Falkirk Council housing repairs delay force mum and month-old baby to live in property with no ceilings

Allanah Verhees, 23, and her son Hudson were staying at her aunts when she got in touch with The Falkirk Herald this week – at her wit’s end with the council over the time it was taking them to repair her home in Dochart Place and fearful of the adverse impact the cold and damp surroundings were having on her baby boy.

She said: “For the last year I have been battling with the council to fix my ceilings as they’ve been like this since I moved in. Now it’s resulted in them taking my living

room ceiling down, leaving electrical lights just dangling.

"The only thing holding my ceiling up was the two side walls. I was told someone would be out the next day to sort it – but I waited all day and no one showed."

The council supposedly deemed Allanah’s living room “unsafe” so she and Hudson had been spending their days in her bedroom, trying to keep warm and escape the drafts during some of the coldest days of 2022.

Allanah said: “The cold was so bad I was spending over £100 a week to keep it warm for Hudson."

She said the council told her they could not get someone out to fix the premises until January 11 at the earliest, but after Allanah contacted The Falkirk Herald the local authority stated it was going to have the repairs done this week.

As for the delays in carrying out the works, a Falkirk Council spokesman said: “New work orders have been put in place over the past few days to carry our work on both the bathroom and living room ceilings.

“Due to burst pipes across the area, these orders may have been delayed as we have prioritised other tenants in greater need. We have had a number of problems with the tenant accessing the property in the past so planned inspections had to be cancelled.”