Edinburgh housing: Muirhouse Housing Association tenants hit out at landlord over faulty doors letting in slugs and worms

The faulty doors are letting in slugs and worms

Furious tenants have hit out at an Edinburgh housing association over freezing homes with faulty doors that let in slugs and worms.

A dozen tenants in Muirhouse Housing Association flats say they are fed up living in terrible conditions after families reported waking up to find slugs and worms in their kitchens. They said it is leaving them concerned about the health of their children.

Some claimed that they first complained about the faulty back and front doors seven months ago. Tenants do not believe the doors have been fitted properly, as they said there are big gaps between the doors and the frames. Living with the 25-year-old windows and broken doors in recent freezing temperatures has made some of their rooms unbearable to live in, tenants said, with many facing exorbitant energy bills. It’s claimed the social landlord told the doors are ‘sufficient’ and they could face long waits for windows to be replaced.

Complaints have been made about state of the doors and windows

Kathy, a tenant, said: “The neglect of our homes is forcing us to live in cold, unsafe, unhealthy housing. The refusal to repair broken doors and old windows is making our lives miserable. I should not be waking up to treading on worms hanging out in my kitchen. I should not be forced to pay through the nose to heat my home when the doors and windows are leaking hot air faster than the heaters can heat the rooms. We told them about the issues over six months ago but nothing has been fixed. Muirhouse Housing Association really needs to get its act together.”

Caroline Cawley, from Living Rent tenants’ union, said: “Tenants across the country are really struggling during the worst cost of living crisis in generations. But these landlords' failures to do repairs leading to freezing homes and slug-ridden kitchens is adding insult to injury."

Bosses at the Housing Association said they are taking action after issues were brought to their attention.

A spokesperson for Muirhouse Housing Association said: “After a small number of tenants contacted the association we recently commissioned external consultants to carry out a ‘stock condition survey’ to allow us to assess what works may be needing to be carried out earlier than our original programme anticipated. We take the condition of our homes seriously and like all social landlords every element within them has an assumed lifespan. With regard to new doors following this updated external survey it identified that these would benefit from replacement, and we have advised the residents of this and that a programme of works will be implemented to renew these doors at the earliest point.

Families have woken up to find worms in their kitchen

“The issue of window catches was only brought to our attention earlier this week and while all windows were originally fitted with these. Since being advised that there may be a small number of properties without window catches we have instructed a joiner to visit these properties as a matter of urgency to fit catches where they are missing or faulty. We seek to ensure our homes are of a high standard and where there may be issues identified will seek to remedy them as soon as practicably possible.”

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