Mud-soaked home ‘like living at Glastonbury’

10:37am Wednesday 20th August 2008

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A MUM has described her home as "like living in Glastonbury" because an unrepaired water leak has left her surrounded by mud and water.

Heidi Claisse, 38, a dental nurse, of West Street, Erith, claims the leak in the road which runs parallel to the side of her home was reported to Thames Water in June, but the company has done nothing to repair it.

As a result, she claims the standing water outside her home is now seeping into her ground-floor bathroom.

Ms Claisse, who lives with her son, Jacob, three, said: "The ground is so saturated, the hard surface where we park our car is beginning to sink."

She added: "There is three inches of standing water underneath the garden decking and this is now seeping through the house wall where the bathroom is, as it is on lower ground than the road."

Ms Claisse says Thames Water engineers have visited the site of the leak, which appears to be coming from the middle of the roadway in Pleasant View.

The water then runs downhill to West Street and Ms Claisse's home.

She claims the engineers told her the company was in the process of changing contractors and there was confusion about who should be dealing with the leakage.

Ms Claisse, whose insurers have called in loss adjusters to assess the damage to her house and garden, said: "Apart from the damage to my house, I think it is disgraceful Thames Water has allowed all this water to go to waste over the past eight weeks."

A spokesman for Thames Water said the water leak was coming from a private pipe and the situation was complicated by Ms Claisse sharing a water supply with neighbours.

He added: "We have now offered to carry out the repair for free."