A disabled couple living in an Aberdeen council house were left without a wet room light for five weeks after a botched repair job on the flat upstairs caused a leak.
Scott Anderson, 63, noticed the light in the wet room of his flat in Northfield starting to fill up with water in July, and immediately called the council to get the hazard sorted.
When a worker arrived and disconnected the light, it became clear that the issue lay with a leak that was coming through the ceiling.
It had been a month since council workers had entered his upstairs neighbour’s flat and attempted a repair on the bathroom floor that sits directly above his own, and he suspected there was a link.
‘If they’d done the job in the first place, they wouldn’t have extra work’
What followed was a five-week wait for council workers to get into the upstairs flat and fix the floor they had already tried to sort in the spring, during which Mr Anderson and his family had to use a reading lamp from their living room – with a wire running along the floor – to light up the wet room.
Mr Anderson said: “I have a disabled wife who needs a wheelchair to get about unless she’s getting help from the carers.
“Now I’ve got a roof with water damage, it’s a wet room with no window, so I’ve got a light that the wife uses to read her book when she’s sitting in the living room in the bathroom with the electric wire trailing on the floor, which is a trip hazard.”
He added: “It’s not very safe. Aberdeen Council are not doing their jobs properly.
“If they’d done the job in the first place, when it first happened, they wouldn’t have all this extra work to do.”
‘Danger right, left and centre’
Mr Anderson and his wife Jeannie both have multiple sclerosis. She also has dementia, while he has a string of health issues including a heart condition and arthritis, and they live with their son James and daughter Paula.
He said: “My daughter works in childcare, so she has to have a shower before she goes to work and when she comes straight out the school, because she works in nurseries.
“So it’s danger right, left and centre.”
His upstairs neighbour, a woman called Natalia who lives with her three children, said she was unable to give the council workers access to her flat as they did not call ahead and she had been too busy when they showed up.
Apology from council for inconvenience
The workers finally gained access earlier this week, and the issue has now been resolved.
An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: “We needed the flooring to be renewed in the upstairs flat first to permanently fix the issue before carrying out repair works and reconnecting the light in the downstairs flat.
“We could not reconnect the light downstairs until the works for the water issues with the wet room upstairs had been finished.
“The safety of our customers is a high priority for Aberdeen City Council and we do apologise for any inconvenience that may have been suffered by our customers.
“Any further repair works that are required will be discussed and arranged for a mutually suitable date with our tenants.”
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