Death of a two year old in substandard social housing

These clips are from a program I watched.
Unspeakable 😡

twitter.com/DanielHewittITV/status/1373966081061220359?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1373966081061220359%7Ctwgr%5E93066df9b5d0cbbe4abff1e75507c857485bfc3c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.co.uk%2Fentry%2Fcouncil-housing-south-london-damp-mould_uk_6058d87fc5b66a80f4e9a0be

This level of damp is literally damaging the property itself.

Tenants begging for help.

How can anyone not understand that something could have been done to help them and prevent this and it was all in the landlords ultimate benefit to so?

This is disgusting and should never have happened.

it had nothing to do with poor cleaning
poor boy

Surely that amount of mould can't just be down to poor ventilation with just 2 adults and a two year old living there.

He did look happy and healthy didn't he Callistemon, it's a terrible tragedy that should never have happened.

Margiknot, I agree there should be an information campaign. Also all schoolchildren need to learn basic housekeeping, which is changing rapidly in these days of austerity.

Smileless2012

Surely that amount of mould can't just be down to poor ventilation with just 2 adults and a two year old living there.

He did look happy and healthy didn't he Callistemon, it's a terrible tragedy that should never have happened.

the mould was all over the ceiling and pinkish too which suggested bacterial growth.

the flat block didn't look too old either

how are people to clean the ceiling

It really worries me how many will loon at those images and think those people aren't cleaning.

Mould can appear devastatingly quickly and be at the point where you can bleach surfaces including ceilings and its back by the time you finish...

Because it was always still there under the paint

This is horrific

And as a housing Tennant with my vent to nowhere by jobsworths that can't be bothered

I can't see a problem this large solely being lifestyle when they were asking for help

No vent and no chimney cap

I fought for 2 years to get it rectified

Devastating! I thought the whole point of social housing was to provide housing of a certain standard.

I also keep my back door open a lot and feel sorry for people in flats who cannot ventilate and have no where to dry their laundry. I think the landlord is supposed to treat the mould with special chemicals as most cleaning agents wont kill it.

Caleo

Growstuff, then the landlords needed to educate the tenants about how to ventilate and heat the flats.

If they can't afford the heating then that is a separate issue.

Or it could be that there is some kind of structural issue.

If there isn't a bathroom window and the extractor fan isn't working, it's the landlord's responsibility to fix it.

I agree with you about the landlord's responsibility to educate. I live in privately rented accommodation and I get a reminder every winter to have the heating on 15 degrees at all times. The annual inspection includes looking for damp and mould.

It should never have built up like that.

Caleo

Margiknot, I agree there should be an information campaign. Also all schoolchildren need to learn basic housekeeping, which is changing rapidly in these days of austerity.

Including the children of the wealthy? Or do they get an exemption and learn something more enriching while the plebs learn basic survival?

The landlord is getting the blame but surely the parents have a responsibility to keep the property aired, heated and cleaned. It is relatively cheap to kill off mould with a simple bleach spray, one done, if the damp is controlled it shouldn’t return.

I have had great difficulty trying to get highly intelligent overseas tenants to understand that sealing up windows over the winter will cause damp buildup from breathing, cooking, and drying clothes inside without using the dryer supplied.

Now that energy is so expensive this problem is only going to get worse.

It is not always the landlord to blame.

The parents were living in the flat before the little boy was born and I am puzzled as to why there has been no mention during the news articles of intervention by the community health carers, surely a midwife or health visitor would have visited mum at home before the baby was born?

Esspee

The landlord is getting the blame but surely the parents have a responsibility to keep the property aired, heated and cleaned. It is relatively cheap to kill off mould with a simple bleach spray, one done, if the damp is controlled it shouldn’t return.

I have had great difficulty trying to get highly intelligent overseas tenants to understand that sealing up windows over the winter will cause damp buildup from breathing, cooking, and drying clothes inside without using the dryer supplied.

Now that energy is so expensive this problem is only going to get worse.

It is not always the landlord to blame.

Bleach May work on non porous surfaces like tiles but won’t eliminate the dangerous spores on surfaces like wood or dry walling.

Seems like another case of agencies not communicating with each other ParlorGames

RIP Awaab Ishak

Rochdale Council & authorities need to look for solutions PDQ

I do not think any of the social housing organisations are commercial companies. They are all either charities or 'not-for-profit' organisations.

There are commercial property companies, but they are in the private sector and do not run any social housing.

Callistemon add to your list checking that gutters and down pipes are not blocked or broken.

locked and broken gutters and downpipes are a major cause of mould, as is on older properties, slipped roof tiles and roofs which do not have an underlay of some kind as rain and snow can be blown under tiles in windy weather.

It's not a simple matter of housekeeping and opening windows - despicable veiled hints here that the parents were at fault!

Many years ago I spent a short time in a rented flat, top floor with flat roof. We were plagued with mould on the ceilings and inside the fitted wardrobes - as soon as you wash it off and dry it comes back. You can get some sort of treatment paint but even that didn't prevent it.

A builder said in this particular building the problem was due to the flat roof having poor insulation - so the warm air hitting the cold ceiling caused the moisture and no amount of open windows would have prevented that.

The four top floor flats were all affected, other floors not.

Esspee

The landlord is getting the blame but surely the parents have a responsibility to keep the property aired, heated and cleaned. It is relatively cheap to kill off mould with a simple bleach spray, one done, if the damp is controlled it shouldn’t return.

I have had great difficulty trying to get highly intelligent overseas tenants to understand that sealing up windows over the winter will cause damp buildup from breathing, cooking, and drying clothes inside without using the dryer supplied.

Now that energy is so expensive this problem is only going to get worse.

It is not always the landlord to blame.

Yet another poster blaming the ignorant poor 😡

I used to visit friends in Stockholm at various times of the year. They lived in a modern flat in a small block - sort of 'Lego' in style, prefabricated.

In winter it was warm and cosy - no windows opened unnecessarily in those sub-zero temperatures! And no problem with mould either as presumably they were constructed to high standards using appropriate materials and inbuilt ventilation.

I was in tears at the news article on this baby's death. I am even more appalled at the comments on here trying to shift the blame onto the parents.

I think that a case of corporate manslaughter should be brought against thsi Housing Association.

There would be too much passing the buck Franbern as in Grenfell.

Something that I noticed from news articles was that the mould was above radiators, which I've never seen before. Also on the ceiling and down the walls, which was really bad. Also on the child's potty and it's easy to see that he may easily have touched and ingested the mould as well as breathed it in.

This tragic story may have highlighted a problem with the building structure, which, although it looks quite new does not mean it's well built. If the building is not at fault, then it may be reasonable to suggest that the parents didn't know about ventilation, being refugees from an entirely different climate?

The Tories voted against a bill that called for housing to be fit for human habitation.

Their actions led to this.