Yorkshire Post speaks to victims in Halifax who have been affected by the Cavity wall scandal....
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00:00 I'm Holly Lynch, I'm the Labour MP for Halifax and I've been approached by now up to 13 constituents
00:07 who have all been impacted by what can only be described as a scandal upon a scandal.
00:13 We've known for a number of years that there have been constituents who were approached
00:17 by cavity wall insulators saying that they could have a government funded scheme where
00:22 they'd have insulation in their walls.
00:25 Unfortunately, I can only describe some of these companies as cowboys because that cavity
00:29 wall insulation has done damage to people's homes and properties, creating mould, damp
00:35 and damaging their homes.
00:37 They were then approached by legal firms saying they would take on their cases on a no win
00:43 no fee basis.
00:46 When SSB law folded, those constituents then received enforcement notices for thousands
00:53 and thousands of pounds telling them that they had to pick up that legal bill that they
00:57 had no idea they were eligible for.
01:00 Not only have they suffered this damage to their properties that should never have happened
01:03 in the first place, they've then got these thousands of pounds legal bills that they've
01:08 been told they have to pay.
01:10 We think that there are hundreds, possibly thousands of people affected by this across
01:16 the North.
01:17 I've raised it in the House of Commons and other MPs have as well.
01:21 This issue around poor quality cavity wall insulation costing people hundreds if not
01:26 thousands of pounds to correct should never have been allowed to happen.
01:31 These were government finance schemes that should have been regulated properly in the
01:35 first place.
01:36 They weren't.
01:37 That is the first scandal and injustice.
01:39 Secondly, we need to have a look at the regulation of law firms to make sure something like this
01:44 can never happen again.
01:45 If there's a legal loophole where somebody signs up on a no win no fee basis but then
01:50 that law firm collapses, they shouldn't be eligible for those legal fees which are now
01:55 absolutely driving people into debt, poverty and abject fear about how they're going to
02:01 respond to this.
02:03 The government needs to do a comprehensive review of how this injustice has been allowed
02:08 to happen.
02:09 I'm going to keep fighting for that in Parliament.
02:11 My name's Nigel Goody and I'm from Halifax.
02:14 It's affected me personally.
02:15 For the last four and a half years I didn't know how to repair my house.
02:20 I was under the impression that it was going to get a core casing that would get paid
02:24 all the damages and then I got nothing back at all.
02:28 I got a letter out of the blue in August to say the core casing had been dropped because
02:32 they couldn't win it.
02:33 And the next thing in October I had bailiffs on the door knocking for a massive debt that
02:39 I had incurred.
02:40 I would like the authorities to make more legislation towards these rogue traders who
02:46 do the job in the first place and people like SSB Law that come in and try to make money
02:52 out of it.
02:55 To say I was shocked and stunned with my own statement, I went into panic mode and I phoned
03:00 up SSB Law and they said, "Oh, it's a mistake, don't worry, we'll sort it out, we'll pass
03:04 it on to the Finance Department."
03:06 Nothing happened for a week, phoned them back up again and said, "We'll sort it out, it
03:09 should have been sorted, we'll put it on to the Finance Department again."
03:12 And I said, "Should I phone the Enforcement Agents?"
03:14 They said, "No, leave it with us."
03:16 I decided to phone them anyway and they came round and sorted it out and fortunately my
03:21 debt was actually cleared by the end of October.
03:24 But I didn't know anything about it until the beginning of October.
03:27 One personal friend of mine has been affected and there's quite a few people out there,
03:32 I'm actually in the same book, but a lot worse than me, where they haven't got the fact that
03:35 their debt's paid.
03:36 It's made me feel very angry.
03:40 You take on these things in good faith and good trust and you think they come along and
03:44 cold call and they're going to do all the right things for you and you just get let
03:48 down after four and a half years of waiting for it to just drop like a hot potato.
03:52 Not fun.
03:53 You know, it's a very, very terrible scam and it affects me too much.
04:00 I can't work properly, we can't sleep, me and my wife, you know, and it affects our
04:08 daily business as well.
04:11 And the amount what is mentioned in the enforcement notice, it's always revolving my mind and
04:22 wherever I go I have to have this notice in mind all the time that I have to pay 18, 19,000.
04:32 And, yeah.
04:34 I feel terrible, you know.
04:38 Why I have to pay this amount because I can't explain it because the thing is the company
04:49 came in my property and they have a contract with me with no win, no fee.
04:57 But I don't know what they are doing behind the scene.
05:01 But at the end I got the enforcement notices that I have to pay this amount.
05:08 This is shocking, you know, for me and it affects my daily business, daily life as well.
05:18 My kids, you know, ask me that, "Dad, why have you, have you done anything wrong?
05:27 Why are you paying this amount?"
05:29 You know, and the enforcement agent one day they came in my property and my son, my kids
05:36 were getting ready for the school and the enforcement, he phoned me from my son's mobile
05:47 and soon I picked him, I said, "Hello?"
05:50 And the enforcement agent, he speaks on my, on my, on the other hand, and I got a note
05:58 that there is something wrong in my property.
06:04 And then my son knows that I have to pay and he said that, "Dad, I don't want to be homeless."
06:14 And after that I decided that I will pay this amount.
06:21 No matter I have to pay or not, I need to get rid of this problem.
06:28 I don't, I'm very, very, very, very, you know, I can't explain this, what affects it.
06:38 It was in around 2015.
06:44 Roughly I'm saying like my neighbor wrong and they said there is a company came and
06:48 they want to do insulation to make the houses more warmer.
06:54 And they said it's from the government.
06:56 So you all guys are eligible to do that.
06:59 You want to do it.
07:00 I said, yeah, everybody is doing and it's government's.
07:03 And I was at work and I said, yeah, that's fine.
07:08 2016 I had a pneumonia, really seriously, because my house started molding and I had
07:16 a pneumonia and my son has a pneumonia as well.
07:20 And I went to the hospital with sepsis with five flag blue siren.
07:25 I went to the hospital with sepsis pneumonia.
07:28 And I didn't know that mold can be that dangerous to us.
07:34 But it was moldy.
07:35 I keep changing my wallpaper.
07:37 I keep changing my house decoration and everything.
07:41 I didn't think about it.
07:42 Then there's a gentleman came into my street with a paper and pen.
07:46 And he said to me, like, oh, some companies came to do and damage your property.
07:52 You want to claim against them.
07:54 And I said, no.
07:55 I said, please leave us alone, because some of them came and they said this has happened.
08:00 Now you came now and telling me that you're going to be fix it.
08:04 So I'm not interested because I don't have any time.
08:06 There's a company SSB Law.
08:09 And the gentleman who dealing us called Nigel.
08:13 He was their representative.
08:16 And they asked me, like, this is happening.
08:19 Lots of people are involved.
08:21 So as a-- what I'm saying, as an innocent person, as an innocent citizenship, we are
08:27 all saying, yes, if this law, SSB Law is a big company.
08:33 So they're definitely going to help us.
08:36 And I said, yeah, I've been involved.
08:38 What going to be happen?
08:39 He said, we're going to be claimed against us, and you're going to be medical negligence
08:45 and everything.
08:46 So you can-- your case is quite brighter.
08:49 So you need to put your stuff inside.
08:52 Give me your discharge letter from hospital, which I provided.
08:55 He took the pictures from my house.
08:57 He saw the mold and everything.
08:59 I gave the evidence of my son had the stitching in lungs.
09:02 And he was-- he said, your case is very strong.
09:06 And he keep asking every time, sign this paper, sign this paper.
09:11 So it's come through via email.
09:12 And we keep signing.
09:14 We keep giving them.
09:15 It says, no win, no fee.
09:16 And we asked them, like, do we need to pay anything?
09:20 And they said, no, no, you don't need to pay anything.
09:22 You don't need to worry about it.
09:24 We will do everything for you.
09:26 December, 5th of December, I came home.
09:30 And there was a letter in my house.
09:32 It says, enforcement letter.
09:35 And I was middle of the night.
09:37 And I said, maybe it's a prank.
09:40 Maybe it's not true.
09:42 What is this letter for?
09:43 Because there's nothing written there.
09:45 It says, you owe 17,700, something you need to pay.
09:50 Otherwise, bailiffing people came and they do.
09:52 That was the shocking.
09:54 Middle of the night, I've been ringing around.
09:56 I've got one mortgage advisor.
09:58 I own her.
09:59 She was on the phone with me.
10:01 She texted me.
10:02 She said, have you borrowed money from anyone?
10:05 I said, no, I haven't borrowed any money.
10:07 She said, did you take any loan?
10:08 I said, no, I haven't taken any loan.
10:10 I don't know what is this.
10:12 So then there was a company named Alliance Company,
10:17 you know, insurance company, its name on it.
10:20 We owe it to them.
10:22 Royal Sun Alliance.
10:22 Royal Sun Alliance.
10:23 And I said to my daughter, I said, who they are?
10:27 We don't know.
10:28 So she searched and searched and searched and searched
10:31 all night, next morning.
10:33 She's thinking, I'm not sure why we
10:35 just linked to cavity wall because it's less is below.
10:40 Then we start ringing SSB law.
10:43 They're not answering the phone.
10:45 Then I ring the enforcement people.
10:47 They said, no, your name-- my name is in county court leads.
10:51 Can you imagine?
10:52 I'm a defaulter.
10:54 My whole credit history has been demoted.
10:58 My credit card has been suspended.
11:01 I couldn't sleep.
11:02 I couldn't sleep for one second those 10 days
11:06 to arrange the money.
11:08 First I was thinking I sold my jewelry.
11:11 And then when I go to jewelers, it's
11:13 not much more worth of the money.
11:16 Then my daughter and my son-in-law, they helped me.
11:21 I spoke with my sister.
11:22 She's my friend and she's my boss as well.
11:26 She told me fill N94 or 9242 form
11:31 to send it to the court and ask them.
11:33 They can give you some time.
11:35 So I sent it.
11:37 But then another ring leads court.
11:39 I ring there.
11:40 And they said, you have to pay because your name is there.
11:45 There's money you have to pay for it.
11:48 I don't know how we survive.
11:51 I don't know why they don't do us.
11:54 And it's like my daughter, she's on Facebook.
11:58 She saw so many people are crying in the same situation.
12:03 There's one lady, she was 70-year-old.
12:05 She needed to pay 38,000.
12:08 In my street, another person, she paid 15,000.
12:12 You know, it's not only one person.
12:14 It's so many people.
12:16 It's really hard for me.
12:17 And I'm just every day thinking how we're
12:20 going to repay this money back.
12:22 I know I pay the bill to the court
12:26 because I don't want to be put my name into the Leeds County
12:29 Court, stay as a defaulter.
12:33 Staying is affecting my mortgage.
12:35 It's affecting my credit history.
12:38 It's affecting my daily life.
12:40 You know, it's embarrassment.
12:42 So I pay the bill.
12:44 I have to pay those 18,000.
12:47 I don't know how I'm going to pay.
12:48 We'll do everything that we possibly
12:53 can to get you some justice for what you've been through.
12:57 I'm so sorry that this has happened to you.
13:00 Some of the local people who've contacted me for help,
13:03 these bills, these legal bills, enforcement actions,
13:06 telling them that they owe in some circumstances
13:09 22,000 pounds, 32,000 pounds.
13:12 A lot of these enforcement notices
13:13 dropped just before Christmas, completely out of the blue.
13:17 People are telling me that this has ruined their lives.
13:20 These are people who are approached
13:22 because they were eligible for the Cavity Wall installation
13:24 schemes in the first place, often
13:25 because they were in receipt of some form of welfare support.
13:29 These people are just about managing,
13:31 are already on the poverty line.
13:32 They've then got these thousands of pound bills
13:34 that they just can't afford.
13:37 It's an absolute travesty.
13:38 If you've been affected, please do go to your MP.
13:41 We are going to have to work together
13:43 to try and get government to respond to this
13:45 and the other regulators who really
13:47 should have been involved in the start and are working on it
13:49 now.
13:50 This is all helping to raise the profile
13:52 of the scale of the injustice so we can try and get
13:56 a fair solution for those people who've
13:58 been so affected by this absolute scandal.