Water leaking into her 10-year-old son’s bedroom has put a dampener on a wonderful Christmas, says an Aberdeen mother-of-six.
Enya Stewart has been riddled with stress after water started leaking into her flat on Park Road in Aberdeen just days after Christmas.
The water ingress is likely due to the severe bad weather in Aberdeen during Storm Gerrit, which brought torrential rain and vicious winds.
The property has four bedrooms, one occupied by Ms Stewart’s autistic 10-year-old son, Cameron, who had to move due to the stench of dampness and mould.
Due to the water leaking from the window, the carpet has become sodden, with Ms Stewart forced to throw out her son’s bed due to water damage.
The ordeal has left her very stressed, which she says has put a dampener on what was an amazing family Christmas.
She said: “I live near the beach, and the wind and rain can be quite bad up here, and we discovered that the window in my son’s bedroom was leaking.
“I phoned the city council and they said to call back on January 3 and that we should put a towel round it.
‘Very distressing’
“When I say it’s flooded, I mean the carpet is soaking, the windowsill is soaking, there is mould and damp going up the wall.
“I’ve had to rip wallpaper off, and I’ve had to bin my son’s bed because the damage was that bad.”
Ms Stewart was forced to move her son’s belongings to the other side of the room to prevent further damage.
Due to the water, she will likely need a new carpet and a new bed for her son.
Video footage taken by Ms Stewart shows a sodden carpet as well as a steady leak from the top of the wooden window frame.
There are also patches of mould along the skirting on the outer wall and the family has used towels to try and sop up the water.
Ms Stewart says the situation has been extremely stressful, especially for her son, Cameron, who doesn’t like change.
She said: “I’ve had to take him out of that bedroom, but he doesn’t like change and he has no understanding that he can’t be around that, he can’t go near that, and that’s it’s not safe for him.
“He has settled down, but at first it was quite distressing for him.”
The room ‘stinks of damp’
The worry for Ms Stewart is that she cannot use the room until the council come out to fix it, which she says will be weeks.
The situation has forced the family, which consists of two adults and six children, to negotiate sleeping arrangements.
Ms Stewart said the issue has caused a whole lot of stress she didn’t need and brought down the family’s spirits following a great Christmas.
She is now worried about paying for a new carpet and bed for her son, but all that will have to wait until the leak is fixed.
The day after the leak began, Ms Stewart said the room still “stinks of damp” and that she had opened the open to try and air it out. The window has stopped leaking for now.
Ms Stewart says she would have been happy for someone from the council to come and inspect the room to give say definitively if the room was safe to stay in for a child.
She hoped the issue would be deemed an emergency and warrant looking at it quickly, but that is not the case, so she will have to wait to contact the council.
An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: “Whilst we are unable to comment on individual cases, we can advise that we are progressing emergency housing repair requests throughout the festive period.
“Non-emergency requests can be reported online or by telephone when normal working hours resume on 3 January.”
Conversation