Insulation scandal: “I have to scrape the mold off the walls”

Every two weeks, Zoe Godrich scrapes black mold off the walls of children’s rooms.

She says her house now resembles a squat. ”It’s absolutely heartbreaking because I can’t provide my children with the basic needs of a safe warm home.

She took over the mold after having her home in Swansea fitted with cavity wall insulation three years ago. He says that over the course of a few weeks, water kept running down the walls “like a small waterfall.”

Cavity wall insulation fitted as part of government-backed green energy schemes may have failed in hundreds of thousands of homes because it was not installed correctly, the BBC can reveal.

Single mum Zoe and her three children now sleep in one room on mattresses on the floor. According to her, the other two bedrooms are uninhabitable.

She says she threw out all their beds and wardrobes because they were consumed by dampness and mold. She shows me a photo of her six-year-old daughter’s doll covered in black mold that she had to throw in the trash.

One of her daughters takes several medications for asthma. Her son has eczema so bad that his cracked skin is bleeding. He says they weren’t on these drugs before the insulation was installed. The NHS says dampness and mold can lead to respiratory and skin conditions.

David Walter is a building inspector who has been inspecting detached houses across the UK for over 25 years. He visited Zoe’s home in April and said the installation was “messed up” and the extraction wasn’t done properly either.

He says there is nothing unusual about what happened at Zoe’s house. ”Industry is motivated by money – they get government grants for this work. So there’s an incentive for contractors to get people to apply, get the job done and get the grant money.” He blames the problems on a lack of oversight and regulation.

As of 2008, more than three million homes have had cavity wall insulation under green energy schemes introduced by the government. The energy suppliers were responsible for inspecting 5% of them to check the quality of the installation.

Figures compiled by energy watchdog Ofgem, seen by the BBC, suggest the insulation in hundreds of thousands of these homes may have failed because it was not installed correctly.

A total of 15 million households have had their cavities filled.

A year after the problems began, Zoe went on a merry-go-round of companies and organizations to try and get help. It started in early 2022 with Installers UK doing the installation work. The company insisted that the insulation was not to blame and then went bankrupt.

The firm told the BBC the problems were caused by a hole in the roof, although it could not provide a copy of the pre-installation report to confirm this. If there are problems with the property, they should be fixed before the work is carried out, according to the standards body British Assessment Bureau.

She then contacted City Energy Network Limited who arranged the financing for Zoe’s home. Her name is on the warranty for the work, although City Energy says it was an error and had nothing to do with the warranty the company doing the work should have issued.

Zoe says she was advised to remove the insulation. She took out a £7,000 loan to pay. What she didn’t know was that mining would void the warranty on the work. Without insulation, the house is now very cold. It cannot afford to raise the temperature, which leads to even more moisture and mold.

City Energy told the BBC its only involvement was grant funding through a government scheme. He says he has no connection with Installers UK, nor was he involved in the installation or removal process.

The government already recognized a few years ago that standards needed to be improved. It commissioned the independent organization Trustmark to establish a quality assurance system in 2019.

But the problems Zoe has faced raise questions about how well the system is working. Both Installers UK, which carried out the work in 2021, and City Energy, which secured the grant money, were Trustmark registered.

Zoe says she doesn’t see any solution. ”I was just drained of life. For the last couple of years, all I’ve been doing is fighting company after company after company.”

City Energy said that while it had no obligation to provide any assistance, it “acknowledged and sympathized with Ms Godrich’s position” and said it had tried to deal with matters directly with her in an attempt to help.

In a statement, Trustmark told the BBC: “The issues in Mrs Godrich’s estate are complex. The work was carried out to an earlier standard and did not take a ‘whole house’ approach like current standards, thus avoiding some of the problems seen here.

“However, the situation in which Ms. Godrich is left is completely unacceptable and needs to be rectified. We will work with the British Assessment Bureau and City Energy to find a suitable solution that will make Mrs Godrich’s property a warm, comfortable and healthy home for her. and her family.”

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declined to comment, but referred us to a departmental statement from February that said: “The government is committed to protecting all consumers involved in home renovations, as well as improving the overall consumer journey.”