Mum-of-two says council home is ‘falling apart’ after years of mould

A mum living in a council house said her roof is “falling apart” as the tiles are falling off, with damp and mould plaguing her home for the past seven years.

Vicky Armstrong, 40, has lived in her house in Eltham for eight years.

The mum-of-two said that about a year after moving into the house, she started noticing “little spots” on the walls of her home.

She said: “I just kept cleaning and cleaning and then the hallway and my bedroom was getting into a bad state, so I called the council up and then they started coming and doing their washes.”

Ms Armstrong said the council now does a mould wash of the house every winter. However, she said that since October last year the tiles and guttering have started falling off the roof of the house.

She said: “My guttering and tiles are falling off and they keep telling me someone’s going to come out but I keep calling and calling. I called them out for an emergency to make it safe.

“The gentleman came and they only had a bog-standard ladder and said it’s unsafe for them to go up and make it safe. I thought ‘that’s a bit ironic’.”

The mum said she is worried the missing tiles may be affecting the damp and mould issue in her home.

Aside from the issue with her roof, Ms Armstrong said she has been regularly contacting the council for the past five years regarding the damp in her home. She said that council officers come to check her property on an annual basis before arranging a mould wash.

Ms Armstrong said dealing with the mould in her children’s room has been “stressful”. The mum said that after seeing “white, foamy mould” on the wall above her son’s pillow, she started making him sleep at the other end of the mattress.

She said: “I never stop, I don’t feel relaxed. It’s always on my brain. I have my son in the winters complaining that his breathing gets bad.

“He has to sleep this end at night because I can’t have him there. In the summer, it’s not that bad. In the winter, it’s every week that I’m washing the wall.”

The mum said that since February, red patches have started appearing around her son’s eyes every few days. She said she took him to the doctor after the issue started as she worried it may have been due to the state of his bedroom.

She said: “It’s an allergy they’ve said because it only happens when he’s in the house. It doesn’t happen at school or anywhere else, I’ve asked everywhere… He’s very upset and because it hurts, it’s scratchy. Then he starts crying and that doesn’t help it.”

A Greenwich council spokesman said: “We know that damp and mould is a big concern for our tenants and leaseholders, and it’s something that we take extremely seriously.

“We have addressed concerns raised by Ms Armstrong since she first made us aware of mould in her home, last October, and understand the impact this has had on her and her family.”

The spokesman said that the white foam in Ms Armstrong’s home had not been brought to the council’s attention, and that the issue was being investigated.

They said repairs had been carried out to the mum’s roof, and further work was scheduled to be done.

Pictured top: Vicky Armstrong, 40, shown in front of the missing tiles on her roof (Picture: Joe Coughlan)