Young family ready to walk out 'unsafe' house as they issue desperate plea

28 February 2024 , 08:57

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The Jones family say they have had nothing but trouble since moving into their house

A despairing family in a crumbling council house has demanded the authority makes it liveable.

Natalie Jones and her husband Dean say a whole year has passed since promised repair work was conducted to fix the dangerous holes in their flooring at the property in Lanreath, Cornwall.

They are fearful sons Logan, four and Tommy, two, will fall through the floors of the home and suffer serious injury. The parents want the Tory-led council to finally stop treacherous holes appearing in their floors.

Natalie said: "It's not a home, it's just a house - an unsafe house." Dean added: "We're about ready to walk out - we've had enough, but where would we go?"

Cornwall Housing, which is owned by the council, says it is working with the family to tackle the issues in their home and apologises for the time it is taking. The Jones family had to move out of their house in 2022 for what they were told would be three weeks of remedial work after they started falling through the floor in the kitchen and hallway, they said. That work eventually took a year when the family chose to stay with Natalie's mum Lynn rather than be housed in a B&B. Now the problems have started all over again, Natalie said. It's fair to say the couple are at their wits' end.

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Natalie said: "We moved in in November 2021. We lived in a bungalow four doors down and swapped with a couple who thought we'd appreciate a bigger house as we had a growing family, which we did. There were no problems with that property. Then we moved in here and ... oh God." Dean added: "It's been nothing but trouble."

Four-year-old Logan Jones points to a hole in the kitchen floor

Six weeks later the family had to move out, when Natalie was pregnant, after she fell through the floor in the kitchen. It was discovered that parts of the ground floor of the house were rotting, so work had to be carried out to pull up and replace the flooring in the kitchen, hallway and living room.

"We were told three weeks and you'll be back in. We wanted to keep it normal for the little one, who was very young then, so moved to mum's," said Natalie. "We didn't want to be put in a B&B. We kept coming in and checking how the work was progressing. We were out a whole year."

Natalie's mum Lynn added: "You should have seen the state of the house. Honestly, it was awful. The whole of the floor in the living room was gone - you could see the ground." In the end, the kitchen had to be entirely rebuilt.

The family moved back into their house and everything was fine for a year, but holes started appearing again at Christmas. "We've gone through the floors about six times in the last five weeks," said Natalie.

The Jones family outside their home in Cornwall

Dean added: "I've started falling through the kitchen again. I fell through last night and rang them up straight away. They said nobody could come out until today but still no one's come out. The call wasn't even logged - I rang them up again this morning and there was no record of me ringing. We have to try and keep the kids out of the kitchen otherwise they could fall through."

Natalie told Cornwall Live: "Where all the holes are going in the floors again, it's all rotten underneath in the hall, kitchen and bathroom." Dean added: "I fell through and cut my leg - they were supposed to come out and speak to me about some form of compensation, but didn't." At the moment, ad hoc hardboard is being put over the holes. There are other problems with the house too, which the family consider "minor" compared with the rotten flooring.

"Our utility room next to the kitchen is full of mould, but the work they did wasn't completed, so the flooring's all uneven. They've taken out partition walls but left radiators over the top of mould and said 'there you go' basically. Plus there are other things - like windows not closing properly and handles off doors, which I've reported," said Natalie.

They reported the children's bedroom window not closing properly eight months ago. "Not one person's come out to look at the windows. I've had to stick a blanket in it as it doesn't shut properly, just to get some warmth in there," added Dean. Natalie pointed out another problem: "There was a leak recently - they put in a new heating system in for us. We used to have night storage heaters, but now we've got an air source heat pump, but they left the original pipe work. Obviously, night storage is low pressure, air source is high pressure and it's all burst. That had been leaking for a while but we only noticed when the floor started going through. We waited for about four weeks for that leak to be stopped."

Rotting wood in a kitchen cupboard

The family is £1,800 in rent arrears as they were still paying rent for the house in the year they weren't living there, "which we can't really pay back very well with things how they are at the moment. We actually saved them thousands by moving in with mum - if they'd put us in a B&B that would have cost them thousands for all that time," added Natalie.

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Lynn added: "I live on my own and get single person's discount, but because I had these in the house they charged me for it. I had another £1,000 bill to pay. They didn't tell me about that for months and months. I didn't think about it as I was just helping them out for what should have been three weeks."

Natalie said: "Tommy was born early and was still on oxygen when we left hospital - but I couldn't even bring him back to our own home."

A spokesperson from Cornwall Housing said: “We have been working with the residents in this case to tackle and address the issues in their home. While we are unable to go into individual circumstances, in cases such as this we will bring in specialist surveyors to pinpoint the underlying cause.

"It can take a little time for surveys to be undertaken, results to be considered and a plan of action put in place to tackle the underlying issues. We are sorry that this has not yet been resolved and will continue to work with the residents to rectify this as soon as possible."

The spokesperson added: “Cornwall Council has substantially increased the amount of money to improve the condition of tenants’ homes, including more money for day-to-day repairs and renewals, with a plan to spend over £83m in the next eight years. However, there are many homes that desperately need investment to bring them up to a decent standard, and we are working closely with the council and our sub-contractors to get these works underway.”

Lee Trewhela