A family say their “daughter can’t sleep in her own room” after ripping up wallpaper in their new home to discover black mould everywhere.
And it didn’t end there.
Since the family moved into the property in Soham provided by Sanctuary Housing just over two months ago, it has felt far from a ‘home’ and more like a ‘nightmare’.
“I just want to redecorate,” said the resident.
“I’m stressed, passed being depressed and it’s a lot for me to take on with having ME.
“My daughter’s been so ill ever since we’ve been here, then we found the mould and it explained it all.”
To accommodate the health of the resident, the couple moved into their current property without viewing it.
“I expected everything to be better than this,” said the resident.
“To start with, I noticed white spray all around the house and thought to myself ‘they’re covering something up here’.
“Then the bathroom – it stinks like a public toilet; urine has seeped into the floor and I've had to spend no end of money on air fresheners.
“The waste pipes are cracked and leaking too and all I’ve been told by Sanctuary is to put newspaper in the holes.”
“Then I was told that my bathroom is 99.9% damp, so I bought some new tiles, but they’ve told me they’re not prepared to help me retile it.”
“There’s just mould everywhere, it’s now appearing in other rooms and is clearly spreading in the property.
“The walls are cracked too. The list goes on - it’s never ending.”
The family has sent photos of the conditions of their house to their local council.
They’ve also been in regular contact with their housing officer too about the issues they're facing.
“I just can’t believe how Sanctuary has left this property,” said the resident.
“It’s just not fair – It's really getting to us.”
When contacting Sanctuary Housing, a spokesperson said: “We're committed to continuing to provide the family with the support they need and our maintenance team have previously completed a number of repairs in their home.
“Appointments are being agreed for additional work to be done and this will include addressing areas of mould in the property, which we only became aware of when the family contacted us after peeling wallpaper."
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