No alternative accommodation offered despite water pouring through ceiling
Water is pouring into the Madeley Road flat in the bedroom and living room. Picture: Margarida Pacheco
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December 22, 2022
A senior nurse living in Ealing has been told she needs to vacate her flat at Christmas time because of a leak she had been complaining about for months.
Margarida Pacheco has been told that her landlord is unwilling to meet the cost of accommodation while the problem is being dealt with and that they were only prepared to waive her rent for the month.
Margarida, generally known as Maggie, is originally from Portugal and has an expertise in the identification and treatment of sepsis.
She has not been given a definite date by which the works will be completed and the resulting stress has been so great she has been forced to take time off. She described her treatment as degrading.
She moved into the flat on Madeley Road in April and immediately spotted that there was existing water damage which she reported to the letting agent Robertson, Smith and Kempson (RSK).
The agent said that its repairs team were unable to deal with the problem as it was only managing the flat and not the whole building and the issue was outside the property. The landlord was alerted but nothing was done about the problem and it continued to deteriorate.
Cracks are now appearing in the ceiling . Picture: Margarida Pacheco
The persistent leaks had resulted in black mould growing in the bedroom and living room and large cracks are now appearing in the ceiling. The water has caused damage to some of her books and she has had to move her television set.
She suffers from asthma and, to mitigate the effects of the damp, she is obliged to have her heating on all day.
On 17 November, she sent videos to the agent showing that water was now pouring down the walls and onto her furniture and a month later still no action had been taken.
RSK visited the property on 15 December and sent a contractor to the flat the following day to see if they could determine where the leak was coming from. The source of the leak appeared to be a chimney stack which requires scaffolding to be erected to investigate the problem further.
They said they would be passing on this information to the freeholder in the hope that this would accelerate the repairs.
When RSK spoke to the landlord, who lives overseas, they were told that it was not possible to provide alternative accommodation and the freeholder was unable to give a date for the completion of the works. She pays £1,350 a month for the flat but this is unlikely to cover the cost of short term accommodation at this time of year.
Ms Pacheco has now taken up the matter with her local MP and councillors.
We have asked RSK for a comment.
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