Halifax victims of the Cavity Wall Scandal: Yorkshire Post speaks to victims in Halifax

Yorkshire Post

Yorkshire Post speaks to victims in Halifax who have been affected by the Cavity wall scandal....

Transcript

00:00 I'm Holly Lynch, I'm the Labour MP for Halifax and I've been approached by now up to 13 constituents

00:07 who have all been impacted by what can only be described as a scandal upon a scandal.

00:13 We've known for a number of years that there have been constituents who were approached

00:17 by cavity wall insulators saying that they could have a government funded scheme where

00:22 they'd have insulation in their walls.

00:25 Unfortunately, I can only describe some of these companies as cowboys because that cavity

00:29 wall insulation has done damage to people's homes and properties, creating mould, damp

00:35 and damaging their homes.

00:37 They were then approached by legal firms saying they would take on their cases on a no win

00:43 no fee basis.

00:46 When SSB law folded, those constituents then received enforcement notices for thousands

00:53 and thousands of pounds telling them that they had to pick up that legal bill that they

00:57 had no idea they were eligible for.

01:00 Not only have they suffered this damage to their properties that should never have happened

01:03 in the first place, they've then got these thousands of pounds legal bills that they've

01:08 been told they have to pay.

01:10 We think that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of people affected by this across

01:16 the North.

01:17 I've raised it in the House of Commons and other MPs have as well.

01:21 This issue around poor quality cavity wall insulation costing people hundreds if not

01:26 thousands of pounds to correct should never have been allowed to happen.

01:31 These were government finance schemes that should have been regulated properly in the

01:35 first place.

01:36 They weren't.

01:37 That is the first scandal and injustice.

01:39 Secondly, we need to have a look at the regulation of law firms to make sure something like this

01:44 can never happen again.

01:45 If there's a legal loophole where somebody signs up on a no win no fee basis but then

01:50 that law firm collapses, they shouldn't be eligible for those legal fees which are now

01:55 absolutely driving people into debt, poverty and abject fear about how they're going to

02:01 respond to this.

02:03 The government needs to do a comprehensive review of how this injustice has been allowed

02:08 to happen.

02:09 I'm going to keep fighting for that in Parliament.

02:11 My name's Nigel Goody and I'm from Halifax.

02:14 It's affected me personally.

02:15 For the last four and a half years I didn't know how to repair my house.

02:20 I was under the impression that it was going to get a core casing that would get paid

02:24 all the damages and then I got nothing back at all.

02:28 I got a letter out of the blue in August to say the core casing had been dropped because

02:32 they couldn't win it.

02:33 And the next thing in October I had bailiffs on the door knocking for a massive debt that

02:39 I had incurred.

02:40 I would like the authorities to make more legislation towards these rogue traders who

02:46 do the job in the first place and people like SSB Law that come in and try to make money

02:52 out of it.

02:55 To say I was shocked and stunned with my own statement, I went into panic mode and I phoned

03:00 up SSB Law and they said, "Oh, it's a mistake, don't worry, we'll sort it out, we'll pass

03:04 it on to the Finance Department."

03:06 Nothing happened for a week, phoned them back up again and said, "We'll sort it out, it

03:09 should have been sorted, we'll put it on to the Finance Department again."

03:12 And I said, "Should I phone the Enforcement Agents?"

03:14 They said, "No, leave it with us."

03:16 I decided to phone them anyway and they came round and sorted it out and fortunately my

03:21 debt was actually cleared by the end of October.

03:24 But I didn't know anything about it until the beginning of October.

03:27 One personal friend of mine has been affected and there's quite a few people out there,

03:32 I'm actually in the same book, but a lot worse than me, where they haven't got the fact that

03:35 their debt's paid.

03:36 It's made me feel very angry.

03:40 You take on these things in good faith and good trust and you think they come along and

03:44 cold call and they're going to do all the right things for you and you just get let

03:48 down after four and a half years of waiting for it to just drop like a hot potato.

03:52 Not fun.

03:53 You know, it's a very, very terrible scam and it affects me too much.

04:00 I can't work properly, we can't sleep, me and my wife, you know, and it affects our

04:08 daily business as well.

04:11 And the amount what is mentioned in the enforcement notice, it's always revolving my mind and

04:22 wherever I go I have to have this notice in mind all the time that I have to pay 18, 19,000.

04:32 And, yeah.

04:34 I feel terrible, you know.

04:38 Why I have to pay this amount because I can't explain it because the thing is the company

04:49 came in my property and they have a contract with me with no win, no fee.

04:57 But I don't know what they are doing behind the scene.

05:01 But at the end I got the enforcement notices that I have to pay this amount.

05:08 This is shocking, you know, for me and it affects my daily business, daily life as well.

05:18 My kids, you know, ask me that, "Dad, why have you, have you done anything wrong?

05:27 Why are you paying this amount?"

05:29 You know, and the enforcement agent one day they came in my property and my son, my kids

05:36 were getting ready for the school and the enforcement, he phoned me from my son's mobile

05:47 and soon I picked him, I said, "Hello?"

05:50 And the enforcement agent, he speaks on my, on my, on the other hand, and I got a note

05:58 that there is something wrong in my property.

06:04 And then my son knows that I have to pay and he said that, "Dad, I don't want to be homeless."

06:14 And after that I decided that I will pay this amount.

06:21 No matter I have to pay or not, I need to get rid of this problem.

06:28 I don't, I'm very, very, very, very, you know, I can't explain this, what affects it.

06:38 It was in around 2015.

06:44 Roughly I'm saying like my neighbor wrong and they said there is a company came and

06:48 they want to do insulation to make the houses more warmer.

06:54 And they said it's from the government.

06:56 So you all guys are eligible to do that.

06:59 You want to do it.

07:00 I said, yeah, everybody is doing and it's government's.

07:03 And I was at work and I said, yeah, that's fine.

07:08 2016 I had a pneumonia, really seriously, because my house started molding and I had

07:16 a pneumonia and my son has a pneumonia as well.

07:20 And I went to the hospital with sepsis with five flag blue siren.

07:25 I went to the hospital with sepsis pneumonia.

07:28 And I didn't know that mold can be that dangerous to us.

07:34 But it was moldy.

07:35 I keep changing my wallpaper.

07:37 I keep changing my house decoration and everything.

07:41 I didn't think about it.

07:42 Then there's a gentleman came into my street with a paper and pen.

07:46 And he said to me, like, oh, some companies came to do and damage your property.

07:52 You want to claim against them.

07:54 And I said, no.

07:55 I said, please leave us alone, because some of them came and they said this has happened.

08:00 Now you came now and telling me that you're going to be fix it.

08:04 So I'm not interested because I don't have any time.

08:06 There's a company SSB Law.

08:09 And the gentleman who dealing us called Nigel.

08:13 He was their representative.

08:16 And they asked me, like, this is happening.

08:19 Lots of people are involved.

08:21 So as a-- what I'm saying, as an innocent person, as an innocent citizenship, we are

08:27 all saying, yes, if this law, SSB Law is a big company.

08:33 So they're definitely going to help us.

08:36 And I said, yeah, I've been involved.

08:38 What going to be happen?

08:39 He said, we're going to be claimed against us, and you're going to be medical negligence

08:45 and everything.

08:46 So you can-- your case is quite brighter.

08:49 So you need to put your stuff inside.

08:52 Give me your discharge letter from hospital, which I provided.

08:55 He took the pictures from my house.

08:57 He saw the mold and everything.

08:59 I gave the evidence of my son had the stitching in lungs.

09:02 And he was-- he said, your case is very strong.

09:06 And he keep asking every time, sign this paper, sign this paper.

09:11 So it's come through via email.

09:12 And we keep signing.

09:14 We keep giving them.

09:15 It says, no win, no fee.

09:16 And we asked them, like, do we need to pay anything?

09:20 And they said, no, no, you don't need to pay anything.

09:22 You don't need to worry about it.

09:24 We will do everything for you.

09:26 December, 5th of December, I came home.

09:30 And there was a letter in my house.

09:32 It says, enforcement letter.

09:35 And I was middle of the night.

09:37 And I said, maybe it's a prank.

09:40 Maybe it's not true.

09:42 What is this letter for?

09:43 Because there's nothing written there.

09:45 It says, you owe 17,700, something you need to pay.

09:50 Otherwise, bailiffing people came and they do.

09:52 That was the shocking.

09:54 Middle of the night, I've been ringing around.

09:56 I've got one mortgage advisor.

09:58 I own her.

09:59 She was on the phone with me.

10:01 She texted me.

10:02 She said, have you borrowed money from anyone?

10:05 I said, no, I haven't borrowed any money.

10:07 She said, did you take any loan?

10:08 I said, no, I haven't taken any loan.

10:10 I don't know what is this.

10:12 So then there was a company named Alliance Company,

10:17 you know, insurance company, its name on it.

10:20 We owe it to them.

10:22 Royal Sun Alliance.

10:23 And I said to my daughter, I said, who they are?

10:27 We don't know.

10:28 So she searched and searched and searched and searched

10:31 all night, next morning.

10:33 She's thinking, I'm not sure why we

10:35 just linked to cavity wall because it's less is below.

10:40 Then we start ringing SSB law.

10:43 They're not answering the phone.

10:45 Then I ring the enforcement people.

10:47 They said, no, your name-- my name is in county court leads.

10:51 Can you imagine?

10:52 I'm a defaulter.

10:54 My whole credit history has been demoted.

10:58 My credit card has been suspended.

11:01 I couldn't sleep.

11:02 I couldn't sleep for one second those 10 days

11:06 to arrange the money.

11:08 First I was thinking I sold my jewelry.

11:11 And then when I go to jewelers, it's

11:13 not much more worth of the money.

11:16 Then my daughter and my son-in-law, they helped me.

11:21 I spoke with my sister.

11:22 She's my friend and she's my boss as well.

11:26 She told me fill N94 or 9242 form

11:31 to send it to the court and ask them.

11:33 They can give you some time.

11:35 So I sent it.

11:37 But then another ring leads court.

11:39 I ring there.

11:40 And they said, you have to pay because your name is there.

11:45 There's money you have to pay for it.

11:48 I don't know how we survive.

11:51 I don't know why they don't do us.

11:54 And it's like my daughter, she's on Facebook.

11:58 She saw so many people are crying in the same situation.

12:03 There's one lady, she was 70-year-old.

12:05 She needed to pay 38,000.

12:08 In my street, another person, she paid 15,000.

12:12 You know, it's not only one person.

12:14 It's so many people.

12:16 It's really hard for me.

12:17 And I'm just every day thinking how we're

12:20 going to repay this money back.

12:22 I know I pay the bill to the court

12:26 because I don't want to be put my name into the Leeds County

12:29 Court, stay as a defaulter.

12:33 Staying is affecting my mortgage.

12:35 It's affecting my credit history.

12:38 It's affecting my daily life.

12:40 You know, it's embarrassment.

12:42 So I pay the bill.

12:44 I have to pay those 18,000.

12:47 I don't know how I'm going to pay.

12:48 We'll do everything that we possibly

12:53 can to get you some justice for what you've been through.

12:57 I'm so sorry that this has happened to you.

13:00 Some of the local people who've contacted me for help,

13:03 these bills, these legal bills, enforcement actions,

13:06 telling them that they owe in some circumstances

13:09 22,000 pounds, 32,000 pounds.

13:12 A lot of these enforcement notices

13:13 dropped just before Christmas, completely out of the blue.

13:17 People are telling me that this has ruined their lives.

13:20 These are people who are approached

13:22 because they were eligible for the Cavity Wall installation

13:24 schemes in the first place, often

13:25 because they were in receipt of some form of welfare support.

13:29 These people are just about managing,

13:31 are already on the poverty line.

13:32 They've then got these thousands of pound bills

13:34 that they just can't afford.

13:37 It's an absolute travesty.

13:38 If you've been affected, please do go to your MP.

13:41 We are going to have to work together

13:43 to try and get government to respond to this

13:45 and the other regulators who really

13:47 should have been involved in the start and are working on it

13:49 now.

13:50 This is all helping to raise the profile

13:52 of the scale of the injustice so we can try and get

13:56 a fair solution for those people who've

13:58 been so affected by this absolute scandal.

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