A man who has been living in a hotel for the past 11 months says he feels he is being ‘bullied’ to go back into an ‘unsafe’ flat
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A disabled man has said that he is 'terrified' to return to his Newcastle flat as he fears it will make his poor health even worse.
Stephen Bennett, 54, has been living in a city centre hotel for the past 11 months while his landlord, Places for People, carried out repairs to his home near the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He has now been given a deadline of August 17 to move back into his home before Places for People stop covering the bill for his hotel stay.
However Stephen says that the work which he originally complained about has not been carried out and his flat has been left "like a bomb site" and is covered in dust, which he says will make his chronic asthma and COPD worse. And he is calling on Places for People to consider the issues he and his neighbours are still facing, even after months of upheaval and stress.
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Stephen, who says he has previously suffered three nervous breakdowns, says his flat is "not fit for human habitation", and claims the work has affected both his upstairs and downstairs neighbours in the Grade II listed building, which was converted to flats in the 1980s.
Places for People have said they take their tenants' concerns about their homes "seriously".
Stephen said he first called Places for People out in 2015 when his kitchen floor appeared to drop and his flat shook violently when he used his washing machine. He claims that a Places for People surveyor told him that the joists under his kitchen floor were smaller than the should be, which meant that the floor was not stable.
"I was told that the job was too big to be done, but the problems continued," said Stephen. "The ceiling shook so badly when I used my washing machine, and the shaking means that all of the dust, fibreglass and gypsum under the floorboards made me ill.
"I put up with it until June last year, when I moved out as it was damaging my health. I was suffocating on the dust that was being thrown up and it caused constant asthma attacks.
"The dust was gypsum and fibre glass, both of which can be fatal to asthmatics. I moved back in September, complained again, and that was the point I was moved in to a hotel and I've been here ever since," said Stephen. "When Places for People investigated, they found that a supporting beam should have been fitted when the house was converted to flats, and this is the work that they have done.
"So the issue with my kitchen floor is still there and the dust and gypson under the floor are still triggering asthma attacks. I have been back to the flat a few times since the work was carried out, and it has made me ill.
"When I turned the washing machine on, the shaking was worse than it had ever been before. All four walls and the windows were shaking. It was frightening and my neighbours were badly affected.
"My microwave almost fell off the bench, all my washing up fell off the sink and my ornaments in the living room were spinning. The whole flat is unstable and in my opinion still unfit for human habitation. Cracks are appearing in his plaster and my upstairs neighbours was knocked off her feet because the vibration is so bad.
"We were promised by Places for People that our flats would be deep cleaned when the work was finished, but that has not happened. My downstairs neighbour has watermarks on her ceiling after the repair and is constantly in tears because she has not had a deep clean either."
Stephen claims that he was told by Places for People that he could stay in the hotel until the work was undertaken, but he argues that this has not happened, because the work that has been done is not the problem that he initially complained about.
"I feel I have been bullied, harassed and intimidated by Places for People to move back into the flat," said Stephen. "They were aware that I was suffering a mental breakdown and used that to try and bully me into moving into a over-55s flat in Kenton, moving me away from my support networks in central Newcastle for no apparent reason other than the cost of the hotel. This is psychological abuse.
"This has been almost 14 months of sheer hell. From the outside, the flat is lovely and I love the area it's in, but I am now to the point where they have beaten me down as far as I can go. I just want the work to be completed properly to the joists in his flat or I want to move to another property in the same area."
A Places for People spokesperson said: “We take all concerns about our customers’ homes seriously and work closely with them to work through their queries and to make sure their homes are safe and secure.”
But Stephen said: "I feel they are putting my life in danger by returning me to my home at this point due to the fact they have not fixed the root cause. I am at present trying to get a solicitor who can take this over because I can't possibly deal with any more.
"I understand it they have a duty to repair such structural work and have declined to do so. I really don't know what to do or who to turn to. I can't move back to somewhere that is quite evidently unsafe."
