rescheduled installation of the ventilation unit.”
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