Council estate residents claim £1.3m refurbishment has left them with damp and mould

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents have claimed a £1.3million council refurbishment of an estate has left homes covered in mould because new windows didn’t fit properly – a claim the council has rejected.

Builders installed new windows on Bermondsey’s Kirby Estate in Southwark Park Road in 2020 on behalf of Southwark council.

But residents claim the new windows don’t fit properly and let in cold and rain, which has caused their walls and ceilings to be ruined by black mould. However the windows have been certified.

The problem, which residents say previously only affected a few flats on the 118-home estate, has now spread to other homes, they claim, leaving them dreading the arrival of the damper autumn months.

Multiple people on the estate pinpointed the beginning of their mould and damp issues to the installation of the new windows around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite this, the council insisted that residents’ damp and mould problems precede the new windows, and said the works were signed off by a government -backed building regulation scheme called FENSA.

But Kirby Estate resident Sarah Dollard, 34, said problems with mould and damp in her second floor flat began shortly after the new windows were fitted in 2020.

She said: “Since the windows were put in it’s atrocious. The whole walls are covered and we have cleaned it, but it keeps coming back.

“We didn’t have problems before the windows were put in. We can hear the wind coming through the windows. It’s cold in the house and it’s absolutely freezing upstairs in winter.

“We were treating it and then the council came around and treated it, but it came back, so we’re back to treating it ourselves again.”

Across the courtyard, Henry Townsend, 49, claims minor issues he had with damp in the bedroom of his ground floor flat transformed into a severe problem affecting several rooms after the new windows were installed.

He said: “Before there were few issues. Now, I’ve got one window around the side that never closes properly and they [the council] never came and fixed it.

“I’ve got damp in the bedroom, kitchen and toilet. In winter, all the heat is going out and it’s really cold, but when it’s hot you can feel the heat really strongly.”

A few doors down Katie Gudgeon, 35, said nearly everyone on the estate had suffered from damp and mould problems since the windows were replaced.

She said: “It’s black mould. As soon as we wipe it down, it comes back again. In the winter it’s really bad. It’s really thick.

“We didn’t realise the extent of the problem until we started having residents’ meetings. Everybody has said that since the windows were fitted, it has got worse and where they didn’t have it before, it’s there now.”

At a council meeting last week, Councillor Darren Merrill, Southwark’s cabinet member for council homes, promised residents that their homes would be reinspected by August, and that works to correct any issues would be subsequently completed.

Pictured top: Sarah Dollard outside her home on the Kirby Estate in Bermondsey (Picture: Robert Firth)