HDC puzzled by leaking ceiling at Corinth Hills

AFTER years of complaining to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), 77-year-old Petra Mack took to social media, with the help of her daughter, to plead for a new apartment.

The HDC has since started repair work at her home, but she says the problems are so recurrent that moving would be the better option.

Mack has been living with her 40-year-old daughter Sonya Mack at Corinth Hills for the past seven years.

But approximately two years ago, they began experiencing problems. The major one was a faulty ceiling, through which water from her upstairs neighbour’s showers and toilets would leak.

This has destroyed clothes, shoes, books, electronics, beds and doors, among other things.

She said because the HDC had not been taking them seriously, they arranged to try to cover the ceiling with plastic. But the issue persists.

“HDC keep saying they can’t understand where the water coming from because they have fixed all the pipes upstairs. So my daughter put up this plastic on the ceiling about September last year."

But, she said, "Every morning when we wake up, the place is damp.”

On Tuesday, Facebook page Hard Core News posted a video interview in which she spoke about the problems.

When Newsday visited her home on Friday, HDC workers were there fixing a cupboard.

Mack said the day the video was posted, the corporation contacted her and workers visited her home. They promised to fix the cupboard and the door, the bottom of which has rotted. She has to use bottles to block the space under the door so no unwanted pests or water can come in.

“HDC came and saw the condition of the place and a woman bawl, ‘Oh my God!’ They sent some people from Arima and they knocked out the wall under the sink (in the cupboard) and swept out all the water from under there.”

On the swift response from the HDC after the video went up, she said, “I am feeling happy. Before, people kept saying, ‘She is just a miserable old lady, doh study she.' I glad people came and saw the truth.’

She said they also installed three new handles in her shower.

But when it comes to the leaking ceiling, HDC representatives said they are puzzled, as nothing upstairs is faulty.

Mack said she has been experiencing this for far too long and is asking for a new apartment.

“I don’t care where it is,” she said, “I will take one anywhere. I just can’t keep going on like this where every day, I wake up to the place damp.

“There was a time I had surgery and when I was discharged from the hospital and came home, I had to sleep on a damp bed. And another day, I woke up and the basket with my medication was soaking wet. All my medication get wet.”

Mack said she had been a housewife for most of her life.

Anyone wishing to help can contact Mack’s daughter Sonya at 282-3003.