Government housing poisoned my family, woman claims

A mother of three is taking legal action against the state housing department, alleging she and her children have been left severely unwell by defective appliances in her home of 15 years.

Linda Butler, who rented the West Heidelberg property from the office of housing between 1995 and 2010, has taken legal action in the County Court, seeking damages and costs for illness, depression and pain and suffering.

Ms Butler has accused the director of housing of a failure to keep the house in good repair, specifically by faults through an internal gas heater or hot water service. In her statement of claim, she says insufficient ventilation, air capacity, faulty installation or a failure to maintain, repair or check the appliances led to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide or other noxious and poisonous fumes.

The director was negligent, Ms Butler claims, by installing an internal gas water appliance, but failing to replace it with an external appliance until 2004.

She says the director failed to listen to her complaints and any warnings that internal gas water appliances were dangerous to health due to a potential for carbon monoxide poisoning.

An extractor fan was installed near the internal water appliance, she claims, but the director failed to check if it exacerbated the existing danger it posed or increased the level of noxious fumes. She further alleges there was a failure to ensure adequate ventilation or surrounding oxygen, which also increased the risk of poisoning, and that the director failed to follow applicable regulations and standards as to its installation.

Ms Butler says she and her three children, now aged 28, 25 and 20, were poisoned by the carbon monoxide in the home, and have also sustained nervous shock because of the illness of each other, as well as psychological injury, depression and anxiety and pain and suffering.

This led to medical and psychiatric treatment, Ms Butler alleges, and also to her ceasing work in 2000. She attributes nausea, vomiting, dizziness, memory difficulties, migraine headaches and a loss of energy to the poisoning.

Ms Butler states she has been totally incapacitated since this time, and the schooling of her children was so adversely affected to lead to a marked deterioration in future earning potential.

She claims the director of housing had a duty of care to ensure anyone in the house was not injured due to its state or lack of repair.

The office of housing is yet to file a defence to the claims. Mediation between the parties has failed and the civil case is scheduled for a judge-only trial next month.