A MUM claims she is living in a “constant” state of fear after a ceiling collapsed in her “death trap” home.
Sonia Rowlands claims she has been “begging” for repairs to be carried out on her property in Caernarfon, North Wales, for more than two years.
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The mum-of-seven claims that her living room ceiling collapsed in June 2020 and took a year to get repaired.
But Sonia is terrified that it will collapse a second time, after cracks and holes started appearing five months after it was first fixed.
She claims that Adra, the housing association in charge of her property, only attached several wooden planks to the ceiling but haven’t offered a permanent fix.
Sonia said “temporary fixes” inside the property are affecting her family life, as she is concerned for their welfare but also feels unable to “make a house a home.”
Speaking to NorthWalesLive: “I’ve been begging them for two and a half years to come here and fix my house but there’s still so many problems.
“There’s damp in every room, there’s cracks in the ceiling and outside, the walls and ceilings are collapsing – the entire house is falling apart.
“Two years ago someone came here to look at a crack in my ceiling and they said it would be fine for a couple of weeks, but the next morning my partner got up and found the living room ceiling had collapsed.
“All I kept thinking is what if one of my kids got up in the night to go to the toilet? That could’ve killed them.
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“I’m not sleeping at night now because I keep thinking I’ll go downstairs and my living room ceiling’s going to be on the floor. It’s a nightmare.”
But the housing association states they were only notified of the latest issues in November 2021, and insisted safety of tenants is a “priority.”
Sonia claims that her home, which is filled with mould and damp, is affecting her family’s well-being – despite her chasing the repairs.
Two of Sonia’s seven children have autism and she says she’s on “constant watch” for hazards inside the home.
Sonia added: “To be honest I’m ashamed of this house and I feel like a terrible mum that my kids have to live here and sleep here and the council will do nothing.”
An Adra spokesman said: “Providing good customer service and making sure our customers feel safe and comfortable in their home is a priority for us.
“We were first notified about the issues involving this property in November 2021.
“We then arranged an inspection during December 2021 but as the date wasn’t convenient for our customer we rescheduled the inspection for January 2022.
“Since then, we have carried out work on the ceiling following a leaking pipe to make sure it’s safe for our customer, we have also carried out an inspection at the customer’s home and have identified the work required which will be completed in line with our usual repairs timescales, by May 2022.
“During March this year, we have received further repair requests from our customer which we are looking into and have arranged a further inspection this month.
“We will of course make sure that the work is completed to a high standard so that our customer can enjoy their home.”
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