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A mum-of-two says she’s been living in a mice-infested north London home flooded with sewage for an entire year.
After nearly two years bouncing between hotels, Candice, 33, was so desperate for a home she begged Haringey Council to move her in before renovation works were complete.
But she claims the state is so bad that their dog died after swallowing flooded water, her daughter has been bullied, and family wishes they were back in hotels, even with their total lack of privacy.
‘We’re living in s***’, Candice told Metro.co.uk, ‘quite literally we’re living in s***.’
Candice, who lives with her son, 15, and daughter, 14, claims the council has not responded to her calls and emails requesting help for a year.
Haringey Council said it has sent workers to address a roof leak and a plumbing issue in January and May this year, which Candice confirmed.
But when Metro.co.uk visited the house, it appeared these problems were still not fixed.
The stench greets you as you step through the front door next to a broken pane of glass covered with a wooden board.
There’s a such a steady drip of water from the kitchen ceiling, Candice uses an umbrella when she enters (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
‘Contaminated’ water leaks from the bathroom down to the kitchen, where Candice has surrendered pots and pans in the sink and a pizza in the oven.
She unsheathes an umbrella on the rare occasion she goes inside the flooded room.
‘We don’t come in here anymore’, Candice said. ‘We don’t use it. We don’t cook in here, nothing. I order food – breakfast, lunch dinner. We don’t eat in here.
‘I don’t know what the connection is between all of it, but the water is in some way contaminated.
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‘Even when I wash the stuff, the stench is there.’
The oven, kitchenware and sink are out-of-bounds in the flooded kitchen (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
Candice added: ‘When it first started, we used to clean it constantly. The amount of cleaning products, then my sister sent her cleaner to help it.
‘I gave up on it. What’s the point? We were doing this for months.’
The smell is at its worst in the conservatory, sealed behind closed doors with cardboard and a mattress propped against it in a desperate bid to banish the odour.
‘I can feel it in my brain sometimes, the stench of it’, Candice said. ‘I cannot breathe.’
Despite the heaters not working, the room feels swampy – warm and humid like they’re on full blast.
The brown water pooled on the floor smells like it’s fresh from a sewer.
Washing …read more
Source:: Metro
