Disabled single mother describes 'torture' of living in sewage-covered Tottenham flat

Haringey Council apologised and offered compensation to Gvantsa Chkharchkhalia but her family remains stuck in hotel following ordeal, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Gvantsa Chkharchkhalia in her hotel room and (inset) Stellar House in Tottenham

A disabled single mum has described the “torture” of living in a flat with leaking sewage as she waited for Haringey Council to find her a home.

Gvantsa Chkharchkhalia said sewage was leaking into her flat in a Tottenham tower block for months, soaking the carpets and causing an “intolerable smell” after she had already endured a year of water leaks.

She claimed the council “neglected” her and her children – Helen aged ten and eight-year-old Nicholas – and although the council has since apologised to her and paid compensation, Gvantsa said alternative properties being offered are not suitable because of her disability.

The 41-year-old became disabled after falling and fracturing her spine in 2010 and falling again in 2019, and she uses sticks to help her walk. She also has post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, arthritis and depression.

Now housed in a hotel in Ilford, Gvantsa fears her family could be out on the streets if she is classed as “intentionally homeless” by the council after not accepting the new properties they were offering.

Of her experience living at Stellar House in Tottenham High Road, Gvantsa said: “Wastewater was coming for a year, and then sewage the last few months. I just didn’t know it was sewage until I saw poop coming from the carpet.

“Sewage water was coming right next to my sink. I was reporting it and nobody was doing anything.”

Gvantsa said that after accepting a duty to house her the council moved her into temporary accommodation at Stellar House in April 2021. Her first year there was “okay” but, from June last year, leaks started appearing and, in August, they started spreading until “all the rooms were affected, with wet floors, fungus, [and] mould”.

“It was very difficult to tolerate in winter time, this wet floor,” Gvantsa said. “It was impossible to warm up the property, and it really affected our joints.

“My child was screaming from pain, ‘mummy can you help me?’ – and both of them, and me as well, had horrible nausea. Every morning my daughter was crying ‘mummy, can you help?’ I said ‘I cannot’.”

Gvantsa said the lights in the flat were not working for more than a year after water entered the electrical fittings, meaning she had to use temporary lights or lamps, and the water in the wirings also posed a safety risk to the family.

During the last couple of months at Stellar House – Gvantsa finally moved out at the end of July this year – sewage was leaking throughout the property. “It was an intolerable smell,” she said.

Gvantsa likened her family’s experience at Stellar House to “torture” and living “in a deadly prison”.

“It caused me lots of anxiety and stress,” she said. “I cannot sleep anymore. Even now, from anxiety I am just sleeping a couple of hours – from anxiety, and pain as well.

“I knew how dangerous it was for our lives to be there, and just everyone neglected [us]. Either they were not responding to emails and telephone calls, or they were bouncing me like a ping-pong ball. It was just very, very difficult.”

Gvantsa said she contacted the council’s children’s services department but was told it is “nothing to do with us” and to try the housing department instead. But when she highlighted that it was a child protection issue and a “life-threatening” situation, she said a manager contacted her and tried to move her case forward.

After three weeks, she said she was offered a two-bedroom place in Dagenham or the hotel in Ilford. But when Gvantsa said she did not know anyone in Dagenham she was told that if she did not move, children’s services would get involved “because you are putting children in danger”.

Gvantsa said children’s services then intervened on her behalf and pointed out that her medical needs meant she should not be moved to Dagenham or stay too long in a hostel.

After she contacted Connected Communities Haringey and the tabloid press, Gvantsa said she was offered a privately rented home in St Ann’s Road and advised by a council officer not to refuse it.

But Gvantsa said the property had “huge staircases” that she would be unable to manage. She said an occupational therapist told her it might take months for a lift to be installed, especially in privately rented accommodation.

Gvantsa said she was also offered a ground-floor property in White Hart Lane, but it had a rotten floor and an “extremely small” box room of around three square metres that her children would have to share. She said the kitchen was also too small to use with her disabilities.

Since 31st July, Gvantsa and her two children have been sharing a tiny room in a hotel in Ilford. There are three beds, a fridge by the window, a kettle and a small bathroom.

Cooking facilities are in a small communal kitchen shared by others living in the hotel. But Gvantsa cannot use the kitchen because of her conditions – it is often busy at mealtimes, and she is unable to stand for long periods because of her disability – so the family has been living on takeaways. She is unsure how she will arrange schooling for her children or access a GP.

Gvantsa said the council had offered her £807 compensation for her time at Stellar House but “no amount of money” could compensate for the stress and she felt the offer was “sarcastic”.

She said: “I just cannot fight so much, just to fight to be in a safe and clean place where we will not get more disabled, or where there is no threat for my children and me to be further traumatised.”

Sarah Williams, the council’s cabinet member for housing services, private renters and planning, said: “We fully understand the concerns expressed by the resident and the impact these housing issues are having on the family. The council has apologised for the mistakes made, including taking too long to fix the leak at the Stellar House property, and compensation has been paid.

“I appreciate temporary hotel accommodation outside of the borough is not ideal, but with limited resources and options we are doing what we can to help those most in need. Last year alone we received more than 4,400 homelessness applications, one of the highest in London, yet there is a chronic shortage of family-sized accommodation in the private sector for temporary accommodation.

“We are committed to delivering 3,000 new council homes, but we need a proper injection of government funding to construct the total number that families in temporary accommodation and on our waiting list need and deserve.

“The family has been offered a ground floor flat in the borough, which they have refused. We will continue working with them and do our very best to find accommodation in line with their needs, and which they are happy with.”

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