Pauline Graham outside her home

A WOMAN says she is living in a nightmare as soaking wet windows and walls wreak havoc on her home.

In the latest illustration of a damp and mould crisis in housing emerging across London, Pauline Graham, who lives in a housing association flat in Canonbury, said: “The other day I pulled shoes from under my bed and they were white – they’re meant to be black, but they’re white – they’re covered in mould.

“If the mould can get through a box beneath my bed, what’s the state of the air we’re breathing like? It really shattered my nerves.”

She lives in Petherton Road with her daughter, who suffers from severe asthma. The flat is managed by Peabody.

Ms Graham said: “My windows get soaking wet. Especially the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room, they’re literally soaking wet, they are just dripping water. My daughter sometimes has to use clothes to mop it up. They keep saying it’s just normal condensation, but I open my windows for at least three hours a day.”

She said windows have been like this since 2021, and led to mould on the walls below.

Peabody repaired her walls, but the source of the problem remains unresolved.

The mould on Ms Graham’s shoes

“I’m concerned about mine and my daughter’s health,” said Ms Graham, who suffers from a number of health conditions including a serious heart condition and arthritis.

“The contractors come and they tell me, ‘this is damp, this is this,’ and they feed that information back to Peabody. But then, the job that I’m told needs to be done never gets done.

“You always have to just keep chasing them, and then, when you get through to them, they can’t find the job number. I swear they just take it off the system or something, I just don’t understand.”

Ms Graham moved into her flat in 2016, needing to move to a more accessible home. Since then, the litany of problems she’s had is endless, including mushrooms growing from the ceiling, damp in the walls and floods from overflowing pipes.

She and her family have lived in four different Family Mosaic or Peabody homes – the two companies merged in 2018 – since the late 1990s.

“I don’t know if I’m just unlucky or are all their properties like this, but I’m tired – just completely drained.”

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “We are sorry for the time it has taken to carry out repairs in Ms Graham’s home.

“We are visiting her this week to fix window and door frames, install air vents, and to investigate a leak from an upstairs flat. Any further repairs will be carried out as soon as possible.

“The safety of our residents and their homes is important to us, and we have been in touch with Ms Graham to apologise and offer additional support.”