A desperate mum says she and her children are suffering from constant illness after being forced to live in a freezing mould-ridden house which is 'worse than a squat'.

Tracey Sayle, 49, has been living alongside sickening mould and damp in her housing accommodation in Stoke-on-Trent for the past three-and-a-half years.

She says she and her three daughters, aged 20,13, and 11-years-old, have been left with multiple ongoing coughs, colds and infections as a result of their ongoing ordeal. 

Her 13-year-old's bedroom has been condemned as 'unliveable' and she now sleeps in the lounge (Sophie Watson).

Housing association inspectors also ordered Tracey to keep a bedroom window open at all the times to combat the issue forcing them to live in freezing conditions.

She has made multiple complaints to Midland Heart Housing Association over the last three years but yet the problem remains at their three-bedroomed house. 

Tracey, a carer to her youngest daughter, says the mould has had a detrimental effect on her family's physical and mental health as well as destroying furniture and clothes.

She said: "The mould is disgusting and has caused thousands of pounds of damage to this house.

"When the inspectors from Midland Hart came out, they condemned one of the bedrooms and said they had never seen a bedroom that looked as bad.

"We are constantly ill with coughs and colds. The kids constantly ask 'please get us out'.

"All the doors are rotten in this house, the inside of kitchen cupboards have had mould in them and started to fall off.

An example of one of Tracey's rotton doors (Sophie Watson).

"We've lost furniture to it too and clothes. How many wardrobes, chest of drawers and clothes do we have to lose before the problem is sorted?

"We've had to get rid of so many clothes and shoes because of the mould.

"The house is freezing cold all the time because we have been told to keep the windows open and it's awful.

"I suffer badly with asthma and have had to have my inhalers changed so many times in the past few years and have been given stronger inhalers because of the damp.

"One of my daughters has suffered with mental health issues because of it. It has got that bad she struggles to get out of bed and up for school.

"It has caused so many arguments in the house as well because lots of my daughter's items have been ruined.

"They just want to have nice things and the mould is ruining them. They are embarrassed to bring friends back to our house.

"I have put so much money into this house for nothing and I feel like I'm living in a squat. In fact, I've seen better squats.

"We can't even decorate, we've tried. I'm just at my wit's end now and I don't know where to turn. My hands are tied and I'm trying to do my best."

Tracey moved into the rented £440 a-month property in the Tunstall area of the city five years ago in August 2017.

After only a year and a half of living in the house, Tracey started to notice pools of condensation and black spores in her house (Sophie Watson).

The mould first appeared in her eldest daughter's bedroom and in the last three-and-a-half years it has spread into all the upstairs rooms of the property.

Tracey says she first reported the problem to Midland Heart Housing Association in 2019 and a visit was made to the property to 'wash off the mould'.

The mould then returned, and Tracey says she has lodged multiple complaints to her social landlord since then.

Since making the first complaint, the mould has now been rectified in two of the bedrooms, but her daughter's room remains infested with black spores.

Mould also remains on the back door to the property and on many windowsills in the house.

Last week, Midland Heart sent out a damp and mould surveyor to the property and in his report, he condemned the 13-year-old's mouldy bedroom.

Tracey was ordered to keep her daughter's bedroom windows open at all times, keep the door shut and put a towel at the bottom of the door following the inspection.

The gran-of-one added: "I want a nice house, but my heart is not in this house anymore. I am done. I am ready to go and move out.

"I've even asked for a smaller property so we can just get out of this one."