Northampton mum sent to hospital multiple times by 'disgraceful' mould that made her ceiling collapse

A mother-of-two from Northampton has spoken out after a leak filled her home with mould for months, culminating in a collapsed ceiling and several trips to hospital for breathing difficulties.

Adele Batchelor, of Campion Court, Bellinge, said the leak began around 18 months ago. Despite multiple visits from plumbers, water continued to build in the ceiling.

After three months, the load became too much and the ceiling beneath her bathroom collapsed.

Inside the wall was revealed thick patches of black mould, and even mushrooms, which had taken root there because of the damp created by the leak.

Adele claims there was a second collapse a few days later that hit her in the back while she was doing laundry. She said that you could 'see the strain on the plaster' long before it collapsed and had made complaints to her housing provider before it happened.

The mum said she was suffering from breathing difficulties caused by the mould and had multiple courses of antibiotics. She said that after more than five visits to hospital, the limit had been reached that caused her to speak out.

She said: "I've started getting breathing problems again. All of my ribs hurt, which usually indicates that I've got another chest infection. The next step is vomiting.

"There are times where I'm basically bed-ridden. The kids try to take care of me but they don't know how to deal with this.

"My son is autistic as well, and he has panic attacks almost every night because he's scared the ceiling will fall and hit his mum again.

"It's just disgraceful that they could leave it in that state."

Adele's home is managed by Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) and the organisation said they were told about the ceiling collapse on September 28 and came out the same day to ensure there was no further threat to Adele or her family.

Each complaint was reportedly attended to on the same day. Yet the issues continued nonetheless.

Gary Duckmanton, assistant director for property maintenance and compliance said: “We’re sorry for the issues Ms Batchelor is having, and for the upset caused by the leak issues. We have made repeated visits to her home to fix the leak in the bathroom, the first being in October 2020.

"The ceiling repair is booked for the December 1, and we will make sure this is redecorated once fixed.

"We are sorry that Ms Batchelor has had to report the leak to us on multiple occasions, and I am investigating the work that was done to make sure the quality of repairs met our standards.

"A housing repairs manager has been in touch with her on Friday (November 19), and will be visiting her on Monday (November 22) to check the ceiling is still safe, the leak has been fixed, and they will also investigate the damp and mould issues as we weren’t aware of them before.

"I will also ask them to visit again once the ceiling has been repaired to check the work has been completed and to make sure there are no further problems.”

Efforts are ongoing to rectify the situation.