A grieving mum has spoken out about the pain caused by being trapped in the house her two-year-old daughter died in because of a row between two companies over the cost of work done to a footpath.
Stacy-Marie Nicklin, 37, has been waiting since October to move out of the Stoke-on-Trent house where her infant daughter, Harper-Lee Fanthorpe, swallowed a button battery and passed away nearly two years ago.
StokeonTrentLive learned that a standoff between a property developer and an electrical company over how much the work should cost is what’s causing delays to her family's move.
READ MORE: 'I'm trapped in the new build house my two-year-old daughter died in because of row over footpath'
The two companies, a property developer and an electrical company, are fighting over £7,000 while Stacy and her two daughters have been living out of boxes in the home where their two-year-old family member died.
Unable to go on living among the painful memories of her daughter’s death, the grief-stricken mum planned to move from her home in Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent, to a new-build house located around two miles away.
But delays caused the move to be repeatedly called off, despite Stacy packing up her entire life and paying for removal men several times, as well as taking multiple unpaid days off work.
Stacy says the situation is taking a heavy toll on her and her daughters Kylie, 14, and 19-year-old Jamie-Leigh.
"After Harper died, I tried but just couldn’t carry on living here, because of all the painful memories", she said.
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"[Our] living room is where Harper was bleeding from the mouth as the battery burned her insides.
"I couldn’t take being here again on her birthday or at Christmas", she added.
Stacy was told by Staffs Housing, the housing association behind the new build scheme, that her move-in date would likely be in early December last year because "a few bits needed to be completed", after she was previously being told that her family could move to their new home in October.
But SAS Associates, the company contracted to complete electrical connections for the new-build homes, says it was told by the city council on December 1 that a complaint had been made about the length of the pedestrian diversion, which it says the council had previously approved.
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The electrical contractor claims it said it would make relevant changes, but was told the "change to traffic management" couldn’t be approved until January, causing further delays.
On top of this, SAS says that its revised bill for making the changes to the diversion and finishing the work was rejected by the property developer, Arthur Roberts & Sons Ltd.
A spokesperson for Kamar Developments, the sub-contractors on site, said the bill received from SAS is to the tune of £16,000, while SAS said the initial sum for the final connection work had been set back in September at £9,000 as long as there were no variations.
But SAS says the extra work needed to satisfy the complaint filed in December means that the job has changed, and "under our terms and conditions works cannot be undertaken until variations are agreed".
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The Kamar Developments spokesperson said: "I can assure you we’ve done our utmost to get this sorted but it’s the independent connections provider, SAS Utilities. They’ve turned around and said ‘We’re not coming back until you’ve paid this variation in full,’ which obviously at the moment I’m not prepared to do.
"We want people to be in there, as soon as possible because I want to be out, I want the job finished", the spokesperson added.
They said that while the houses are complete, the company is unable to certify the electrical utilities as it can’t inspect and test them.
As the petty row rages on, work has now stopped. And Stacy says she can’t move on with her life.
"I would just beg them all to sort this out. It’s just dragging our nightmares out for longer and longer. We’re so desperate to move and get out of this house, we’d dig the hole ourselves if we needed to", she said.
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Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which manages the housing waiting list, says it is in touch with Staffs Housing over Stacy’s move.
Tim Sheail, Director of Housing Services at Staffs Housing, said he had every sympathy with Stacy.
"The project has been significantly delayed because of problems with utility connections which are beyond our direct control", he said.
"We really sympathise with Stacy and the other residents who were due to move into their new homes last year.
"We understand how frustrating the delays are and realise how difficult this has been. Our Housing Team has been in regular contact with all future residents and we will continue to do all we can to support them", he added.
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