EXCLUSIVE: Edinburgh Mum fears for kids health living in mouldy flat

An Edinburgh Mum is exclusively telling Forth News that she fears for her children's health living in a damp and mouldy council flat.

Nicola has been living in the property for more than two years - there was already damp in the home when she moved in, but due to the pandemic she'd only been able to view it via a Youtube Video.

She's telling us that it feels like she's been hitting a brick wall trying to get help from the Council.

Although the local authority say that dealing with dampness is a priority, and that a surveyor will be visiting Nicola today.

She talked us through the first stages of moving in.

"I eventually got into the property, that's when I had seen the dampness on the bedroom wall and in the other bedroom there was mould in cupboard on the ceiling, so I had reported that and I had an inspector book to come out.

"At the time I had also started working as a carer so as you can imagine becoming a carer during the pandemic working seven o'clock in the morning to 10 o'clock at night, three kids, moving in - it was hard work, and I forgot about the appointment and I missed it".

From that point Nicola struggled to get another appointment organised, in the meantime the damp got worse and spread across the flat, with some walls and ceilings beginning to crumble.

Another appointment was scheduled, but the surveyor couldn't carry out the work as when he arrived it was just Nicola's eldest daughter at home.

Local Councillors have attempted to move the situation on, and eventually some small repairs were carried out, but Nicola described how those didn't provide solutions for all the spots of damp, and quickly deteriorated again.

Nicola told Forth News she's extremely worried for her children's health, especially her son who has asthma.

She said: "I've told them on several occasions that my son is asthmatic.

"He spent five years in and out of hospital.

"I'm worried because he's having to use his inhalers a hell of a lot more than he used to, that we're gonna end up back there because of the mould and the dampness - his room is absolutely freezing."

Nicola had read about the recent death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale, he died because of "Chronic exposure" to mould in a property.

That has worried the Mum of three even more about the impact the state of her flat will have on her families health, she told us:

"That scares the life out of me. Because my son's asthmatic so Black mould and dampness will not help his chest one little back.

"It will make it so much worse, and I am scared that the same thing will happen to my son, because the council will not fix the problem.

"I'm angry, I'm upset. I feel helpless."

A spokesperson for the City of Edinburgh Council said: “We take the health and wellbeing of our tenants very seriously and encourage anyone experiencing issues with dampness or mould to report them to us. We have a surveyor scheduled to visit this property today.”

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