95-year-old London woman unable to use breathing apparatus due to constant flooding at home | Housing

A 95-year-old woman receiving palliative care is unable to use a ventilator because of a power outage caused by persistent flooding in her townhouse.

Aasabu Laher who lives in Clapham South London, bedridden, blind and with organ failure. She receives end-of-life care in the home she shares with her three children, who have learning difficulties.

But Laher’s family says the home floods monthly, causing power outages — and that they first flagged the problem a year and a half ago. The flooding, which began more than 30 years ago, is due in part to numerous tree roots damaging the exterior sewer.

“They tanked [the application of a coating] around the walls in the basement many years ago. But … the problem returned. It destroys the foundation of the property and the main electricity is out with a lot of water. With time, the foundation will become soft and the building may collapse,” Laher’s grandson Maajid Patel said.

He added that the council sends a company to drain the water after a flood, although the company does not always arrive. However, he claims that there was no attempt to fix the cause of the flood.

“We said if you can’t take care of fixing the leak in the basement, at least move the electrical points upstairs. [to avoid power outages]” he said.

On May 3, the water level in the basement reached 73 cm, which led to a complete blackout in the entire house. That meant Lacher couldn’t use the machine that helps her breathe. All refrigerated products have also gone bad. Her family called the council at midday, her grandson said, but “nobody turned up” to deal with the problem after an initial assessment at 2pm.

“I called Lambeth again at 7pm to sort it out and was told by two colleagues that they had to come in for repairs. By this point, my grandmother was struggling to breathe because she had not had access to an oxygen tank all day,” said Patel.

“Unfortunately, as we expected, no one came and at 11pm we had to put my grandmother in a taxi and drag her out of the house to our house in Streatham so we could provide her with electricity for her oxygen machine. We had to use makeshift beds because of the neglect of the Lambeth renovations,” he added.

Patel says he had a hard time getting “sympathy” from Lambeth about their situation. “This has been an ongoing cycle for almost a year and a half now and unfortunately we have received minimal support from the Lambeth renovation. We are completely exhausted, broken and tired of Lambeth’s continued lack of care.’

A 95-year-old woman pays rent on a property while living there with her three children who have learning difficulties. They are taken care of by family support and relatives, who also regularly come to help.

A spokesman for Lambeth Council said it accepted its service had “fallen below normal standards on this occasion”, apologizing “to Mrs Laher and her family for any disappointment and inconvenience this may have caused”.

They added: “The council has carried out a number of repairs to address leaks at this facility. But it turned out to be a difficult problem – for example, a review of CCTV cameras revealed that several tree roots had damaged an external drain.

“Our contractors will be on site tomorrow to drain the basement and address the long-term drainage issues in the coming days. The power supply will be restored after it is checked and analyzed.”

In February, the housing ombudsman warned Lambeth council needed to improve after five recent incidents, including a vulnerable child left without vital repairs. The ombudsman expressed concern that his actions at times showed disrespect to residents and residents empathy was lacking for the consequences of service failures.