A pensioner from Dulwich has said she is unable to have her grandchildren to visit this Christmas for the fourth consecutive year because of the level of damp in her home.
Christine, who moved into the council property in North Dulwich seven years ago, has been living out of her living room for the last three years because the bedrooms are ‘too cold and damp to sleep in’.
The 69 year old grandmother said she has wanted to have her grandchildren over but says there is nowhere for her family to stay when they visit and the living room contains her bed and all her belongings.
She wanted her story to be highlighted but asked us to blur her face.
“How can I have children round here? Where would they sleep? They are going to be everywhere playing,” she said.
“I’m missing out on so much quality time with my grandchildren that I’m never going to get back.”
Christine claims the flat has been riddled with issues ever since she moved from the Lordship Lane Estate in 2018, where she had lived for more than 20 years.
Initially, she said she had to wait for 10 months after her tenancy began in 2017 before she could move in, after several issues with the property were uncovered meaning it required repair work.
Not long after moving in she told us she started sleeping in her living room after damp started coming through the ceiling above the bedrooms.
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And then in August 2023 Christine said she battled through the 30 degree summer heat, unable to wrestle open her windows amid heatwave warnings after paintwork to the exterior of the house left them ‘glued’ shut. They were finally opened by contractors in 2024.
She believes the damp stems from a structural fault in the roof, but despite going through both stages of the council’s complaints proceudre and appealing to the Housing Ombudsman, who awarded her £300 compensation, it still has not been repaired.
In 2022 the council erected scaffolding outside her home, but said it was not until January this year that repair workers arrived to remove two chimney stacks, which Christine claims has been ineffective in preventing the damp from spreading.
The damp has also meant her flat is “bitterly freezing”, with Christine forced to wear a hat, gloves and a hoodie each night just to sleep.
“I ended up with pneumonia last year,” she said. “I’m so scared that I’m going to end up with it again.”
The saga, which has now dragged on for four years, has left Christine, who is registered disabled and has limited mobility, feeling “chronically stressed and miserable”.
While she will be able to spend Christmas day with her sister over in Greenwich, she remains uncertain about what will be done about her own home.
In August she told us she attended a High Court hearing where the council was given 120 days to address the damp, with a deadline of 18 December, which has now passed.
A Southwark Council spokesperson said: “Ensuring every resident in Southwark has access to a decent home is an absolute priority for us.
“This repairs case is one we are treating as an absolute priority. We are part way through the works and looking into urgent solutions to resolve the remaining issues.”
