A North London mum-of-three has slammed her landlord’s ‘lack of care’ after years of battling issues from leaks to black mould and mice infestations.
Photos and videos showing black spores previously growing in part of 35-year-old Rebecca Hall’s York Way Estate social housing home, as well as water running down her toilet wall.
While some works have been done, Ms Hall, who is asthmatic, said ongoing issues of damp and mice make her feel as if the flat is ‘dirty’ and not somewhere she wants to live.
“With the damp and everything like that, it’s no good for me and my chest,” she said. “I’m up coughing, coughing, coughing, I can’t sleep. It’s horrendous.”
The York Way Estate in Islington is the only place Ms Hall has called home. Several of her family members, including her mother, Jackie Doolan, 63, also still live on the site. Ms Doolan’s father was previously the local superintendent.
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Located roughly 20 minutes walk north of King’s Cross, it is one of several estates the City of London Corporation manages outside the Square Mile. A total of 275 flats are spread across its four blocks, with a further 91 additional homes in the midst of being added.
The condition of the estate, and its management by the Corporation, have however come under recent criticism by residents. Several people living on York Way, including Ms Doolan, raised issues from antisocial behaviour to a lack of recycling bins earlier this summer.
Ms Hall, who moved into her current flat in 2019 as part of a swap with her nan, said her problems go back to around a year after she took on the place. These have included water pouring down her bathroom wall, black mould growing in her bedroom and the back of her wardrobe, and mice running into her kitchen and front room.
Her youngest son, who is three, has had respiratory issues, including being hospitalised with bronchiolitis. Ms Hall believes this was at least in part due to the issues in her flat.
When he was about seven months old, she said she could smell something ‘disgusting’ in her bedroom which had been worsening over time. “I had to actually turn my head the other way when I was sleeping because I thought this smell’s coming from somewhere this way.”
She eventually looked behind the wardrobe using her phone light, and noticed a large collection of black spores both on the furniture and the wall. The Corporation did send someone around to fix the issue, though she said this amounted to washing off the mould and painting over it. Now, she is concerned it may have returned, with the smell again getting worse.
Ms Hall has also had pest control out on several occasions to deal with the mice. She said her youngest son has been found picking up rat droppings around the flat.
In a report, a pest control company notes that while a ‘mouse issue’ had been dealt with a few years prior, Ms Hall had recorded more recent sightings in her home. It states that during a visit in July this year, ‘large gaps’ were spotted which they believe have resulted in mice accessing her kitchen cupboards.
The report added: “On inspection beneath the kitchen units was a long dead skeletal carcass as well as a relatively fresh capture in in (sic) of the traps left from the previous treatment.”
Ms Hall said the cumulative impact has been that her mental health has struggled and that she has been put on antidepressants.
“[It’s] having problems after problems with my property. Leaks, getting woken up at 2am by neighbours to say I’m flooding them which it’s not actually me. It’s the lack of care from the Corporation when they haven’t done their job,” she said.
A spokesperson for the City of London said the Corporation is in contact with Ms Hall to resolve the issues raised. However, they said there is currently no mould in the property, and that a leak in the toilet is being investigated. They added Property Services Officers have visited Ms Hall, and informed her about further works and to arrange for the installation of a new kitchen to address reports of mice getting into the property.
Earlier this year, Ms Hall said she approached one of her local Islington councillors, who passed her details on to the local authority. Since then she has been added to Islington’s housing register as well as the Corporation’s, in a bid to find a new home.
The council confirmed that Ms Hall is eligible to bid for properties in the borough, and that it has also recently considered a medical assessment for Ms Hall, which means she will be informed of a further points allocation.
They added her case has been referred to the council’s Residential Environmental Health service, to investigate the condition of her current home.
Cllr Una O’Halloran, Executive Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods at Islington Council, said: “We want everyone in Islington to have a safe, decent and genuinely affordable place to call home. We welcome housing applications from anyone living in Islington, but the reality of the housing crisis that we are facing means that the number of people eligible for social housing is much higher than the number of homes we have available.
“We have received a housing application from Rebecca Hall, who is eligible to bid for homes in the borough.”
Ms Hall however said she has little hope of finding a property via Islington Council, primarily because she has only recently been added to the register. In the meantime, she hopes at least some of the issues with her current flat can be addressed.
“I feel like now because I’m just overrun with mice I don’t want to come home, I feel like my house is dirty, I’ve got mice droppings…it’s dangerous as well. It’s like having to live like this and then come home here every day. I just don’t want to be here.”
A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation, said: “We take reports of damp, mould, and pests very seriously. We’ve taken a number of steps to address the concerns raised by Ms Hall and are in close contact with the tenant regarding further works to resolve these issues.
“As part of our housing major works programme, we are investing around £107 million to bring all properties across our social housing estates up to a high standard by 2026.”
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