Tenant speaks out after house flooded with faeces and sewage

“When I saw him, my mind just went somewhere else. It was like when you think it can’t be real and you have to come to terms with it. Even to this day I am still in shock. I did one video and one more and then I broke down because I was like, “All my stuff is ruined now.”

Smith previously told the Big Issue how she came to the UK in 2013 when it became unsafe for her to stay in Jamaica when her mother was killed.

She was living in a hostel with her daughter before being helped out of homelessness with support from social enterprise Beam.

Since being housed in the privately rented Nine Elms flat in 2019, she has faced a number of problems, including the lack of an extractor fan and resulting problems with damp and mould, a rat infestation and the electricity supply.

Landlord Lara Olarewaju-Sholu told the Big Issue that the rats had gained access to the property following adjacent building work and were blocked following an inspection by environmental health officers.

She added that leaks in the flats above the property had caused electrical problems and her insurance contractor had advised her that the walls needed to dry out completely.

The situation got so bad that Smith was forced out of her house to couch surf with her family, until that arrangement meant she was forced back.

Olarewaju-Sholu claimed that Smith was offered temporary accommodation properties but rejected them.

“My aunt said you have to leave my house. They asked you to stay here for two weeks and now it’s eight months, so that’s why you have to go. I had nowhere else to go,” Smith said.

“Obviously, I’m going to try to make sure my kids are sorted more than I am. Every little thing I can think of to build my kids up and make sure they have a safe place to call home in the meantime. My daughter says, “Do we have to keep moving from one place to another, when will we have our own house?”. Every time he comes up with that, it’s difficult.

“The way we were treated was not fair. We were treated in a very bad way and it is inhumane treatment that we received.”

Following the sewage spill, Smith has now been given a place in temporary accommodation.

She added: “They said they were going to clear the property with the intention of me moving back in, in which I told them I would never move back into that property as there were too many problems.

“Without a stable home, I can’t go on with my life. I would like to have a stable home for me and my children, in a place suitable for all our needs.

“Even though we are here now, I don’t think London is the best place for my children to grow up. It must be outside. But with everything I’ve been through, I need my support system to help me.”

Smith also remains locked in a dispute with Olarewaju-Sholu until the landlord receives what she estimates is £15,000 in unpaid rent.

Homeowner’s insurance covered the rent while Smith was forced out when the property was “unlivable” between March 2023 and November 2023.

Olarewaju-Sholu wrote to Smith in December 2023 to inform her that she had to start paying rent again. She told the Big Issue that she had previously started repossession proceedings against Smith because he was in rent arrears.

Olarewaju-Sholu took Smith to court to claim £15,000 in unpaid rent. She also accused Smith of not allowing workers onto the property to carry out work, delaying the completion time.

“I am a mother of three, so I understand the importance of keeping the property in good condition, especially since Decoda has young children,” said Olarewaju-Sholu.

“I am not a professional landlord who rents many properties, nor a rogue landlord. I am a working woman with limited resources renting a property with the intention of trying to increase my income to support my family. Since my resources are limited, if I don’t receive the rent from the rental property, it puts me in a bind because I still have the mortgage to pay.

“I’m a tenant, Lambeth council owns the freehold, all the problems the flat has are down to Lambeth council, I didn’t cause the leak in the kitchen nor the faeces in the flat. It took Lambeth a while to find the cause of the leak and possibly the faecal problem will be fixed soon.

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The case comes after the Tenancy Reform Bill was not passed into law after Rishi Sunak called a general election. The Big Issue’s plan for change has urged the next government to finally end no-fault evictions to protect tenants living in poverty from facing homelessness.

Smith, who works with housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa and local MP candidate Florence Eshalomi, said tenants needed greater protection.

“We (need more protection) because being in private rented property we are more likely to become homeless and you are more afraid than someone who is in social housing,” she said.

“There is no form of protection for us. I just feel like these people are homeless, they’re desperate, we’ll put them through anything. And the owners know these things.

“If we are raising young and future leaders, they need stable homes.”

Eshalomi, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, said the case showed that tenants like Smith needed stronger rights.

“Decoda’s case is one of the most shocking I have had to deal with as an MP. The uninhabitable conditions in which she and her young children had to pay to live demonstrate the urgent need for better regulation of the private rental sector,” Eshalomi said.

“Everyone deserves a decent home and to be treated with dignity – the next government must take action to extend tenants’ rights so that no family can be treated the way Decoda and her children were again. I will campaign to make this a reality at the next election.”

Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa said: “Labor’s treatment of Decoda and her family was so appalling that I had to contact the regulator directly.

“This is not the first time that Lambeth have treated one of their local people in this way in their time of need. They treated Decoda with contempt and did more to try to avoid having to help her than actually doing anything meaningful to help. The whole council needs a reset and is by far the worst council I have come across in the UK.”

A spokesperson for Lambeth Council told the Big Issue that the shortage of social housing in the borough and across London means families and young people are “living in poor quality homes or struggling to keep a roof over their heads”.

More than 40,000 households are on the waiting list for a social home in Lambeth, while the council provides temporary accommodation for more than 3,9000 homeless families, including more than 5,0000 children.

“Ms Smith is not a council tenant and the issues she experienced were in a flat that was privately rented. Following Mrs Smith’s bad experience in that privately rented flat, the council arranged temporary accommodation for her,” the council spokesman said.

“The council initially helped Ms Smith find this privately rented flat after she came to us for assistance in 2019. The landlord is responsible for the repairs and maintenance of the property and the issues highlighted were raised with her to remedy. We are sorry for the discomfort and frustration Ms. Smith experienced with this property.

“After the issues were reported to us earlier in the year, we found emergency housing for the family so they are no longer in that flat. Since then we have found them temporary accommodation. I ordered a professional cleaning of the apartment, which could not be carried out until an inspection revealed the source of the problem. This has now been identified as a blockage in the communal drain, which has now been unblocked.”

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