A mother of a three-year-old suffering from asthma has said mould and damp in her privately-rented house are ‘tipping her over the edge’.
Harley Chase, from Port Talbot, Wales, said her bedroom floor is soaking wet and her clothes and furniture is ‘covered’ in mould.
The 21-year-old also said she is worried about the health of her three-year-old daughter Ava, who has asthma.
Ms Chase, who works in a jewellers, and her boyfriend, Nicky Butcher, 23, said they first noticed damp and mould issues in their home in November 2020, around three months after they moved in.
Describing the condition of her home now, Ms Chase said: ‘The second you walk into the house there’s damp and mould on the doors.
Harley Chase, 21, has said mould and damp in her privately-rented house are ‘tipping her over the edge’
Ms Chase’s three-year-old daughter Ava (seen in a picture in their home with mould on the walls and the picture frame) suffers from asthma and is affected by the state of their home
‘There’s mould on my front room windows. I have a sofa in my front room and being a 21-year-old and saving up to have a lovely sofa was one of the hardest things I ever did.
‘But I did it and now my expensive sofa, which is the same amount as my rent, is covered in disgusting, thick, green, dirty mould.’
The mum said her biggest concern is her daughter Ava’s health. She said doctors had told the family after seeing pictures of the mould in her home that it would be affecting Ava’s asthma.
The couple rent their property from John Powe. A spokesperson for Mr Powe claimed the family moved into the property as a favour by Mr Powe and Ms Chase was informed that the house was not ready and needed more work done to it, which they said she did not mind at the time.
There were no damp and mould issues at the property at this point, they said.
The spokesperson said Mr Powe had taken action in response to issues raised, while facing delays due to tradespeople not turning up, which he said were not his client’s fault.
Ms Chase said she reported issues with her home to the local environmental health department and that in January last year the property was inspected by a caseworker.
‘The mould is on every single wall, every single room, it’s on my daughter’s bed. It’s everywhere,’ said Ms Chase.
Mi Chase said the mould is all over the family’s home, which they rent from a private landlord
Mould spreading on the wall behind the sofa
Mould on the wall in the living room, on the sofa, and the damp carpet below
In February last year Ms Chase said she received a letter from their landlord informing them that their rent would be going up from £500 to £600 which she felt was a ‘spiteful’ response to being reported to environmental health, something Mr Powe denies.
Ms Chase explained that, following damp treatment and another inspection in January this year, a caseworker from environmental health found significant works had been undertaken since to solve the damp and mould issue.
But Ms Chase said the damp had spread since the treatment and the issue was now worse. ‘Everywhere that treatment has been done is once again damp and full of mould,’ she said.
She added: ‘At the minute, it’s literally just money that’s keeping us here. If I had the money that landlords are asking for nowadays to get up and give three month’s rent or a month in advance or a deposit and all the rest of it, I would 100 per cent do it. But it’s impossible for us to save at the minute.’
Since giving birth to her daughter, Ms Chase said she had struggled with her mental health and said living in the property was part of the problem.
‘Being in this house and waking up and seeing it everyday is tipping me over the edge,’ Ms Chase said.
‘I feel like people don’t take it seriously because they think it’s just a bit of damp or mould. But it’s taking over this whole, entire house.
Ms Chase, who shares the property with her boyfriend, said the issue had not been taken seriously enough
The front door to the property, beside which the wall appears damp and mouldy
A mould-infested corner of a room in the house
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‘I can’t even have a bath without looking up at the mould. It’s spreading over the walls. In my bedroom, literally every single item of clothing I’ve got is covered in mould.’
‘I need to wash my clothes every day. They’re the clothes I have to wear for work, it’s just embarrassing. I’m having to spend more money on sprays and perfumes because where it’s spread so bad now the carpet in my bedroom is soaking wet. This house, all of it’s ruined. I would rather not do private rented again if I can help it because this has traumatised me for life.’
She said that when reporting issues, ‘we’d go days without messages being answered’. She said they would then get the odd message from their landlord explaining he did not have the money that month and she would have to wait. Mr Powe denies this.
After seeking support from Swansea council, Ms Chase said she had been put on the waiting list for council housing and awarded 20 ‘damp points’.
Ms Chase explained this amount of points, which are used to prioritise people on the waiting list, was relatively low. ‘I’m at the very bottom of the list and we could be here for another 10, 15, 20 years,’ she said.
Mr Powe’s spokesperson said his tenant’s allegation that he did not respond to them for days or weeks was ‘simply untrue’.
He said Mr Powe arranged for new windows and doors to be fitted by January, 2021.
In March, 2021, the pine end was repaired in an attempt to completely stop the damp, said the spokesperson.
Pictured is a mouldy skirting board and door in the property
The wall next to the family’s sofa, which is covered in mould
Until the winter of 2021 there were no further issues with the house, he claimed, suggesting Ms Chase and Mr Butcher expressed they were happy.
When Ms Chase and Mr Butcher contacted their landlord to let him know the damp had come back in the winter of 2021, he claimed Mr Powe got in touch with several damp proofers who were all unavailable until the new year.
He said that, on January 3, 2022, the day before Mr Powe received a phone call from environmental health to discuss the house, a damp proofer had visited to inspect the issue and given him a quote.
Mr Powe visited the house with a case worker to discuss the issues raised by Ms Chase and once he received an improvement notice from Swansea council he ensured all issues were resolved before the deadline, his spokesperson said.
With regard to rent, he said it was raised to reflect the market value and previous renovations which were made to the house. The rent was still lower than some of the other properties in the same road, the spokesperson said.
In April, 2022, there was another environmental health inspection and work subsequent to that was finished in June 2022.
The tenants raised no issues over the rest of the summer, Mr Powe’s spokesperson said, who added that it was not until the winter of 2022 that the landing area outside the bathroom collapsed.
He said Mr Powe arranged for a damp proofer to come out and fix it, but was let down and had to put a temporary floor down until it was fixed. The tenants were happy to wait until December 2022 for a permanent fix, the spokesperson said.
Pictured is a ceiling in the property that is mouldy and appears damp
A surface inside the property that is covered in mould
He claimed he contacted several damp proofers at the start of the year but they were all unavailable.
When Ms Chase and Mr Butcher then raised their complaints with him, he contacted a roofer to assess the cause of the damp.
The spokesperson said Mr Powe was let down by the roofer and the tenants therefore had to wait a further eight weeks before the roof was fixed.
The spokesperson added: ‘Our client then spoke to a different damp proofer who advised to improve the ventilation in the property and provided our client with an action plan.
‘It is no fault of our client that the tradesmen have failed to show up for certain jobs, while our client has been proactive in attempting to resolve the matter.
‘Our client believes that while the tenants remained in their property, they [our client] were proactive in dealing with the issues.
‘Any delays were no fault of their own. They believe that the comments within this article do not represent the true reflection of the situation.’
The spokesperson also said that the tenants had not correctly ventilated the property as requested and had turned off the extractor fan and wrapped a garment around it, only removing the garment when Mr Powe reported this to environmental health.
Additionally, the spokesperson claimed the tenants did not pull the sofa away from the wall to allow it to breathe as requested and instead allowed mould to spread.
Ms Chase said she explained multiple times that the extractor fan was broken and complained it was not fixed for months and that the fan was burnt on the inside and gave them electric shocks. ‘We have always tried our best to keep the mould away,’ said Ms Chase, who explained she moved the sofa away from the walls as much as possible but due to the small size of the front room there was nowhere else for her to put it.
Ms Chase also said that she told Mr Powe that as the fan was broken it was ‘sucking the heating out of the house so we were left freezing cold at night’ which is why they covered it. Ms Chase says that as soon as Mr Powe told them to uncover the fan they did.
Mr Powe’s spokesperson has been contacted by MailOnline for further comment.
