Ms Lord’s dream turned into a nightmare shortly after she was approached at her home by a door-knocker advertising cavity wall insulation that would be delivered as part of a government scheme in 2014.
Earlier this month, the Government said homes fitted with solid wall insulation under two inherited schemes – ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme since 2022 – 30,000 had been impacted faulty installs.
Just a few months after the insulation was installed, she noticed wet patches on walls around her home. By March these had developed into areas of black mould, particularly in the front bedroom which belonged to her eldest son, then eight-years-old.
“This mould was actually showing up round about where the steel girder actually was at the front of the property. I just thought it might just be settling down.
Members of the SSB Law Victims Support Group have been plagued by black mould for years (Photo: Supplied)
Ms Lord washed the affected areas down with bleach and water, but the problem persisted – and it was not long before others emerged.
“And when I contacted the company, they just told me that this was ‘perfectly natural’,” she said.
‘It was running down the walls’
“It was running down the walls. It was just wet through all the time,” she said. “I had to replace the floors in the bedroom because they were no-good because they were wet through and, obviously, it’s not safe.”
“It was colder inside my bedroom than what it was outside,” she said. “It will have obviously, made my energy bills go up higher rather than reducing them.
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When she for a third time to get back in contact with the firm that installed the insulation, Heatwave Energy Systems, she was unable to. The company went into liquidation.
She now regularly washes the walls of her home down with bleach to keep the black mould at bay, uses dehumidifiers and keeps windows open for long periods.
“My house is probably worth about £75,000, £80,000 and they told me that it would probably be £128,000 to correct the damage.”
“I’m a single parent, so I don’t even have a partner that I could lean on, and I certainly don’t have the money to put the house right,” she said. “I’m just stuck with the house, and it’s soul destroying.”
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Read More“All I want is my property to be put back to the position it was before that cavity wall insulation went in.”
“The Government has to do something about it. This is putting people’s lives at risk. Damp and mould is a killer,” Ms Magdalene said, adding she believes at least two people’s deaths have been linked to the scandal.
The group, which blames inadequate monitoring of the government-backed grants, said victims have also experienced respiratory problems, skin conditions, and seen pre-existing health conditions worsen.
‘The people who installed it, they should be punished’
Habiba Ali’s mother was approached by a door-knocker advertising cavity wall insulation in 2017.
A couple of months after the installation, Ms Ali, who was living with her mother at the time, said they started noticing black mould.
“The house was really, really cold,” she said. Soon after, Ms Ali and her mother developed a persistent cough and breathing difficulties.
Her mother, who relies on her state pension did not pay for the insulation to be fitted, but now faces higher energy bills to keep her home warm.
Ms Ali said because her mother is unable to afford to heat her entire home, she refrains from putting the central heating on and only heats one room when she uses it.
She has since moved into her own property which now has a broken boiler. Ms Ali said she was told she would only be eligible for a free boiler if insulation upgrades were made to her home. But she refuses to have them because of her previous experience.
It means she has to take hot showers at her mum’s and use electric heaters to warm her home.
“We just try to heat the one room up and as soon as the room gets hot then we just switch it off for a while, then if it gets cold, we put it back on,” she said.
The i Paper contacted the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero for comment.
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