Sussex couple's horror as their home floods with sewage - again

By Henry Bryant
Published 2nd Nov 2023, 16:47 BST
Updated 7th Nov 2023, 11:47 BST
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The Kalinski family believe Southern Water are to blame after their home was flooded with sewage.

On Thursday, November 2, some of the homes in Marshall Close in Bognor Regis was flooded with sewage.

Rich and Syd Kalinski saw their home ‘ruined’ within the space of a a few hours, making their house unsafe to live in.

The couple believe that: “Southern Waters pumps failed and backwashed into our homes… they’ve tested the water and the ammonia levels are off the scale.”

Devastated - The Kalinski family in dispair.Devastated - The Kalinski family in dispair.
Devastated - The Kalinski family in dispair.

This wasn’t the first time this has occurred either, with a similar flooding in the same home this time last year, in November.

Syd Kalinski said: “We’ve lost everything again, last year on the 16th of November something similar happened. We’ve only just moved back in after having everything completely renovated.

Our house was completely filled with a mixture of sewage and water. Our grandson was in the house with our four dogs too. We noticed it at 7.20 am and within half an hour the whole house was underneath.

"Southern Water came out within two hours, but by that time nothing could be done. We could only stand there as we watched what was happening to our home.

Syd Kalinksi inspecting the damage from the flood in her living room.Syd Kalinksi inspecting the damage from the flood in her living room.
Syd Kalinksi inspecting the damage from the flood in her living room.

“We were trying to lift our clothes out of our wardrobe to save as much as we could. When we had flooding last year, the whole kitchen got taken out. We had everything rebuilt and builders in to sort out the kitchen until July. All of our living room was also brand new.

Practically everything in the house was new, we even had an electric sofa worth £3,500 that had to be thrown away because the water had got into it. It's a health hazard, it had to go. The new oak flooring we had in one of the rooms has all come up too, it's now like a bouncy castle in there."

The Kaliniskis were also looking forward to spending Christmas with family in their home. Syd Kalinski added: "We were going to have a. proper Christmas with our children this year, we can't even do that now.

“My grandmother is also meant to be spending a few weeks with us in December, what are we going to do with her? She's 93 years old. What are we to do."