West Lothian home owners say they should never have been sold bungalow with RAAC as neighbours relocate

A couple who live in a Livingston street where homes have crumbling RAAC concrete say they should never have been sold a substandard property.

Parents Ashleigh Mitchell and her husband Lee, of Chestnut Grove, now have to watch as neighbours in the street are relocated as work takes place to remove RAAC on nearby social housing properties.

They bought the house, which has Siporex (RAAC) roof panels, 13 years ago but now can't sell it or get insurance to carry out work.

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Lee said they were "sold a lemon" and Ashleigh said she is "devastated" as the pair prepare to attend a public meeting tonight in the town to demand action on the problem.

They are among the hundreds of people for whom the answers cannot come soon enough.

Ashleigh has already founded the Chestnut Grove Home-owners Association and is determined that the plight she and her neighbours face is not going to be swept under the carpet.

Lee told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “ When we bought the house we were told it was a non standard construction, that it was Siporex. We were not told of the problems.

“The bank gave us a mortgage, but they requested the structural report from 2004 before they did. They were happy to give us a mortgage.

“They should have bolded up those words in the contract. They should have warned us of the potential problems, but they didn’t, and the banks still lent the money. Now we cannot sell the house and we cannot get insurance to cover the work.”

The pair have created a quiet and well maintained home in a street of bungalows- one of the few streets of bungalows in the new town. They have spent a lot of money on their home, refurbishing, refitting and replastering.

It’s well maintained. A cared-for home which provides a safe space for themselves and a secure place to nurture their autistic child.

So far they have escaped the invasion of dampness and water leaks which have affected other homes. Lee said that, during heavy rain, water pools on the flat roof of their home. But there have been no leaks and no apparent damage to the Siporex roof panels which are quite clearly seen in one of their bedrooms. Lee’s brother works as a roofer so they have had his expert advice on what to do, and what not to do.

“ We know not to touch it,” said Lee.

What they both fear is the unknown. The potential disruption that’s coming in the next few months. Tenants of social housing homes in the street will have to temporarily relocate as part of plans for the removal of RAAC.

The houses will be boarded up on connecting properties before renovation work gets under way.

They worry about the short and long term effects of living on a street where few homes are occupied and the potential for the ongoing effects of dampness seeping into their home- the safe space they have strived for since buying the house 13 years ago.

“This could further our child’s anxiety.” said Ashleigh.

They, and the 13 neighbours who have bought their homes in Chestnut Grove fear that what happened at Deans South could so easily happen to them. They fear that the longer the boarded up homes lie empty the worse the estate will become.

Now they want to meet with Almond Housing, which owns the tenanted homes. More important Ashleigh wants answers from the people who can provide them.

She said: “I’m devastated. We bought this house in good faith. I want to know what the government is going to do to help us. We have been sold a substandard property. The responsibility lies with the people who built these houses, and those who sold them on.”

The changes- including the boarding up of homes- bring their own anxieties but the long term costs also worry them- the potential of having to get regular and expensive structural surveys carried out.

Ashleigh says the house was sold as a substandard property. She believes council homes with Siporex should not have been sold on the open market, despite the 1980s Conservative right to buy legislation. They should have been retained by the landlords.

Lee is blunter about their situation.

He knows what the couple have spent to improve their property, and he knows the potential worth after the RAAC revelations as an “establishment” of banks, insurers and politicians wash their collective hands of a problem which the few who could help, seem keen to address.

“We have been sold a lemon,” he said.

He believes that the redevelopment of the bungalows on the estate “ is the only viable option” and thinks it makes financial sense as a long term option.

For now, all they and other home-owners across West Lothian can do is wait for answers.

Home-owners from across West Lothian are set to join those in Craigshill at a public meeting to hear from campaigners demanding local authority and government action for those trapped in homes with crumbling concrete.

More than 200 are expected at a public meeting organised for the Tower Bar in Livingston at 7pm tonight to see RAAC campaigners speak alongside local MP Hannah Bardell , and to hear a presentation from a structural engineer.

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