A PEABODY tenant says her property has “decayed before my eyes” after a disastrous leak has left her with extensive water damage in the flat.

Janet Farney, who has lived in the Peabody-managed Tachbrook Estate in Pimlico for 31 years, said she has never experienced treatment like this before from the housing association.

She feels that with more and more tenant homes being sold off into private ownership, a social divide is becoming entrenched on the estate.

She told Extra: “I feel like the understanding and compassion of Peabody has changed in recent years.

“We have gone from being tenants to being grouped into social, affordable or market-rent tenants.

“Peabody appears to discriminate between those social groups.”

What started as a minor leak in Ms Farney’s flat in January has now left her with extensive water damage to the property.

Janet Farney

She said last Thursday: “The leak started in the bathroom from the light fixtures in the ceiling and then it started to track along the hallway ceiling, where my hallway is next to the bathroom.

“The electricians came back and capped off all the lights and made them safe. I’ve only just had my lights switched back on from January. At first the leak was a drip. I was catching it in a small bowl, but within two, three weeks I was catching it in bowls and buckets in the hallway and bathroom and then it was running down the walls (see pictures).

It sounded like a water clock in the flat. It was a constant drip like that. We had to change the bowls regularly and use towels on the floor to soak up the water coming from the walls where we couldn’t place a bowl.

“I was storing mementos from my children’s work, school and nursery and things, and that was all binned.

“I couldn’t even keep any of that. It was devastating.”

Ms Farney added: “Now the bathroom door doesn’t shut at all. The ceilings and walls need replastering because there are holes in them that need to be filled and painted. The radiator in the bathroom where the water was coming down the back of it needs replacing. The floor in my hallway is ruined, it’s buckled and bent.

“There’s mould on my walls, which is growing, and the tiles in the bathroom are hanging off.

“It wasn’t like that before, I’ve always looked after my home and now it has decayed in front of my eyes.”

She added: “It’s a total and utter disrespect for me and my family’s health. And it’s not just for me it’s for the other people who don’t have the gumption to do this.

“I’ve heard terrible things on this estate about people living with mould. It just upsets me.

“It’s their duty and housing like this is promised that it’s going to be great but it’s just not as we were promised.”

A spokesperson for Peabody said: “We sympathise with Ms Farney and we’re sorry it took so long to fix the leak. We’ll be doing the outstanding repairs as soon as possible.”

Peabody is one of largest housing associations with some 108,000 homes and 220,000 residents in London and the home counties. Its precursor, the Peabody Trust, was founded in 1862 by George Peabody (1795-1869), an American banker and philanthropist.