A single mother-of-three claims she has been left homeless after a housing association allegedly refused to repair her house.

Emma Harnwell, 24, and her three children, Malachi, four months, Venetia, three and Anastasia, four, had to move out of her home in Gordon Road, Vange, after her kitchen cupboards fell off the walls.

Now Emma, who says she suffers from post natal depression, claims her landlord, Octavia Housing and Care, is not doing enough to make her property habitable.

Emma said: "I had a small leak about eight months ago, but I could not find where it was coming from.

"I thought nothing more of it until I came home last Tuesday and found the water had pulled down two kitchen cupboards and ripped off two large sockets.

"The plasterboard got so wet, it could not support the cupboards and they just fell off the wall."

Emma said she thought the water had come from a leak in the bathroom. It saturated the wall from the ceiling downwards.

A spokesman for Octavia said: "This is currently under investigation.

"As soon as we were aware of the problem we started dealing with it."

Published Wednesday, June 11, 2003

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