A fed-up hospital worker who was stuck in a mouldy flat for five years has been given £500 in compensation - the equivalent to just one month's rent. Kirsty Higgs was living in a flat with mould and damp in her bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and spare room until she was finally moved out in November 2021.
Kirsty shared her plight with StokeonTrentLive back in January 2021, complaining the mould had spread even further in her Clayton flat, but it still took her landlord, Aspire Housing, 10 months to move her to somewhere else. Fortunately, the home where she was moved to, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, does not have any of the same issues she suffered with at her old place.
More than a year on, housing association Aspire Housing has accepted it should have responded "more urgently" and got on with major roofing repairs much sooner. Details of their apology and offer of compensation have come to light after the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak.
Last month, an inquest into the toddler's death found he died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in the one-bedroom housing association flat where he lived with his parents, Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Housing Secretary Michael Gove vowed to block funding for failing housing associations as he warned tens of thousands of homes are unsafe because of mould and damp.
Kirsty, who works at Harplands Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent, says she feels "fobbed off" by Aspire Housing, who have offered her just £500 in compensation after her nearly five-year ordeal. She says she never missed a rent payment despite living with mould and damp.
The hospital worker said: “I was relieved when I finally got out because I had been living there for over four years and they kept fobbing me off. I got £500 compensation but they got five years’ rent off me and all I got was £500 which is one month’s rent.
“I never stopped paying my rent or refused to pay anything. They were too slow to fix the problems I was having with the damp and mould. You are waiting for ages to get anything done by them.”
Kirsty added: “There needs to be more communication and when there’s a problem like mould or damp they need to sort it out straight away, not leave it in a condition where water is coming through the roof. I was on my own and had no children. But there are also people who have got kids and are in that situation and have been left like that.
“That young boy died because of mould and damp, it’s not right. They didn’t do anything to sort out their problem. They should be doing better when people are paying the money.”
Aspire Housing has apologised to Kirsty. Executive director Dan Gray said: “Last year we supported Ms Higgs to move into a new home following issues with damp and mould in her previous property, which were related to the need for major roofing repairs. We recognise that it took too long to resolve this issue and that we should have responded to it more urgently. We would like to apologise again to Ms Higgs and have paid compensation to her for the distress and inconvenience that was caused.”
