Couple left 'homeless' after their £1 million Chislehurst home flooded by raw sewage
A couple has been left “homeless” after their £1 million south-east London home was flooded with raw sewage.
Buster and Patricia Price have been forced to move in with their youngest son following the incident, which they believe was caused by work carried out along their street by Thames Water.
Two weeks on, they say the water company is still “refusing” to take responsibility for what happened and have slammed its “pathetic” response.
Mr Price, a 70-year-old former headteacher, returned home from the shops around 10.30am on May 15, to find the downstairs of his house destroyed.
“I opened the front door and found the entire ground floor covered in a lake of sewage,” he told the Standard. “Raw, untreated sewage.”
A builder who was fixing Mr Price’s garden fence outside said Thames Water was carrying out work up the road.
“He dragged in two Thames Water people who were working up the street,” said Mr Price. “They said oh my God, what have we done?”
Mr Price said Thames Water had “just cleaned out a sewer and it's backed up into my house”.
“The conservatory was three inches deep in a sea of brown, with floating bits of excrement.
“The entire kitchen floor was covered in excrement. The bathroom was just a nightmare. There were huge lumps of faeces....the bathroom - the toilet was overflowing with brown water, toilet paper and human waste.”
He said an office-come-spare bedroom was “awash” with sewage, including a sofa bed which was “covered with excrement”.
“Chislehurst is quite a leafy, affluent suburb...and my house was worth about a million pounds,” he added. “It's not now.
“I'm trying to make light of it because I'm on the brink of tears most of the time.”
Thames Water sent cleaners to clear up the mess. Mr Price says they did a “reasonable” job, but the entire ground floor needs to be “gutted”.
He said raw sewage is still beneath the range cooker and in its vents, under the roll-top bath, behind skirting boards, and affecting the under-floor heating.
“We’re going to have to have the entire ground floor gutted, including antique furniture, the entire kitchen,” he said. “It's all started to grow mould, and it stinks incredibly.”
Mr and Mrs Price have lived in their home for 16 years, but have been forced to move in with their youngest son, and his pregnant partner.
“There's a second bedroom which my wife is using - it's only a single bed,” said Mr Price. “So I'm sofa surfing, at the age of 70.
“We are homeless. We're going to be homeless at Christmas I suspect, because by the time we've sorted this out financially and get the work which is necessary, then I suspect we will not be [home] at Christmas.”
Mr Price says he estimates the remedial works will cost “minimum £100,000” for the building work alone, while they will also have to throw out “valuable antiques” and other belongings”
He branded Thames Water’s response “pathetic”.
He said the water firm has not taken responsibility for the damage, and instead told him to contact his insurers to foot the bill.
“Having taken retirement to avoid the stress which kills so many headteachers early, I didn't realise I was going to come up against Thames Water,” he said.
“Every day it goes on I get more and more stressed, and my wife gets more and more upset,” he said.
“Thames Water should hold their hands up and take full responsibility for what's happened. But Thames Water are a law unto themselves.”
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry that Mr Price has experienced internal sewer flooding at his home.
“We know just how unpleasant and distressing this can be and have been working with him to resolve this matter.
“Our specialist contractors have completed an in-depth clean up at Mr Price’s home, and he is being supported by one of dedicated Customer Representatives as we continue to review this incident."
