'My cries about flooded home hell have been ignored because of my age'

Chelsea Gray and her three young children have been living in a Knowes Housing flat in Orbiston Drive in Clydebank since July 2018 and were first hit with flooding eight weeks after beginning life there.

The ongoing saga has negatively impacted the 30-year-old's mental health with the latest round of flooding occurring last Friday, leaving her without power to her bathroom.

And the frustrated local insists she feels her repeated cries for help to Knowes haven’t been listened to because of her age.

The light in the bathroom has been taken out due to safety fears (Image: Tom Grant)

Speaking exclusively to Glasgow Times during a visit to the home, Chelsea said: “I just feel, because I am young, they are just trying to palm me off all the time, and I have just had enough now.

“When I first moved in, I loved it, I loved all the neighbours and everything about it.

“But since all the problems and with them (Knowes) not willing to help, I hate living here. It has really got to my mental health.

“My kids have picked up on it, I’ve just got no motivation and I am definitely not putting any more money into the house.”

Chelsea – who admits she has a good relationship with her neighbour above despite being the source of the incoming water – claims the previous tenant of her flat had similar problems, even having to get a new ceiling.

But she says she wasn’t told about the problem when she took up the tenancy and only discovered issues when she found left behind paperwork.

Chelsea and her kids have had to use a torch to light the bathroom (Image: Tom Grant)

“They never told me until I was actually in the property,” Chelsea continued.

“It’s been constant.

“It has really got to my mental health. I don’t even want to stay here anymore.

“I have told them that, but they are just brushing me off.”

The family – which includes a two-year-old, a five-year-old and an eight-year-old – has struggled with living with no bathroom light this week, as the floodwater forced the removal of the bulb due to fears of an electrical fire.

But she did thank contractors from West Dunbartonshire Council who appeared over the weekend to try and help with the ongoing concerns.

Chelsea first found her bathroom was leaking eight weeks after she first moved in (Image: Tom Grant)

Chelsea added: “On Saturday I woke up and my floor was swimming with water.

"I phoned out of hours and West Dunbartonshire Council came out and they were brilliant, they told me it was shocking how I had been left all night without a light in the toilet with three young children.”

The problem was first identified as an issue with the bathtub in the flat above before attention turned to an issue with the toilet.

Despite workers going out to fix it, the flooding continued, with a snapped pipe also blamed.

Knowes responded to the claims made by Chelsea when they were put to them by the Glasgow Times.

CEO Erica Davidson said: “As a community-based social housing provider we treat all our customers with respect and recognise and respond to their individual needs. Our equalities commitment is to embrace diversity and promote equal opportunities for all.

“We take water ingress in our tenants' homes very seriously and our contractors responded promptly in this instance to fix the leak.

“We believe the repairs required are now fully completed and our maintenance and repairs officers are following this up with our tenant and contractors to ensure all is well at the property.

“Our repairs history for this property shows three other cases of water ingress since 2019; these have all been for different reasons and each has been dealt with very quickly by Knowes HA.

“We are currently addressing the tenant's complaint through our complaints policy and procedure and we can offer support through our housing staff and tenancy sustainment officer.”