Edinburgh family suffer damp and mould for 8 months after council fail to fix roof

A family have been left battling damp, mould and dangerous standing water in their flat after Edinburgh City Council failed to repair a leak in their roof for almost a year.

Ryan McKay, 27, has suffered from insomnia and is now around £600 in debt due to the problems and has missed more than 50 hours of work due to the stress.

The problems have been so bad, he has described living in the flat as “hell”.

The council apologised to Mr McKay for the distress caused and said repairs were ongoing to the roof.

'It's hell'

Mr McKay lives in the sole privately owned flat of a majority council-owned block of flats in Crewe Road Gardens along with his partner Maxine and two children, Libby and Declan.

He said: “I would rather work into the night than stay awake here.

“I am barely sleeping just now. Libby has had bronchitis and we caught it returning early and this is just not helping. I have no faith in the council getting it fixed.

According to the family, scaffolding has been put up outside their flat multiple times only for it soon to come back down again with the problems not being fixed.

The flat has recently been repainted, but was suffering from mould and damp due to the leak which began around June 2019.

In protest, Mr McKay has stopped paying his council tax until the problems are fixed.

He said: “The council only want to get paid and get their money and that is how I see it.

“They say they will fix it but nothing else happens.”

'It is a nightmare'

His partner, Maxine Graham, added that the problems have also seen their next door neighbour’s ceiling collapse in, despite the fact she is a council tenant.

Ms Graham said: “It is a nightmare and the water is coming out onto the floor.

“This is a black bag covering the hole in the roof and people have been out and looked up but it is obviously a missing slate or a slate that has moved.

“We have been told that people will come out and fix it but nobody has been. They are just not answering our calls anymore.”

The council apologised to the family when contacted about the issues by the Evening News and said they immediately appointed a roofer to fix an issue when it was first reported.

'We're sorry for the distress caused'

The spokesman added that extra scaffolding will be put in place to fix gutters and lead piping in the roof.

A spokesman for the council said: “Repairs like this are an absolute priority for us to resolve. When a leak was reported, we immediately appointed a roofer to investigate and fix the issue.

“We remain in regular contact with affected residents and visited the block again on Monday. A few further issues have been identified which we’re working urgently to fix. This involves upgrading gutters and lead piping so extra scaffolding will be put in place for this.

“We undertake 10,000 property repairs a month and while we have a 92% customer satisfaction rate, sometimes problems arise which are harder to fix and this can impact people’s lives. We’re really sorry that, in this instance, repairs are ongoing and distress has been caused.

“We’ll continue to do all that we can to keep this property safe, warm and watertight.”