How a mum won £2.5k damages from landlord after black mould issues

A mum who took on her landlord and won after toxic mould made her home a “living nightmare” has revealed how she was forced to buy 20 air fresheners a month to try to mask the unbearable smell.

Sara-Jae Gumbley, 36, who lives in Eastbourne, told i she endured harrowing living conditions at her council property home and was unable to use her downstairs toilet for three years after it was ravaged by a drainpipe leak, making the toilet unusable due to severe damp.

She says the smell caused by the damp and mould caused a putrid odour to permeate through their home, leaving her resorting to buying around 20 air fresheners every month in her desperation to mask the unpleasant smell.

“The mould took over our lives and the smell was unbearable,” Ms Gumbley told i. “It was a horrible, damp and musty smell and it hit you as soon as you walked in the door.

“I felt totally helpless and was too ashamed and embarrassed to have people around. I wouldn’t let my children have their friends around either as the smell was so horrible and we only had the upstairs toilet for people to use.

“I was concerned their friends might touch something by accident and I felt embarrassed by the state the house was in.

“We couldn’t use the downstairs toilet and it looked like it had suffered a huge fire. It was just black with mould and it always had a puddle on the floor.

“I was constantly buying air fresheners and was having to buy four or five a week. I would get plug in ones and have them on the highest settings, I’d get cans of air freshener and spray them everywhere and I had oil burners and diffusers on.

“I tried everything to try to mask the awful smell, but nothing really worked and deep down, I knew that wasn’t a solution.”

Ms Gumbley says the staircase in her home acted as a breeding ground for the black fungus as it spread around the house.

Determined to protect the health of her children, Ms Gumbley told i she reported the issue to her landlord Lewes and Eastbourne Councils, but says her pleas for immediate action were in vain.

“It is a council rented property which I have been living in since 2018 and I first contacted them about the issue in November 2019.

“At first, I thought it was the toilet leaking, but they came round and said it wasn’t coming from the toilet. The council did send people out a few times, but they would come, take a look around and then say: ‘We’ll have to get a surveyor to come and look at it’. But the surveyor never came. Sometimes, I’d wait in all day and no one would turn up.”

Ms Gumbley, who lives with her three children aged 13, 11 and five, says the challenges of sharing the upstairs toilet between four of them caused problems for the family.

“One bathroom between four of you, especially when there’s children, just isn’t enough,” she said. “If there was someone in the bath, you’d have to wait.

“My youngest occasionally had accidents on the stairs. It was terrible.”

Frustrated by the failure of the landlord to resolve the issues, Ms Gumbley instructed Veritas Solicitors to launch a legal case against Lewes and Eastbourne Councils.

After months of legal battles, the specialist housing disrepair firm helped secure £2,500 in damages and repairs costing around £3,000 have now been carried out on the property.

With just one window in her home that still needs replacing as the outstanding work, Ms Gumbley says it is life changing for the family to now have a proper home which is free of the unpleasant mould odour.

“We now have a functioning downstairs toilet after more than three years of having to put up with awful conditions,” she said. “We can now invite people around again without feeling ashamed.

“The mould has now gone and been treated and it has been repainted. Everything looks nice and it smells fresh so we are happy now.”

Ms Gumbley is urging other people living in similar situations to seek help. “Don’t suffer in silence,” she said. “I didn’t want to sue the landlord, but it was the last option as I wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy home.”

Beatriz Garcia, the fee earner at Veritas who ran the case, said: “Unfortunately, this is a situation that we encounter very often.

“We do see a lot of cases in which clients have been complaining about issues.”

She added that the documentation they received from the landlord showed that Ms Gumbley did complain persistently about the issues but essentially, they weren’t heard by anyone, meaning she had to resort to suing her landlord.

“The compensation is a bonus. The main priority is for the clients to live in a habitable home, which unfortunately is not always the case,” said Ms Garcia.

“But at least people do have these channels available in which we can help clients get the repairs needed done to their property.”

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Faraz Farzal, managing partner of Veritas Solicitors, said: “This case reinforces our resolve to combat substandard living conditions and advocate for tenants’ rights.

“It serves as a reminder to all landlords that they have a fundamental duty to provide safe and habitable homes.”

i approached Lewes and Eastbourne Councils about Ms Gumbley’s case, but they declined to comment.