Bedford family fear taking a bath after cracks appear in Clarion house

Cherie Field and Trevor Taylor have lived in their home in Bedford for 25 years

A family who fear their home is "unsafe" after large cracks appeared in the wall, no longer take baths over concerns their ceiling might collapse.

Cherie Field, 62, and Trevor Taylor, 71, have rented a property on Stainmore Road in Bedford for 25 years.

In late 2019, cracks started to appear upstairs and they contacted housing association provider Clarion for help.

Clarion insisted the home was "habitable" despite "unsightly" cracks and a subsidence issue.

A contractor was first sent to the home in 2020 and repaired the cracks with cement but the fix did not last long.

After more appeared, the family called Clarion multiple times but claimed "no action" was taken. Ms Field wrote a formal letter of complaint in June 2022.

A large crack in the couple's hallway is being monitored to detect movement

Three weeks later she received a reply from the social housing provider's head of customer services.

In a letter seen by the BBC, they said they were "unable to progress the complaint" due to a "cyber attack" on its systems.

In March, Clarion put sensors in the deepest cracks to monitor the movement of the walls, with measurements taken every six weeks.

The couple said they have been told the monitoring must continue for 60 weeks before action could be taken.

But the couple do not want to wait another year, and said the cracks have caused them huge stress and anxiety.

"We pay our rent just like everyone else", said Ms Field.

"We keep our half of the bargain, so they should keep their half and they're not doing it. It's not good enough."

'I can see my neighbour's TV light through the cracks'

On the other side of the wall, their neighbour Nick Tysoe has been dealing with problems of his own.

He said subsidence had caused gaps between the walls, windows and door frames, meaning they were "hard to open and close", and had led to draughts and heat loss.

He claimed a crack that snaked down his living room wall let in light from next-door so that he could see when Ms Field and Mr Taylor, were watching TV.

Nick Tysoe lives next door to Cherie and Trevor and has similar subsidence problems

"It's unsightly", he said. "You re-decorate and within months the cracks have re-appeared and torn the paper."

Like his neighbours, he said it had been hard to contact Clarion to lodge complaints.

Both tenants claimed they had been told by surveyors that the cracks were caused by subsidence, most likely due to a large conifer tree planted within five metres of their homes, and there was a dispute over who owned the land.

A large crack in the external wall at the end of the terrace is being monitored for movement

A spokesperson for Clarion said: "Property subsidence is a complex issue that requires ongoing monitoring, which often means progress to a final solution can be a slow process.

"Currently, we cannot start the necessary permanent repairs to the homes until the ongoing investigation into the cause of the subsidence is complete.

"It is important to note that although the cracks are unsightly, the property remains safe and habitable."

Figures released by the UK Housing Ombudsman showed 5,091 complaints, a record high, were made about homes owned by councils or housing associations in the past year.

The number of findings of "severe maladministration", where a social landlord has failed to deal with a tenant's complaint reasonably, has more than quadrupled in the same period.

The Ombudsman's data showed Clarion had 109 findings of maladministration in financial year 2022-23, and was ordered to pay almost £60,000 in compensation to tenants.

Of all complaints about Clarion in that period, 40% related to the condition of the tenant's property.

'No meaningful sanctions'

For Suzanne Muna, secretary of the Social Housing Action Campaign, it is a sign that "regulation of the sector isn't working".

She said due to many mergers, often housing associations were "too big" and "unaccountable" and while fines can be imposed by the Ombudsman, "there's no meaningful sanctions".

Although Clarion owns 120,000 homes in England, Ms Muna said: "There's absolutely no reason for them not to address issues in a timely way".

She accepted that problems would always occur and "leaks will spring, the fabric of buildings will deteriorate", but added: "They're not responding quickly when things do go wrong and that's a real concern to us."

Follow East of England news on Facebook, Instagram and X. Email [e-mail] or WhatsApp us on 0800 169 1830