AN ELDERLY widow has been forced to live in a dust-filled flat without a living room or proper bedroom because of her landlord's failure to finish improvements.

Ann O'Sullivan, 70, has been fighting to get her landlord Zulfiqau Ali, of Northbank Road, Walthamstow, to finish essential work at her home in Goldsmith Road, Leyton.

A tribunal in April ordered Mr Ali to replace dangerous stairs leading to her bedroom by October. On October 17 builders removed the stairs but did not put new ones in.

Amateur artist Mrs O'Sullivan has had to cover all her paintings and her furnitur to prevent dust from falling into her living room, which is now out of use.

The grandmother-of-four has to sleep on a futon in a small spare room as she cannot access her bedroom on the upper floor and only has a kitchen in which to sit in the evenings.

She said: “I can't do anything at the moment, I can't do my painting, or relax, my whole life is spent in the kitchen and spare room.

“I can't have friends or family around and I can't even begin to think about Christmas.”

Mrs O’Sullivan first called the council in May 2007 to complain about a lack of central heating in her flat.

Officers inspected the property and the authority issued an improvement notice ordering Mr Ali to make several improvements, including replacing the dangerously steep stairs.

The heating has been fixed, but Mr Ali appealed against the improvement notice order.

Mr Ali claimed the council had not taken reasonable steps to ensure landlords are able to meet health and safety requirements.

The tribunal ruled in the council's favour but extended the deadline for the completion of the staircase to October this year.

Mr Ali said he has been liaising with the council and the work will be completing the work within two weeks.

He added that the delay has been caused the difficulty of the stairs design.

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