No one noticed this empty Winchester house was flooding for eight weeks because Hampshire County Council locked out the owner's family

Julia Wigger says Hampshire County Council took over her father’s home when he was moved into care but failed to tackle a burst water pipe which left it covered in mould, with rotten carpets, collapsed ceilings and bent floorboards.

The damage was only discovered when a neighbour saw water streaming out of the front door and will cost around £20,000 to repair.

Social services changed the locks on the house in Stoney Lane, Weeke, for security reasons, keeping out Mrs Wigger and other relatives.

Now she is going through “hell” to cover £900-a-week care costs for her navy veteran father, who she asked to not be named.

The 90-year-old, who suffers from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, lived in the house for 30 years but moved to a Winchester care home last March.

“I’m extremely angry with what social services have done to his home,” Mrs Wigger said. “They’re just covering their own backsides through their own incompetence.”

Police broke down the front door to find the house had been abandoned for around two months.

“I went in and it was a total disaster state,” Mrs Wigger said.

“There was already mould, everything is sodden wet, the floorboards are bent, all the pictures are falling out of the frames. Thank God I cleared the house last summer of all the documents and precious family things.”

“It’s my father’s money, it’s my father’s property,” she added. “Social services have abused it.

“I don’t want other families to go through the hell I’m going through now.”

Hampshire County Council said it could not comment on individual cases but suggested responsibility for the house was passed onto a “third party”.

A spokesman said: “It is relatively rare for the county council to take charge of an individual’s property when they enter long-term residential placements. “This is because most people remain well enough to make decisions about their own care and how they wish to finance it – even when they have been diagnosed with dementia or other long-term conditions.”