‘WERA ended our leak nightmare’ says grateful Jewell House family

Mr and Mrs Muhith in their new bathroom

A family living on Weir Estate have spoke of their gratitude to Weir Estate Residents Association for ending their year long leaking ceiling and subsequent damp conditions nightmare in their home. The family from Jewell House endured months of water penetrating through light fittings and ceilings from the faulty roof above their home.

Mr and Mrs Muhith along with their three sons experienced major water leaks and damp throughout the property, which had caused damage to plaster work and personal possessions, despite reporting the leak to Lambeth Living on numerous occasions. Unfortunately the family were left to live in appalling conditions as the works failed to get sorted out.

Their bathroom and seperate toilet was left practically unusable with water dripping on their heads from the water saturated ceiling and were left too frightened to use either the toilet or bathroom for fear of electrocuting themselves as water continuously filled the light casing and dripped from light fittings.

Mr Muhith explains “We fought hard to get this resolved, but they [Lambeth Living] didn’t appear to want to know, they kept saying we don’t have the money, we kept being told people would come but they never did.”

After months of trying to get Lambeth Living to carry out their works, Mr & Mrs Muhith approached Weir Estate Residents Association in desperation to see an end to the damp conditions in their home which had began to affect their six year old son’s health.  Mr Muhith went on to add “ We needed help and thought someone must be able to do something so we decided to turn to WERA, though we didn’t know how far they could help us, but they did,

Damage to wall in bedroom following water penetration

they went further; particularly our association Chair, Dave who took it so far everyone jumped, If we didn’t have Weir Estate Residents Association, we would be in serious trouble, nothing for us would have been done, nothing would have been solved.”

Chair, Dave McEvoy personally took up the family’s plight after they attended the WERA meeting and set to work to ensure the awful conditions were put right within weeks.

Thanks to the involvement of WERA the family’s home was re-plastered and a brand new decent homes bathroom was fitted along with a new toilet and light fittings after a fault in the roof above their property was found to be the cause and fixed.  Damp had begun to seep into other rooms such as the hallway and bedrooms which again were all treated much to the family’s delight.

Chair Dave McEvoy said “It really was appalling to see the amount of water damage and appalling conditions in the Muhith’s home when I visited. I am delighted now that we at WERA have managed to get this resolved and they can now enjoy their home once again. We as an association are here to improve not only the estate but the lives of residents and their families. In this case I am pleased Mr and Mrs Muhith turned to us and as have now succeeded in getting their home back.”

The new decent homes bathroom.

Mr and Mrs Muhith who have lived on the estate for thirteen years had reported the issues and obtained job reference numbers via the Lambeth Living call centre. They have since attended numerous meetings to support WERA “We would like to really thank Weir Estate Residents Association, particularly Dave ,for helping us and encourage other residents who may be in a similar situation to come to the meetings and everyone should support the association by attending the meetings and talk about the issues that affect them.” added Mr Muhith.

Weir Estate Residents Association meeting are held every second tuesday of the month at The Weir Link where key issues affecting the estate and residents are discussed and tackled by members of the executive committee. WERA has overseen drastic improvements in residents living conditions such as new windows and doors to every property as well as improvements to services and relations with Lambeth, Lambeth Living and contractors.

If you’d like to get involved and help Weir Estate Residents Association, you can find out more about the association here or contact us.