{"id":204293,"date":"2025-11-28T05:58:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T05:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204293\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T05:58:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T05:58:21","slug":"wall-insulation-covered-my-home-with-mould-and-could-cost-100k-to-fix-im-trapped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204293\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall insulation covered my home with mould and could cost \u00a3100k to fix. I\u2019m trapped"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tAilsa White had botched cavity wall insulation installed in her home under a Government scheme\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Whenever Ailsa White hears someone knocking on her door unexpectedly, she is filled with deep suspicion.<\/p>\n

Twice previously, she fell foul of believing the words of people arriving at her doorstep. The first was from someone selling cavity wall insulation, which turned out to be faulty and has left her living in a house that \u201ccan\u2019t breathe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then a few years later, a no-win no-fee law firm turned up offering free representation to pursue compensation claims for the faulty insulation<\/a> \u2013 only to then go bust.<\/p>\n

The wall insulation will cost her tens of thousands of pounds to fix, but she fears facing legal fees on top as a result of the lawyers going out of business.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a nightmare from the word go \u2013 and I am not a stupid person,\u201d said Ms White, 52, who lives in a three-bedroom semi-detached home in Bradford with her partner Liam.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth openings to this whole debacle were a result of people literally knocking on my door,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms White remembers a man coming to the house in 2017 and telling her she was eligible for free cavity wall insulation<\/a> to make her home warmer under a Government-funded scheme.<\/p>\n

\"AilsaMs White with her partner Liam outside her home which had botched cavity wall insulation installed<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him that I knew I couldn\u2019t have it done because my home is a stone-fronted property. He insisted I could have it and said this was a new product that could get around that problem. He said that is why he had come to homes like mine to offer this cavity wall insulation<\/a>,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Despite her initial reservations, the mother-of-two had the cavity wall insulation installed in May 2017 and the whole process only took a few hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey put a pressurised liquid into the cavity walls which expands and becomes rock hard and once it is in, it is very difficult to get out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe noticed an improvement to the temperature of the house straight away, as when the heating came on, even though we had draughty windows, the house would heat up and certain rooms would keep the heat well.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the couple say that during the summer months, the house became very hot at times.<\/p>\n

Then, from October onwards, when the weather changed, she noticed that when she was cooking in the kitchen, it would become steamed up. Water would drip down the walls, so they had to open the windows to counteract the condensation \u2013 something that they had not had to do before.<\/p>\n

The bathroom would also become full of steam and the family began noticing condensation everywhere, as well as black marks on the windows.<\/p>\n

\"AilsaMs White found her home affected by damp and mould after having cavity wall insulation installed<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, there was mildew all around the windows of the back bedroom. It was everywhere and I couldn\u2019t wipe it off. The mould in one of the bedrooms was so bad, it had black spores,\u201d said Ms White.<\/p>\n

But the most devastating discovery came when her son was moving out at the end of 2019 and her daughter was moving from her bedroom in the box room to her brother\u2019s bigger room.<\/p>\n

The vbedroom had been decorated to a beautiful standard only a few years earlier, but when Ms White pulled her daughter\u2019s bed away from the wall, she was horrified to find the wall covered with mould.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely disgusting and was a weird orange and pink colour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThen down where the length of the bed had been, there was green and black mould<\/a> with proper spores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt completely devastated that I had allowed my daughter to be in that bedroom. I was so proud when I decorated it and had no idea about the mould lurking behind the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms White turned out to be one of tens of thousands of householders left with faulty insulation that can cause damp and mould.<\/p>\n

\"AilsaMs White says she is continually fighting the mould<\/p>\n

Around 280,000 properties in Britain were offered free insulation under Government schemes between 2013 and 2025.<\/p>\n

The National Audit Office (NAO) revealed last month that 98 per cent of homes with external wall insulation installed under the \u00a34bn Energy Company Obligation scheme require work to correct major issues. Almost a third of those with internal wall insulation also need repairs.<\/p>\n

The scheme was introduced in 2013 under the former Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government.<\/p>\n

Homeowners offered legal representation \u2013 but the firm went bust<\/p>\n

But to add insult to injury, a huge number of homeowners were then offered free legal representation by the firm SSB Law to pursue compensation claims for the botched insulation \u2013 only for the company to go bust, leaving people fearing they would be liable for thousands of pounds of costs.<\/p>\n

Ms White says in 2020, someone from SSB Law knocked on her door and told her that she had had \u201cdodgy insulation put in\u201d and could pursue compensation on a no-win no-fee basis.<\/p>\n

She was hesitant at first, but eventually signed up with them. However, after they went out of business, she feared she might have to pay around \u00a350,000 of legal costs herself and she says the stress and worry affected her health and even led to her collapsing and being taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

However, in the last few months, she has been informed that her costs have been settled and she will not be pursued for money.<\/p>\n

\"AilsaCaption: Ailsa White had botched cavity wall insulation installed in her Ms White had a new kitchen fitted but says they are still battling against the mould<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the battle with the damp and mould in her home is ongoing, and despite her having everything redecorated, a brand new kitchen put in and new windows and doors installed, she knows the mould will return as the problem is still in her cavity walls.<\/p>\n

Even though she would love to move to Northumberland, she feels trapped in a house that she knows she cannot sell. \u201cHow can I sell it when I know the cavity wall insulation isn\u2019t right? How do I rectify it?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is my house can\u2019t breathe because the cavity wall installation should never have been done to this home.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we have replastered different rooms, it is a constant battling act trying to keep the mould at bay. To fix it would cost around \u00a370,000 to \u00a3100,000, so financially, I\u2019m not in a position to have it removed.<\/p>\n

\"AilsaThe state of the cavity wall insulation at Ms White\u2019s home<\/p>\n

Debra Sofia Magdalene, administrator for SSB Law Victims Support Group \u2013 a network of homeowners affected by failed insulation under government-backed retrofit schemes, told The i Paper: \u201cAilsa\u2019s story is sadly one of thousands. She trusted that the Government-endorsed insulation scheme would make her home warmer and more energy efficient \u2013 but instead it left her living with damp, mould and constant stress.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies like hers have paid the price for systemic failure \u2013 from poor installation and weak regulation to a lack of accountability from those meant to protect them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should be trapped in an unsafe home or left fearing huge legal bills after being misled by those promising help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for the Government to step in, fix the homes, compensate the victims and make sure this never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: \u201cEveryone deserves to live in a warm, energy-efficient home. It is clear that an overhaul of the retrofit system and the consumer protection landscape is urgently required \u2013 we are bringing this forward as part of the Warm Homes Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you like to share your housing nightmare story? Email: Aasma.day@theipaper.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ailsa White had botched cavity wall insulation installed in her home under a Government scheme Whenever Ailsa White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,112455,18,65234,3847,8752,19,17,1658,25006],"class_list":{"0":"post-204293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-consumer-rights","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-energy-bills","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-housing-crisis","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-property","17":"tag-yorkshire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115625795483934540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}