Interview 07
Transcript from an interview with survey respondent, Priya. The interview took place at her flat in Newham, where she had been experiencing an ongoing damp and mould problem for over a decade. Text has been redacted in cases of personally identifying information (of the interviewee or others they know), irrelevance, and the interviewees asking for certain topics not to be recorded.
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| Priya | I was like, cool, you’re not getting a viewing then if you wanna be dry. Anyway, sorry, let’s go. Cos if you allow me I’ll derail this conversation. |
| Me | Yeah, no, like it’s so, so weird cos I feel like everyone else I’ve interviewed, like, I don’t know. So it’s so weird to do. I feel like I’m really bad as well. Like I always ramble and I always let people ramble and then I’m like. How do I steer this back? |
| Priya | I do that whenever I interview people and then I have to transcribe them and all, I fucking hate myself. |
| Me | Oh, transcribing is like the worst. And it’s like, you know, when you have to listen to your voice. Um, yeah. So, yeah, as I was saying, it’s for my Masters, which I’m doing about like damp housing. Um, and so I’ve been interviewing people. I did a survey. You filled it. Do you remember? |
| Priya | Yeah, I don’t remember all the questions, but I remember the thing. |
| Me | The questions were like, literally just like: do you have damp in your house for how long, um, did you like contact your landlord? What did they say? Is there anything else you wanna say? That was, that, that was the questions on the survey. Okay. Um, but yeah, so what I’ve been doing is when I start these interviews, like rather than it starting for like context, the, how I’ve been starting is asking you, like, can you tell me more about the house you live in? Who you live here with, how long have you lived here? Sort of thing. But it’s kind of weird now cause I know that. But it’s kind of good still to have it. |
| Priya | The house you live in? Alright, so the house I live in is the one that you’re currently in, uh, based in east London. I’ve lived here for like 12 years, with various people over the years. My dad, my brothers, and now we’ve just random housemates. Uh, what was the other question? An experience of damp this house? |
| Me | No, I didn’t ask that yet. So, like, it’s a council house, so your landlord is Newham council, right? |
| Priya | Yeah, I think so. |
| Me | Um, yeah, I guess, well, this is so weird, cos normally I’m like, oh, tell me more, but it’s kind of weird to know what to ask. Cause like I’m like I know the answer. |
| Priya | Treat me like you never met me in your life. |
| Me | Um, yeah. So you say like started living here 12 years ago, while were you living before? How come you moved? |
| Priya | Before I was living in Plaistow, round the corner from you and I moved, cos I hated living around the corner from you. Um, I moved because um, I dunno, my mum got a new house. I started living with my dad and I was a child, so, and I had no choice in my living situation. Um, and then I moved in here. Because that was the house, the Council I gave my dad. |
| Me | And how long from when, like you lived here, did the house have a problem with damp? |
| Priya | Uh, so I don’t really remember as a kid, but I’m pretty sure like the whole time that we’ve been here damp has been an issue, because I remember my dad, uh, when I was younger obsessively spraying down the walls and always telling me like, you need to spray this and wipe down the walls. And I remember my dad also keeping the windows open in the winter, um, to allow for there to be like ventilation, I guess, so that there was no damp. |
| Me | Yeah. So obviously like, yeah, you’ve grown up here, like, or lived here, like quite, since you were like a kid, was there a moment like where you kind of realised more as like, I guess like an adult, you were like, oh shit, this house has a damp problem or? |
| Priya | Yeah, I reckon, uh, sixth form, I guess that’s still not an adult, but that’s the time when I first became like self-conscious of bringing people to my house. Cos I had damp in my house and like other stuff, which was unsightly. |
| Me | What’s the other stuff? |
| Priya | Like just like an ugly house, innit. Like, like, we didn’t used to have these nice wooden floors or like… |
| Me | Really? |
| Priya | You know that you’ve been here. We used to have this brown, thread-bare, like lino type flooring. And like our walls weren’t white. They were like painted brown. |
| Me | I definitely remember the walls. I definitely remember the walls. |
| Priya | Yeah. So our house was like really, really ugly and we had a damp problem. And so that was probably the first time that I became aware of things. Like the damp that made me, I don’t wanna bring people to my house. |
| REDACTED (irrelevance) | |
| Priya | Anyway, carry on, I’m sorry. |
| Me | Yeah, you were saying, you felt like self-conscious about bringing people over, like, did it stop you from bringing people over? |
| Priya | Yeah. I never brought people over to my house and I remember in uni in first year, my dad kicked me out of home and I had to get my friend to come and pick me up in his car. And so when he came to pick me up in his car, he had to like come in the house and help me get stuff. And I remember saying to him, like, I gave him like a forewarning. I was like, my house isn’t nice. And then he wanted to use the bathroom and I was like, you’re not allowed to use the bathroom. Sorry. Like, my house is really gross. |
| Me | And is it, has the like problem been worse in like certain rooms than others? Like the bathroom or? |
| Priya | The damp? Or the like self-… I mean, bathroom dampness is really bad. On the ceiling – I think as well, cause we have upstairs. So we got upstairs neighbours, who like, whenever they get water on their floor, it like comes down to us.So like, I’m pretty sure all of this peeling wallpaper on the ceilings is from dampness on the ceilings. I’m pretty sure what that’s, what that’s from. And if you go in my bathroom, we’ve got like paint, peeling off the ceilings. And when it’s really bad, the ceilings are like brown from dampness. And in the hallway it’s like that as well. But, uh, that’s like, if you look up. But the rooms, which like when you go in you’re immediately like, whoa, are these two rooms (points). |
| Me | Which used to be your bedroom, right? |
| Priya | Yeah. If you go in and you have like, if you’re not constantly spraying it, or if you’re not, like we’ve now started doing like regular coats of like damp proof paint. But if we’re not doing that, the whole wall just looks disgusting. |
| Me | And, um, What was I gonna say, God, I’m so bad at these interviews. |
| Priya | And do you know what as well? Yeah. Sorry. No. Okay. But it’s so funny how, like, growing up with it, it’s like really normalised. Like I was talking to Parv about it earlier and I was like, cos we’re getting tenants and we really need to sort out the damp in a way that’s like, tackles it. Um, because all this time, like, I feel like we’ve just covered it up. And he was like, yeah, but damps like normal. And I was like, yeah, damp normal, but not like the level that we have bro. And he’s like, no, but it’s normal, like otherwise the council would’ve fixed it. And I’m like, I don’t think that should be your measure of normal. |
| Me | So like, in terms of like the Council, have they done anything in the last 12 years? |
| Priya | No, so I’m pretty sure – now I don’t know this for a fact, because I obviously don’t deal with the Council in regards to this house as it’s my dad’s house – but I’m pretty sure the Council have said to us that the reason there’s not much they can do, the reason why we get so much damp, is because our house is old and it wasn’t built to like, have very good ventilation. Like it was built in a way that means we get damp. Um, and that the most we can do is like constantly wipe down the walls, keep the windows open so that there’s good ventilation in the house. And put layers of damp-proof paint on it, which is what we’ve done, but it doesn’t really actually tackle the issue. |
| Me | Yeah. And I guess with stuff like opening the windows, is it then like – |
| Priya | Cold. |
| Cold. You spend more on bills and stuff or? | |
| Priya | Well, no, ]cos my dad just says no heating, just blankets](cause-effect-affect/fuel-poverty). So, um, but yeah, like it’s just a bit long. But then I also wonder like, is there any actual fix for damp or is it just something that you deal with? Like if you get damp in your house, that’s something that can’t be helped? |
| It’s kind of complicated. Basically. It depends. There’s lots of different things that can cause damp.The two main things that cause damp in London are like condensation or, or penetrating damp. So condensation would be caused by like lack of ventilation. Um, but there are things that you can do to a house or a flat, or like a room to make it better ventilated other than just opening your windows. I’m pretty sure, like, you can put in like, like better fans in the bathroom or stuff like that. Or different types of windows, different types of paint sort of stuff. Um, if it’s penetrating. That’s more often caused by leaks – | |
| Priya | Like what we have on our ceiling. |
| – or like rain coming in or like stuff coming from above. That’s just when, like the damps not coming from inside the room it’s coming from outside. Um, but in those cases, like there are stuff councils and stuff can do, but the problem is, it is like councils for so long, basically rather than. 20 years ago, doing something that could have fixed the problem. And would’ve been quite cheap, would just like put paint on it and then the problem gets more and more expensive to fix. And so now they’re like, oh, we can’t afford to fix it. Sort of thing. | |
| Priya | And like, why does it get more expensive to fix? |
| Because, say if it’s like a structural problem, like a leak or something, or like some sort of fault between say, like, I don’t know the material between upstairs and here. As like time goes on and it gets more and more damaged by the damp problem, they need to do a more extensive repair. | |
| Priya | Ohh, so the problem in the bathroom and in the hallway, would be because – because the problem there is that upstairs’s water comes through – so the problem there is about whatever material separates there from all of us? |
| It could be, it could be like there’s a leaking pipe. Are they council tenants as well? | |
| Priya | Yeah. So yeah. That’s my experience of the damps. |
| Can I ask a few more questions? | |
| Priya | No, you can’t – yeah, that’s why you’re here. |
| You said, you said, you said like the council said, I don’t know, paint or like down proof, paint and stuff. Do they ever like offer, like have they ever provided you with down proof paint or provided you with like repairmen to do that? Or like dehumidifiers, or do they expect you to pay for that? | |
| Priya | They may have at one point, but generally trying to get any repair done through the Council is really long. Like we called the Council about, uh, damp on our ceiling in the hallway. Um, and basically told them like, oh, there’s a leak, it’s coming for our ceiling. We even made it sound worse. Cos like that’s generally what you do with getting council repair. Uh, we were like, yeah, the ceiling’s like crumbling, blah, blah, blah. And they were like, cool. Our earliest appointment is in October and my dad was like, so what do we do if the ceiling crumbles in that time? They’re like, then you just call again. Um, so I think with something like painting the walls, or whatever, it’s easier to just do it yourself. Unless you wanna wait for ages. |
| And have you ever like contacted any other, like types of people or organisations like renters unions or people like Kwajo or stuff like that? | |
| Priya | No. Cause I feel like our problem – like Kwajo, like he deals with madness. Like he deals with absolute madness. And in the long run or in the grand scheme of things, like our place isn’t that awful. But, uh, no, I haven’t contacted anyone else. That guy deals with absolute madness. He would’ve had a fucking field day when we lived in Byron avenue. I dunno if you ever, ever came to that house – |
| Me | I did, but I like cannot remember it all. I remember like driving there. |
| Priya | We had cockroaches, we had mice, we had damp, like that house was awful. Like I remember several times when I was younger, like standing on my bed, like absolutely frozen with fear, like being petrified of cockroaches. There were just cockroaches everywhere, bruv. They’d be like in my sink, in the bath, like on the floor… Like bro, I shared a house with cockroaches. That place with nasty. Kwajo would’ve loved that house. He would’ve come in and been like, what’s this then? (pretends to film on phone) Guys. This is absolutely disgusting. This man has a daughter she’s only seven years old. She’s too scared to wake up in the morning. |
| REDACTED (irrelevant) | |
| Priya | That house was nasty ass, bro. And it had the cellar and then the, like the cellar, like was like a dungeon bruv. Like it was actually like a dungeon, like I don’t even know why they made that cellar accessible as like a room in the house or a basement in the house. Cos it was like dusty and crumbling, and there was like no real light in there ,and it was just full of bugs and creepy crawlies. Anyway. Yeah. |
| REDACTED (irrelevant) | |
| Me | I guess in particular, like with the Council, are there things that you think – Do you think council should be doing more or do you think like –? |
| Priya | Absolutely. Yeah. Like I think that obviously councils seem to be overwhelmed, underfunded, blah, blah, blah, blah. But ultimately like you shouldn’t be allowed to provide housing that is subpar. Like if, if you were a private landlord, it would be unacceptable to provide a house. I mean, it wouldn’t actually. But you would think that it’s unacceptable and that you could take someone to court for providing you unsafe housing and damp falls under whats unsafe housing. So it is kind of mad that like the council deals with some of the most vulnerable, like broke people in society. And it’s just like, yeah, you can just live with dampness. And like, you can spend your whole life being paranoid about dampness and like scrubbing down balls and, uh, keeping your windows open in the winter to deal with it. Otherwise you just don’t care enough. And therefore we don’t care enough. |
| Me | And do you think it ever, did it ever like damage any of your belongings? |
| Priya | Yeah, bruv in my room right now. I got damp on one wall and that one wall is next to my clothes rail, and there’s not really any way that I can, like, I mean, I can rearrange my room, but like, there’s not really a way that I can rearrange my room that works with the furniture that I have in. To move my rail off of the wall. So the clothes that are on the back part of that rail get damp on them. Like they get damp spots on them unless I’m spraying it down regularly. |
| Me | And, in terms of like, do you ever feel like it impacted your health or stuff like that? |
| Priya | Like, yeah, I had, uh, I dunno if it was asthma, but like I used to, like, you’ve seen this, like when I was younger. I still do it now, like a tic, every now and then. But it was so bad when I was younger. I literally used to wheeze all the time. I’d be like (mimics wheezing) all the time. Uh, and I had like this awful cough, that sounded like a chest infection all the time. That like, to this day, whenever I get a cold, that cough always sounds like a chest infection and it will stay for months on end. And I will have a wheeze afterwards for months on end. I always say it’s a tick now, but actually that’s most definitely caused from like childhood and respiratory problems that I had as a kid. |
| Me | And what about like your brothers and sisters? Would they have any problems or? |
| Priya | I don’t know about them. So, would they have, I don’t know, like we was, I have no idea to be honest. I’m sure. Probably, but like our family’s kind of like. Suffering, just like carry on suffering with a smile on our faces. |
| Me | Um, and like, in terms of like your mental health as well. Well, you kind of talked already about being like embarrassed to bring people around, but do you feel like it made you anxious or like stuff like that? |
| Priya | I don’t think it made me anxious, but I think that that’s because I’m not someone who’s prone to that kind of thinking. I think if I was a less resilient person, I probably would’ve felt way more anxious. Because even me being like the quite blase about life person, the quite like, like I’ll tell someone that I shat myself and not feel embarrassed about it. Like, even with me being that kind of person, I did feel self-conscious about bringing people to my house and like, I would be quite upfront about it. I’d be like, yeah, my house is ugly. You’re not allowed in sorry. Or like, you know, whatever, but I felt self-conscious about it. I reckon if I was a more anxious person, I probably would’ve been like… I know Hannah, I’m a little sister, who’s a more anxious person. She always says, like she feels really embarrassed of her house. Like she always feels like she doesn’t wanna bring friends over, like, yeah. So. |
| Me | Going back to something you said earlier, in terms of Councils not doing much. Do you feel like it’s that they’re overwhelmed, or does it make you feel like they don’t really care? |
| Priya | I think it’s a combination of both. Uh, I think they’re probably overwhelmed, but I think also things like this they’ve become so used to just fobbing people off, it doesn’t seem like as big an issue as it should be. Uh, because as you see, like with, when Kwajo gets involved. Suddenly councils, housing associations, suddenly, they have the resources to care. Uh, but I think that’s only because they’re being threatened with a long time, not a good time. Um, but yeah, I think it’s a combination of both. I think it’s lack of resources means that they’ve chosen not to allocate time and resources to resolving this issue. But if you really, really press them as Kwajo does, uh, then you can finally see some sort of result. Something like that, something like that. I mean, I don’t really have any understanding of like the inner workings of the Council. |
| Me | I feel like I’ve kind of covered everything, but this is has been shorter than some of my interviews. And we’ve talked about loads of random stuff. So I’m like, maybe I’m missing something. Is there anything else you wanna add? Is there anything else you wanna say? |
| Priya | Um, like what, what do people usually add? |
| Me | I don’t know. Just random stuff. It really depends. Cause like some people are like, I don’t know. Some people like to go off a little thing. Some people are like, no, I don’t have anything else to say. It depends. |
| Priya | I dunno if I have anything to add besides like, bruv, if damp is such a minor issue, yeah, as they try and make it out, like they tell us like, oh, it’s not that big a deal, just do blah, blah, blah. You sort it then. You sort it. If it’s such a minor issue, come to my house and sort it bruv. Like (laughs). |