Man given £520 from housing association after gran dies in mouldy flat

28 February 2023 , 12:29

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Michael says his grandmother Pamela was his only family

A heartbroken grandson has been left furious after he was given £520 compensation from a housing association after his gran died living in her mouldy flat.

Pamela Brown, 95, had been the resident of the one-bed flat for 15 years and died less than five months after her grandson Michael Poole first raised the problem of the mould.

He claims a leak from the flat above caused serious water damage in September 2021 to his grandmother's bathroom, which was then blighted by black mould.

Michael, 41, claims the support bars for the elderly in the bathroom were weighed down by the water coming through the wall, the medicine cabinet fell off the wall, and water was coming out of the shower socket.

Pamela, who Michael says was in good health for her age, died on January 22, 2022, with pneumonia listed as the main cause of death.

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Have you faced a similar issue? Contact [email protected]

Michael and Pamela in happier times (Kayleigh Pope Photography https://www.kayleighpope.co.uk)

Michael received a letter from Orbit Housing Association apologising for the delays in not fixing the damp along with £520 in compensation.

Michael told the Mirror: "It shows the value they put on somebody's life, not that there is a value anyway, but it shows their mentality."

Michael, who was battling his own illness at the time the leak happened, said he first raised the issue with Orbit when carers sent him pictures from the flat in Culworth House in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

This is the mould that was behind the medicine cabinet after it fell down

Michael Poole says that water was coming from the shower socket

However, he claims that "fell on deaf ears" and when he went to his gran at the beginning of October he saw the conditions for himself.

The business development manager said: "You felt like you were walking into a jungle it was that wet. You could clearly see the ceiling coming down.

"You could see the stress that the support bars were under - you could see them coming down.

"At the beginning of October, Orbit said it would take a week and I said this was a risk to life.

"I also explained to them because of the dampness the floor is getting wet and she could slip. She was disabled and used a Zimmer frame.

Michael dancing with his grandmother Pamela at his wedding (Kayleigh Pope Photography https://www.kayleighpope.co.uk)

"I was really concerned that if she had fallen or if the support bars gave way she would go down."

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He said somebody did eventually come around and deemed it safe, but two days later the bathroom cabinet fell off the wall.

When this happened, the electrics to Pamela's bathroom were cut off and he claims the only way she was able to clean herself was to be transported by the use of a wheelchair to a spare bathroom on a separate floor, as she usually used a walking frame.

He said: "The only way to take care of her hygiene was to wheel her upstairs to a spare bathroom that was across the corridor from an empty flat", which he claims Orbit wouldn't give her because it was used for visitors.

This image shows the water damage on the ceiling

This image shows the water damage in the bathroom from the upstairs leak

"You can imagine what that does to your dignity being pushed in your dressing gown in a wheelchair to a bathroom like that and this lasted for about a month."

Michael added: "I called Orbit again and kept getting told 'to leave it with me'." But he claims the company didn't respond, adding: "It was always me chasing them.

"Then a manager sent a dehumidifier to the flat and it is what you would use on a construction site, not in a one-bed flat.

"Not only did they make it unsafe because they were trailing cables everywhere but my nan had already contracted a chest infection.

Michael says Orbit Housing Association came to paint the walls instead of resolving the issue

"Her infection markers were so high in her system that the district nurse she said would have not survived the night had she kept on being like this. I was told by a medical provider that you would not put a dehumidifier like that in a flat."

In an email from a GP seen by the Mirror, they acknowledge that if there is damp or mould "you're more likely to have respiratory problems such as respiratory infections".

It added: "If a dehumidifier is used incorrectly it can lead to moisture levels that are too low which could impact your health causing dehydration, dry eyes and skin and respiratory problems, these problems are greater in the clinically vulnerable groups such as the elderly."

Pamela shortly before she passed away

Michael says the conditions in the flat sent his grandmother to hospital

Despite Michael raising the issues in October, he said it wasn't until the beginning of November that Orbit representatives came out and even then he was not satisfied with the remedy.

Michael claims: "All they did was come out and paint the damp patches. I had to force the manager to come out himself to see the state of the property and it was then they agreed that they will take the wall and shower down to do a proper investigation into the black mould."

He claims he later had a senior manager come down who claimed they didn't see a problem and accused him of wasting their time.

He added: "I told them 'you can't see any black mould because you painted it white' and all I had to do was pull back the splash panel above the sink.

"The wall was so wet that it just came off and you could see the black mould behind it. All I was doing was turning around their liability to make sure it was a safe environment."

Michael said: "Ultimately my gran was 95 and in remarkable health for a woman of her age.

"Since the damp started she was in and out of the hospital with infections and she wasn't able to fight it off. She came home from the hospital on January 20 and passed away on January 22."

When he first asked Orbit about what the policy was for bereavement he was told he had to give four weeks' notice.

After his grandmother died, he posted the keys through the office's letterbox giving the notice.

Michael was then horrified to get a letter that summer saying he was in arrears and that they would take possession of the flat.

He said: "They were still charging rent because I hadn't informed of the death and when you inform them you have to give a death certificate and unless I gave them the death certificate they were going to charge rent."

In a letter from Orbit to Michael in May 2022, they awarded him £520 after "partially agreeing" with his complaints.

They also acknowledged that Pamela was a "vulnerable tenant".

One "goodwill payment" was given for the delays in fixing the leak as well as the decorating and for not replacing the handrails.

Another "goodwill payment" of £400 was given for the "upset, frustration and inconvenience caused to your grandmother by the service failings".

It reads: "I acknowledge that your grandmother was a vulnerable tenant and that it was the delay in fixing the leak that caused the severity of the damp problems in the bathroom."

And an additional £50 was given "for poor complaint handling", adding: "We should have dealt with this complaint at stage one of our complaint process as soon as we accepted it."

Michael says his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Isabella will now grow up with no memory of Pamela.

He said: "My gran lived for my daughter. She had been a tenant at Culworth House since 2007 and everyone saw her as the mum or grandmother to the people of that building.

"She would do anything for anybody. She was from the war generation so she was so appreciative of all the small things.

"She only had me and isabella and she was the most lovely woman she just would do anything to take care of anybody.

"She was my nan and she was everything I had - I grew up in foster care and my foster parents were vile, but my nan was everything she was my only family."

In December, the Mirror launched its End Housing Hell campaign, demanding that social, council and private housing tenants are fined when properties fail to meet the minimum standards.

We're also calling for the Decent Homes Standard to be enforced and extended to the private sector, tens of thousands more social homes to be built, better access to legal aid for tenants, inspections to improve and the Local Housing Allowance to be raised to help people with the cost of rent.

Latest figures show there are 3.5 million homes that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard.

Matt Western, Michael's MP, has been supporting Michael throughout the ordeal.

On January 23, the Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, spoke about Pamela in the Commons while discussing complaints mechanisms for housing association tenants.

He said: "In another—particularly worrying—case, a 95-year-old constituent was living in a property managed by Orbit Housing Association. It was covered in damp. The walls were so wet that my constituent’s grandson claimed that the support bars she used to get on and off the toilet could have given way. Partly owing to significant damp arising from a leak upstairs, one evening the bathroom cabinet fell off the wall and narrowly missed hitting my constituent. Orbit had previously visited the property and added some new paint and sealant, but had not addressed the underlying problem of the damp.

"When I visited the property myself, a month on, the issues remained. Seeing the nature of my constituent’s accommodation—including the bathroom in which this 95-year-old was having to survive—I was in a state of shock. Short of refitting the whole bathroom, the repairs were simply a sticking plaster, leaving my constituent in a home totally unfit for a frail 95-year-old woman."

Mr Western told the Mirror: "I was appalled to learn of the conditions that Pamela was living in and the effects it was having on her health.

"Both her grandson, Mike, and my team raised it repeatedly with Orbit housing.

"It is absolutely crucial that housing providers such as Orbit take full responsibility for these conditions and act in the interests of their residents to ensure their living conditions are of a suitable standard.

"I will continue to raise these issues in Parliament and do so until the appropriate legislation is in place to protect people like Pamela.

"My thoughts remain with her family.”

A spokesperson for Orbit told the Mirror: “We are saddened by the death of Mrs Brown and extend our sincere condolences to her family.

“In mid-September 2021 we were notified that water had seeped into Mrs Brown’s bathroom as a result of a leak from the property above. Once we had completed the repairs, the bathroom was fully redecorated in December 2021.

“Whilst we acknowledge that this took longer than we’d have liked and have previously offered Mr Poole compensation for the frustration caused, we have been provided with no evidence that the water ingress in Mrs Brown's home was in any way a contributing factor to her death.

“After repeated requests to Mr Poole for the provision of Mrs Brown’s death certificate, once this was provided all outstanding charges allocated to the property’s rent account were reversed and Mrs Brown’s account was closed. Mr Poole has not been required to make any payments to us.”

Alahna Kindred