IT’S CHAOS

A pregnant mum of four has been left horrified after her family has been made to live in a crowded two-bed plagued with rats and mould.

Kellie Sullivan said she was at the end of her tether over the property in Oldham, Manchester, continually battling leaks and rodents.

The mum said she frantically attempted to keep the home clean but was facing an insurmountable task, with her dozens of applications for other homes knocked back, and she said that her growing family of four children, with her fifth child due in just weeks, were bursting out of the two-bed home with no place to put anything.

First Choice Homes has since apologised, saying they were working to find her a new home, but Kellie Sullivan said it’s so overcrowded, and they’ve only got one storage space, so she’s got nowhere to put anything, and that they’ve been living out of bags for 4 years, and she said that she can’t find the things she’s looking for and that it’s chaos 24/7.

And she said that she cleans the house continually because the smell of the damp just gets to her otherwise.

She said she constantly tried cleaning, spending £60 a month on cleaning products but was fighting a losing battle.

The mum, who’s 34 weeks pregnant, said the family had been forced to throw out clothes, furniture and carpets that had been destroyed by the leaking water and damp in the house.

Rats and mice have also been spotted in the home and the garden, and Kellie even fears that her daughter has fallen ill due to the presence of rodents in the home.

And Kellie said the crowded home meant her children were forced to sleep in one room, with no room to set up her eldest son’s sensory equipment to help his autism.

She added that she slept on the kitchen floor when her daughter was born because there wasn’t any place in the bedroom for her daughter’s cot.

Emma Davison, executive director for customer first at First Choice Homes Oldham, said the family were at the top of their list and she said that they work hard to accommodate people on the waiting list with a suitably sized home as quickly as they can and that due to the volume of people in Oldham waiting for a home and the COVID 19 pandemic, then that means people are not moving as often and that this sometimes may take longer than they would want.

However, the council or whichever association they’re with should be sorting out their infestation in the meantime while they wait because no one should have to live like this in this country, regardless of how many children they have, and it’s sickening, and her council should be penalised for renting the home in that state.

And in the meantime, up the road in hotels, illegal immigrants are arriving every day by boat and being delivered to hotels at no cost to themselves.

Mould and mildew are seemingly the most serious problems that can occur due to a water leak because mould and mildew are likely to develop, grow in damp places, on wet patches and areas that build up moisture quickly, and even a few drops of water a day can lead to creating damp spots where mould is highly likely to appear.

And mould and mildew are not only harmful to the structural components of your home, but they can also pose some serious health risks, particularly for those who have respiratory problems and asthma.

Mould spores are known to cause allergic responses, skin sensitivities, nose and throat inflammation and soreness, coughing, sneezing, itchy and red eyes, and similar.