April 19, 2025

By Asha Patel
For over two years, a family in Shepshed has lived under a leaking roof. A Roofing contractor condemned the roof last year, but nothing has been done.

Their housing association Longhurst Group was notified two years ago by Adam Baker, 51, and Kelly Townsend, 38, about concerns about the roof. Despite taking time off from work to put scaffolding around the house and begin roof repairs, Mr Baker said the work only lasted for a few hours and the problem was not fixed.

As a result of leaks in the bathrooms, he continued to complain and has suffered slips and falls. Longhurst Group officials said the delays are putting him and his family at risk, especially his partially-sighted partner. It has also experienced “substantial backlogs” of work since the pandemic due to a breakdown in communication with a previous contractor.

I kept going back to them and eventually a new contractor came out and took one look at it and condemned it straight away – nothing happened afterwards.” he said.

Despite the roof being unfit for purpose, nothing changed and the weather began to get worse. Mr Baker explained that a shower in April caused havoc on the bathroom ceiling, which later led to a roof leak in the kitchen. “As soon as I opened the door, the same guy recognised the house and he couldn’t believe they hadn’t done anything,” he said. “It’s going to come down at some point, and our daughters are at home. It’s unsafe.”

Due to the fact that the roof had already been condemned, the contractor was unable to do anything about the leak. “It basically leaks whenever it rains,” he said, “and all we can do is keep putting buckets there, but when we’re not in, it just leaks into the kitchen.”

Mr Baker expressed his frustration concerning the roof of their holiday home, which he had called about multiple times. He pointed out that they had been exemplary tenants for the past six years without ever missing a payment, but despite the landlord’s newsletters and surveys, they were not being listened to.

LeicestershireLive intervened and contractors checked the bathroom ceiling; the tenants have been given a six-week timeline for a new roof.

A Longhurst Group spokesperson has admitted that communication failures, resulting in an unsustainable two year wait, have occurred at a customer’s home. Interim measures were previously taken to assuage the problem with the roof but it is now clear that it needs to be completely replaced. They are communicating with their contractor Ian Williams to make arrangements and plan to complete the work within the next couple of months.

We will provide alternative accommodation to our customer and their family if required, expressing our sincere apologies for the prolonged period it has taken us to accurately identify the issues and decide on the steps needed. We have been confronted with major hurdles lately which has obstructed us from delivering a service level that our customers expect from us. This includes rectifying a big backlog of work developed during the pandemic, along with labour and materials supply complications.

Our customers’ service has been improved as a result of appointing new contractors and adding additional resources.” In this case, we have fallen short of the standards we set, and we are determined to complete the required work as quickly as possible and to a high standard.”

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