A COUPLE found themselves emptying buckets every hour day and night as a leaky roof made their lives a misery.

Jamie and Sherry Reeves moved into their council home at Whitebeam Court in September last year.

Since then they say they’ve seen it fall apart because constant water leaks have caused damage and made it smell.

Mum of three Sherry told the Adver: “We have had this issue from the get go, the smell in the house is like an old wet attic or a wet dog. Luckily we haven’t decorated because that would have been ruined.

“All the paint work has been ruined in my daughters room. Kelsey’s only two, bless her. It stinks in there. She has had to sleep with us and its been like that for three weeks now and it’s a nightmare.”

The leaks became worse after the recent heavy rainfall in Swindon. As a result of the prolonged downpours Sherry and Jamie had to empty the four buckets they had put out every hour.

"When it was pouring it down it was a lot worse. We had to put a screwdriver through the ceiling to let out the water," said Sherry.

“It’s mainly the sleep and the smell.I feel conscious of people coming in the house and smelling it so I don’t let anyone in.

“It’s a nightmare the last few days it has been the worst, I’m really at the end of my tether with this.”

She said housing officer from the borough council came out to look at the house and was shocked.

They were told someone would be sent out to take a proper look, but no one arrived. Last year air vents were changed because they were letting water through, but the roof had not been touched despite several calls to the authority about the problem.

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said yesterday: “We were first alerted to an issue with our tenant’s roof in September last year which was caused by some vents that were allowing water to leak into the property.

"This problem was fixed and it was not until the end of July this year that we received a call to say there was a further leak in the roof.

“Unfortunately, due to a recent shortage of staff we were not able to get back out to our tenant’s home until today, which we accept is just not good enough, especially with the recent wet weather we have experienced.

"We have done some initial work to repair the ceiling today and have made arrangements for our roofing team to fix the underlying issue on Monday.”