Couple endure punishing two-year legal battle over damp, mouldy home

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. And on top of this, they claim the council added them to a register of potentially violent customers - which Mr Iyinolakan said made him feel like a “common criminal”. Mr and Mrs Iyinolakan took Southwark Council to court in October 2022 over the ongoing disrepair in their home, for wrongly being put on the potentially violent customers register, and for breaches of their human rights. Before the couple went to court, the Housing Ombudsman found Southwark Council guilty of maladministration in May 2022 over their failure to deal with mould in the couple’s home and for wrongly putting them on a register for potentially aggressive customers. Ms Iyinolakan spoke about the impact the case has had on her family, saying: “We feel like we are being vilified and punished for trying to hold Southwark council to account.” When The Independent visited their home last week, black mould was growing on the wall of their daughter’s room and water was seeping from the ceiling down towards the headboard of her bed.