A family of four is sleeping on two sofas pushed together because their beds are sodden with leaking water.
Mum Beyhan Tarhan, 36, whose entire family share a one-bedroom flat on South Bermondsey’s Tustin Estate, worries mould caused by the leaks are making her sons, aged four and ten, sick.
When the News visited, four-year-old Bedihali was home from school due to vomiting and the house was littered with pots filled with water.
Leaks have been dripping onto the family’s bedding, forcing them all to squeeze onto two tiny sofas pushed together every night.
Yellow-coloured water, believed to be from a bathroom pipe, is also streaming into the family’s kitchen sink.
Exhausted Mum Beyhan, who volunteers at a nearby school, said: “It’s hard work. You’ve got to be strong but sometimes I start crying. My kids are ill and my house is not hygienic.
“I’ve lost all my energy to fight with the council. Whatever you say they rarely reply to you.”
For Beyhan, who has a back hernia, sharing the two small sofas with her entire family is agony. “I wake up feeling like a stick,” she said.
The cramped flat has had various leaks since 2018 and water started pouring from the ceiling again on November 16.
Over a week later, on Thursday November, 24, council workers fixed the leak but water is still pouring because water from the burst pipe had gathered in the ceiling.
The family must now wait until all the water has drained from the ceiling before the mould can be fixed.
Beyhan and her husband Yuksel Kucuk 42, a construction worker, are terrified about the damage the mould could be doing to their children.
“Because of the situation, I’m worried we’re all going to get lung problems because the house smells of mould and is dirty,” said Beyhan.
In a landmark case, a coroner recently found two-year-old Awaab Ishak died in 2020, eight days after his second birthday, as a direct result of black mould in a Rochdale flat.
Beyhan says after the mould is removed, it’ll just come back. “There will be another leak. This building is so old,” she said.
The Tustin Estate is being redeveloped, with 345 new council flats replacing the current 202, but construction won’t be complete until 2028.
Southwark Council has been approached for comment.
Tustin Estate on the Old Kent Road to be redeveloped after Southwark gets permission