Bad Property Management

RATS!!

Today, the young mum of two upstairs said that a rat had been in the living room, while they were there and had scurried under the sofa. The dogs chased and barked at it. The standard light wobbled and wires rattled and it ran and disappeared. It was a very big rat and left a very big poo.

Rats are a danger because of disease, gnawing on wires and because they carry a toxic very dangerous disease called Weils  Disease. This is a disease that is very serious. It affects liver and other organs. It is easily caught but not easily detectable:

RATS!! have been a common fellow resident at No 84 St Helens Rd, Hastings. There as a happy band, or mass throng of rats in the backgarden who had made their home under the patio and under the raised garden slopes and within the concrete bunkers.

When I came there they have been happily left there and grown as the garden and back of property had not been visited or looked after for over ten years.  They had to be addressed so I took about blocking the holes and putting rat poison in upturned pots down the holes remaining, mixed in with some delicious edibles. This would keep the rats at home happily nibbling on my rat poison and cuddling up for a sleep, instead of going out and foraging.

It was a constant battle, and one I took on with the help of my former landlords who were only too glad to help, and also call in the council and pest control and work with them.

Now pest control and vermin extinguishing has been taken off most council’s free provisions, and many people have to pay for their own. Most charge £40-75 to get rid of rats, and that is only just putting a few cakes of rat poison down. And over £100 to get rid of flea infestations or mites.

This is important as allowing rats and vermin, parasites and mites to grow and flourish affects everyone’s health, buildings and environmental health.

Still, even with the pest control still free, the landlord Mr Daniel and Patrick Hanlon of Roost (now liquidated due to corporate insolvency) and Roost Student and Oakfield Property Management did not want to help or bother. And it was another instance where threat instead of help or assistance and joint co-operation was present and practiced.

Rats are in the back garden, and can build up to plenty. Without fear or threat, they are so confident they sit on and play on a bank outside my elderly neighbour’s door and look right in at her. They have also been found in her kitchen, But her trust terrier chases them out.

I have put poison down repeatedly, and bought rat traps such as the terrifying T-Rex snapper traps. I put them in places no other animal or pet would go, and drop them down the holes where the rats live.

I left the back garden for some while, due to the threat and harassment of Oakfield and landlord to take it off me if I raised the disrepair and damage. The fencing, ornaments and my vegetable garden were wrecked by workmen, and I lost all heart. I then deteriorated into being very very ill, and could not look after myself or do the simplest thing. So gardening was out. And setting traps and dealing with poison certainly was not safe for me.

But now better, and a few years on, we still have rats. And they are cocky little sods. They have now got in and got all the way up to the top flat. A two floor maisonette.

Today, the young mum of two upstairs said that a rat had been in the living room, while they were there and had scurried under the sofa. The dogs chased and barked at it. The standard light wobbled and wires rattled and it ran and disappeared. It was a very big rat and left a very big poo.

Rats are a danger because of disease, gnawing on wires and because they carry a toxic very dangerous disease called Weils  Disease. This is a disease that is very serious. It affects liver and other organs. It is easily caught but not easily detectable:

 

Leptospiral infection in humans causes a range of symptoms, and some infected persons may have no symptoms at all. Leptospirosis is a biphasic disease that begins with flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, myalgias, intense headache). The first phase resolves, and the patient is briefly asymptomatic until the second phase begins. This is characterized by meningitis, liver damage (causing jaundice), and renal failure. The infection is often wrongly diagnosed due to the wide range of symptoms. This leads to a lower registered number of cases than exists.  Wiki Link

 

Children can very easily pick it up, and dogs have been known to have caught it just by licking the urine of mice left on floorboards or food.

But the landlord and Oakfield find no problem and do not address the issue, And again raising the issue just gets the “What do you expect me to do about it?”

When the basement flat was gutted out in October 2012, this was to remove two walls, take down all the inner walls, pack them with water absorbing packing and remover and relay floor due to damp and water damage, the flooring, joists and debris was left in the front garden for months, before being taken away. This became a favorite hive of activity and nesting place for rats. This is just feet from the door of a beautiful little girl who has to come out and past it to go to school each day.  It was notified to Oakfield and the landlord about the rats, to no avail.

 

 

 

I took to putting rat traps down, under the bushes and between the piles of timber and shoving poison deep  within. Never the less, the rats were happy as larry and had a grand old place to hide and live. Must have been like Caesars Palace to them.

Mr Daniel and Mr Patrick Hanlon and their property managers Oakfield Property have no conscience or feeling of responsibility or duty of care towards their tenants, or their children or any of their health.

Neither have the council or environmental health, or any MP or councilor, because they left the place like this for years and kept closing the case on Oakfield and the Hanlon’s direction.

Recently, I approached my local councillor Andy Batsford Lab for St Helens ward and asked why he had abandoned and left us. Why he never came round despite promising, and told him of the problems, the danger, the mites, the rats, the ceiling falling down, the damp, health and electrical problems.

He said that “Just because he said he would come round, does not mean he will come round. He does not have to, just because he said it.” He also said that due to my experience of councillors before – again who had let me down and abandoned me – the local Labour Party and the Council had decided not to respond, but close the case, and the order on the house for the landlord to carry out repair.

They abandoned, because they did not care, they did not want to do their job and look after the health and welfare of people, including women, children, elderly and disabled because they wanted to cover their arse, not get involved and collect their pension.

 

Earlier this year, it was the County Councillor elections. Lab candidate John Hodges canvassers came round. Again, shocked and surprised no one had done anything said they would get involved and get John involved. I wrote emails and sent information, facts and pictures, John Hodges Lab candidate and later winner and county councilor never got back,

I saw him in the street and waylaid him. He promised but still did not respond or get back, or come round personally.  I was abandoned. Even when I sent the surveyor’s report, and the proof and case of parasites, vermin, damp and rot and children affected, they did not come round.   John never responded. And again the decision was not to respond or come round.  They have put me down as a troublemaker. Too bloody right when health of people and elderly and children are involved. Pity they do not have the same values and beliefs.

Earlier this year, Hastings signed up to Shelter’s exposing and not putting up with rogue landlords. It was in the local Hastings Observer press on 5th April 2013. It meant nothing. The council had had all the information and pictures and surveyor’s report by then. Instead they closed the case and offered to my landlord that he would be better dealing with the property if it as empty. In other words, Hastings Council Housing and Environmental Health helped support the landlord with the idea or evicting me. Ok. Local council supports the eviction or a lone, disabled, highly distressed woman who has suffered harassment and harm from her landlord for past several years. Yep, Sound good. Better than doing your job I suppose.

ROGUE landlords are not welcome in Hastings said councillors as they voted to support housing charity Shelter’s campaign.

 Hastings Borough Council will publicly state its commitment to tackling landlords who are providing unsuitable housing, by signing a statement of support for Shelter’s Evict Rogue Landlords campaign.

 

Hastings is a very small town, and it would be difficult for business, council, lawyers and civic services not to be involved with each other. But when it comes to abandoning the welfare and health of its children and its citizens then it has got to be investigated and those responsible have got to go. Abandoning a child, disabled and vulnerable to severe dangerous and hazardous living conditions it not something any council or councilor should get away with, and certainly an apology and we wil try better, and any “learning curve” bollocks will not be listened to.

I rest my case. We must all be on the hop and on the ball when it comes to our health, homes and welfare of everyone, especially children, elderly and vulnerable.

The council have failed, the MPs and rights advocates and bodies have failed. We must not be complacent and fight and take responsibility to get it right.

Yours

Admin and Tenant
Getting  Better, But Not Got There Yet.