Almost two years after Tia-Louise Renouf moved into a Guernsey Housing Association property, she and her daughter are still unable to use their garden after inert waste including glass was found in the soil.
“With this being a new build, I completely understood that there would be teething issues however as the first few months went on it was becoming clear that there were issues with the garden,” she told Express. “These issues (included) the ground being rock solid, no grass being grown and it is not level.
“I went and flagged this with the GHA who then got in contact with the contractors who came up to have a look. They advised at the time that it was due to it being new and the weather being hot that this was the result and as time went on it would get better. As a new property owner I assumed this would be the case and left the issue there.”
As time went on Ms Renouf says the situation became worse and she claims she eventually found building materials, inert waste, and shards of glass in the topsoil of her garden.
“I got back in contact with the GHA who was in fact, very hard to get hold of,” she said. “I was constantly chasing before receiving any sort of response.
“Due to the lack of communication from them, I tried to resolve this myself by turning soil, reseeding, pulling up weeds and debris however this was not helping the situation. They finally got in touch and advised that a gardening firm had been contacted to come and take a look.”
Ms Renouf said the situation got worse from here.
“The firm came up and did exactly what I had tried to do to resolve the problem. As mentioned above, I had told the GHA what I had done to resolve this and it had not worked the other times that I had tried however it seems to me this was not communicated as the firm repeated what I had already done and only to a small section of the garden.
“As a result of this, it made the garden worse. At this point I had again gotten in touch with the GHA and it took a while to receive any sort of response. I had chased and provided photos of the garden and I got fobbed off with them telling me that both GHA and the contractors had tried ‘everything they could’ and it was now my issue.
“I sent GHA an email stating that I am dissatisfied with their response and I am yet to receive a reply to this email,” she told Express last week.
Ms Renouf says as a single mother with a young daughter, she decided to take matters into her own hands to try and get the garden ready for use this summer.
“Due to the zero response from the GHA, I have had no choice but to start the process myself to resolve this situation. The first step was to remove the soil that they had originally put down. As this has been removed by hand by friends and family it has come to light that there are chunks of glass, rocks and general building material.
“In total, having now stripped all the top soil out of the garden this has amounted to a total of eight one-tonne bags. I am now having to pay out of my own pocket to get these bags removed professionally from the property. These bags cost £65 per bag to get removed.
“Once these have been removed, I am now having to source top soil that equates to what I have taken out and expected costs are in the region of £520 before labour. This is before reseeding or any other remedial work.”
Ms Renouf says that the moving process was meant to create some security for her family, but claims she has instead been left to foot a four-figure bill.
“This was in the interest of securing our future as a family and a safe home for my daughter during the obvious housing crisis and cost of living crisis alongside each other. I am very grateful that I have a roof over my head and a safe place for me and my daughter, however I pay all this money to GHA but they are not prepared to incur any costs as a ‘landlord’.”
Ms Renouf has been left upset by her experiences as a GHA tenant, which are not what she had expected when she took on a partial ownership property.
She said she wants to make other tenants and potential tenants aware of her situation.
The GHA was initially unable to answer any questions around Ms Renouf’s situation and said it was unaware of the glass being found in her garden until asked about it by Express.
GHA CEO Vic Slade said they now intend to find out how the contaminated topsoil had been used.
She said the topsoil used by the GHA is provided through a third party-contractor.
“We are aware of concerns raised regarding the garden of a partial ownership property and have been in regular contact with the resident for over a year, primarily about the compacted soil and poor grass growth.
“We’re disappointed that the lawn still hasn’t taken, despite recent tilling and re-seeding work carried out by one of our contractors. We work with third-party firms who supply topsoil, and while we set clear quality standards for all of our properties, we can’t fully control how the ground performs over time.
“We were not made aware of any glass in the soil until 25 March when contacted by the media. Our last correspondence with the resident in January referred to rubble and rocks only. The presence of glass is not acceptable, and we’ll be looking into how that occurred as part of our follow-up. We’re sorry this has happened and we will be reaching out to the resident again to work towards a resolution.
“While we understand the resident’s frustration, the gardens are subject to the same natural conditions that affect any outdoor space, such as sunlight and soil quality. We’ve compared this with another nearby property that receives more sun and has a healthy lawn, which suggests the issue with the initial compacted soil is environmental rather than structural.
“We’ve already carried out remedial work as a goodwill gesture and will continue to work with the resident to find a fair solution. We encourage residents to raise any issues through our formal complaints process so we can investigate and respond properly.”