Tenants left in misery because council did not pay workmen

FAMILY'S BATHROOM OUT OF BOUNDS FOR SIX WEEKS, BUT AUTHORITY IS NOW ACTING

- By RUCSANDRA MOLDOVEANU

A FAMILY was left without a working bathroom for six weeks after workmen left repairs unfinished because a council didn't pay them.

After an involved and stressful wrangle, Nottingham City Council is hoping to have completed extensive repairs this week, to the relief of Anthony Heward and his family, who have lived in their council home in Beechdale since November 2015.

The 44-year-old father-of-two said the roof started leaking in 2020. When the city council took no action, Mr Heward contacted solicitors for a housing disrepair claim last year.

He won and the council was ordered to carry out repairs within 180 days.

But the deadline expired on October 16 last year without the work being done.

Mr Heward said: "My roof has been leaking all these years. When we had torrential rain coming down, me and my wife were holding towels against walls in the upstairs bedrooms.

"One night five years ago, my daughter came to tell us her mattress and bed were soaking wet and when my wife went into the room there was a slow running waterfall on one of the walls.

"She has lived in one corner of her bedroom all this time because the other corner leaks."