A woman who approached her local council to request a bigger house so she could better care for her autistic son, says she was offered a 'house of horrors'.
Twenty-six-year-old Danielle, who has two kids and is a full-time carer for her little boy, approached the council in April, the Mirror reports.
But she says she was shocked when shown the 'horrible' property she was offered, which had swear words sprayed on walls and holes in the floorboards.
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Danielle says she was offered a viewing of a three-bedroom property in Northfield, Birmingham, and was hoping it would be the perfect home for her family.
However, when she got to the property she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
She told the paper: "I was fifth on the council's list when I was offered the viewing so I was pleased to get there. Now I know why I was able to get one.
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"I went to see it expecting to have to do some work to it, but I did not expect to fall through the floor boards.
"If my sister had not been there to catch me I would have been flat on my face.
"There was an exposed electrical box and metre that would be a real danger to my son. He would not think twice about playing with something like that.
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"Even the council worker who showed us around was shocked by the state of everything. It was the first time he had been there himself and told us several times we should not have seen it in that state.
"As soon as he saw the swearing on the walls he told us to wait downstairs while he checked to make sure upstairs was okay.
"The kitchen had a sink and one or two cupboards. That was it. The rest of the rooms were horrible, the garden was overgrown with brambles and there were holes in the ceilings.
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"I've never seen anything that bad before. It was like a house of horrors."
The mum told the paper she needs a bigger house as currently her autistic son is forced to share a bed with his sister. She said 'he needs his own space' or it gets difficult to deal with him; but that the property offered wasn't fit for purpose.
She said: "I realise when you move into these places you have to do a bit of work.
"I was expecting to have to paint all the walls and redo the floors. But this was beyond anything I had imagined. The place was disgusting.
"The council could not tell me whether they were going to wire and redo the bathroom and the kitchen, which would be necessary to be able to live there.
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"So I had to turn it down. But then they counted my rejection as one of my two refusals when I was told it would not be. I had to ring the council and get them to change it."
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson told the Mirror the mum 'has not been penalised for refusing this property and is still entitled to two offers'.
Source: Mirror
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