Nottingham mum traumatised after 'dangerous' garden wall crashed into house
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A mum says she has been left with PTSD after her garden wall crashed into the house in the middle of the night - which could cost up to £30k in repairs.
Lucy Gawthorpe, 33, says she was awoken by a loud bang at around 4am on February 9 and rushed downstairs to see water spraying out across the kitchen.
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Hide AdThe 30-year-old garden wall had crashed through the conservatory window of the family home in Nottingham.
After a panicked frenzy to turn the water off, Lucy and her partner attempted to claim through their insurancers - but were told the company would not be helping.
More than two months on and the pair say they are worried about their safety - especially that of their two-year-old.
“It shook the whole house”
Lucy, who works as an accountant, said: “It woke me up because it shook the whole house.
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Hide Ad“I had no idea what had happened, and I could hear hissing water, so I went to check it out. There was water spraying out everywhere in the kitchen.
“I started panicking and woke up my partner to turn the water off. If we hadn’t done that the kitchen would have been destroyed too.
“We put some props up ourselves to try and stop it from falling, but they have done nothing to help us.”
The family say they have still received no help from their insurance providers, Policy Expert, and say they have been told contradictory reasons why.
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Hide AdLucy says at first the company claimed it was due to poor weephole drainage, which was disproved when a contractor came to look at the wall.
She then claims that the company changed their story, stating the wall’s "poor design" was why they couldn’t pay out.
The family say they have been left in a state of distress, with their toddler and pet dog unable to play in the garden and a looming risk that they could be out tens of thousands of pounds.
“My daughter can’t play in the garden”
Lucy said: “I have a two-year-old in the house and if that falls on her then she is dead.
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Hide Ad“It could fall at any time so we can’t use the garden. It is just going to get worse and worse.
“My daughter wants to go out and play in the garden, but she can’t, it’s just too dangerous.
“It is so unsafe that when contractors have come to check it out, they are too scared to go near it. Yet they are letting my toddler live here next to it. They don’t care about us.
“It is affecting me so much. I have the stress of dealing with all these people and the fear that this could all cost me £20-30K. We don’t have that amount of money to pay out on a wall.
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Hide Ad“This is going to cost us a fortune and I just don’t understand, what is the point of having insurance if they can’t help us.
"Every time it rains that wall gets worse and worse. They can’t just leave it like that and make us sit and wait for disaster to strike.
“They say that the wall isn’t up to today’s standards, but it wasn’t built today it was built 30 years ago, and it was up to standard then.”
Since the incident the mum of one says her mental health has hugely suffered as she lives in constant fear of the wall collapsing again.
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Hide AdShe said: “Every time I hear a loud noise I am worried that the wall has fallen again. It scares me now when I see people leaning on walls.
“I have got PTSD from it all, I now have a terrible fear of walls.”
What the insurance company says:
A representative of Policy Expert and Trinity Claims said: “We understand how distressing an event of this nature must have been for Miss Gawthorpe.
"Following our own surveyor’s inspection we also appointed an independent Structural Engineer, both reached the same conclusion, that the failure of the wall was caused by an inherent defect and therefore not covered under the home insurance policy.
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Hide Ad"We appreciate how disappointing this must have been for Miss Gawthorpe, but we are satisfied that our expert’s opinion is correct, and we have offered to cover the cost of the damage caused to her conservatory.”
*Words by Isobel Williams for SWNS.
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