A local, single mum of two says she feels "dissatisfied" with Kingston Council after being hospitalised due to poor living conditions.

Olivia Eiffert and her children have been living in a one-bedroom property in Surbiton that is riddled with damp and mould for four years.

Eiffert moved into the Surbiton property on 8 November 2021 and first emailed her landlord and Kingston Council about the issue of damp and mould at the end of December 2021.

In an exclusive interview with Nub News, Eiffert said: "I wouldn't even say they [the council] necessarily did anything.

"I mean, between the landlord and themselves, they had to obviously involve the environmental health team, which I've seen so many, so many times."

She explained that while Kingston Council agreed that the mould was "obviously bad" it did not meet its criteria for sorting the issue.

"But they're just there to do their job and follow the criteria as they need to do," Eiffert said.

"And unfortunately, Kingston Council's policies make it very hard for Environmental Health to do anything about it, so it's kind of just pointless help - you can have mould all across your entire house, but it has to be even worse than that to meet the council's criteria."

The mum added: "It has to be something unimaginable for them to step in and do something. So, they've not done anything. They've ignored me."

Desperate to find a new home, the council advised Eiffert to find her own private property.

Eiffert did find her own private property earlier this year only to fall victim to a rental scam despite the council carrying out verification checks on the tenancy and offering Eiffert a loan for the deposit.

Because of this, Eiffert and her children remain in the Surbiton property.

She was hospitalised last week due to an asthma attack caused by the damp and mould, causing her to submit a complaint to the council.

Eiffert told Nub News: "I was hospitalised with an asthma attack while living in a mould-infested, overcrowded one-bedroom flat with my children. These conditions are not just uncomfortable; they are dangerous and can be fatal.

"Yet I'm being told this still isn't considered serious enough for housing support. It makes me genuinely question what has to happen before vulnerable families are protected.

"The Council has acknowledged that a fraudulent landlord slipped through their verification process, but my children and I are the ones living with the consequences, the instability, the stress, and the worsening health impact.

"As a mother, I am simply trying to keep my children safe. No child should be living in conditions that risk their breathing and their lives. This isn't just about us — it raises serious concerns about how many other families are being left in unsafe housing until something catastrophic happens.

In a letter to Kingston Council sent last week, the mum said: "I am writing to formally express my dissatisfaction with the responses I have received so far regarding my housing situation.

"The options being presented to me are not practical solutions. They do not address the ongoing health risks my children and I are facing, and they do not resolve the underlying issue. I feel that I am being provided with delaying responses rather than meaningful action.

"I need to make it clear that I will not accept this situation continuing. The condition of this property is affecting our health. I was hospitalised last week due to an asthma attack, and this is not an isolated incident. There is a documented history of hospital visits, GP appointments, prescriptions for antibiotics, and ongoing treatment for respiratory infections and asthma affecting both myself and my children.

"Despite this, I am being told that I do not have sufficient medical evidence to qualify for the housing register. Given the extensive medical documentation available, this assertion is unreasonable.

"Simply advising me that I will be offered a two-bedroom property "when one becomes available" is not a solution. I require active steps to be taken, including:

• A formal referral to a housing association.
• Direct engagement with the housing register team regarding my medical priority.
• A proper reassessment of the medical evidence already submitted.

"I am also not prepared to continue being palmed off with instructions to complete complaint forms, only to receive the same repeated responses. This is not resolving the issue.

" It is absolutely unreasonable to expect me to keep restarting the same internal processes while my family's health continues to suffer. I have already escalated this matter to the Housing Ombudsman. I should not have to keep chasing the council to house me legally and appropriately. That responsibility sits with you.

"This situation is having a serious impact on our wellbeing, and I believe the current handling of it raises significant legal and safeguarding concerns.

"I am requesting a written response outlining the concrete steps that will now be taken and the timescales involved.

"I expect this matter to be treated with urgency."

The council responded to Eiffert's complaint yesterday (Wednesday 25 February), telling her she needs "to wait for a two-bedroom property to become available," says Eiffert.

She added: "However, the way the Tenant Finder Service works is that they at some point find a property, which they put several families forward to have a viewing for, and then they have said it's not directly up to them in order who gets that property allocated to them.

 "It is ideally up to the Landlord. So, within the nearly five years I've been within the tenant Finder Service, I have only ever been put forward for two properties that I have not been selected for.

"So, the worry comes from how many more am I going to be put forward for that I am not going to get?"

Kingston Council also responded to Eiffert's complaint regarding the rental scam.

In its response, a spokesperson for the council's Housing Team said: "I can confirm that the following verification checks were obtained prior to the Council's agreement to support the tenancy at 12 Woodside."

The checks the council carried out included landlord ID, proof of ownership, and compliance documents.

The council spokesperson said: "Further search made on the database of London Councils for rogue landlords and Agents did not show any results for the named individuals.

"On reviewing the documents presented, I can find no evidence that the Council failed to complete the required diligence prior to the commencement of the letting. However, we have reached out to the Fraud service to request they investigate the allegation of fraud."

They added: "We confirm our investigation found that you approached the Council seeking financial support to secure a tenancy with a landlord you had located independently of our service.

"Regrettably, it subsequently emerged that the individuals lacked the legal authority to grant a tenancy at 12 Woodside, meaning the proposed arrangement could not proceed.

"We sincerely apologise for the resulting impact on your wellbeing and for the financial loss you advise was incurred. I understand that the funds paid to those individuals have since been reimbursed by your bank. Please let us know if this is incorrect.

"The Council's role where asked to provide a loan to you to cover advance rent and deposit payments was to undertake verification checks on the ownership of the letting.

"Based on the information provided to us by Mr Ahmed Sehban Javed and Mr Ayush Satha available at the time, documentation appeared to support the individual's authority to let the property.

"There was no information available to the service at that stage to indicate that the documentation provided was not valid."

Eiffert has created a TikTok account documenting her experiences with Kingston Council.

She said: "I have also set up a GoFundMe page just to try and gather as much of money as possible to try and get myself out of this situation because honestly and truthfully if it is left down to the council, something will probably happen to me or my children."

A Kingston Council spokesperson told Nub News: "We are committed to doing all we can to ensure residents have safe, warm places to live. However, the national housing crisis is a critical situation and there is an acute shortage of social housing nationwide.

"We understand that experiencing tenancy fraud is extremely distressing. We are in regular contact with the resident and have informed her that the council can search for alternative, privately rented accommodation for her if requested. We are also investigating the damp and mould concerns at her current accommodation.

"Following the resident's experience of tenancy fraud, we carried out a review of our actions. We carried out extensive checks on the documents provided by her prospective landlord, including checks of ID documents, land registry and the rogue landlords database. We found no evidence that we failed to complete the required diligence. However we have also asked for a review by the South West London Fraud team and asked that they offer any appropriate recommendations in this matter."