A husband and wife have taken a stand against poor living conditions by serving ‘damp wall’ ice cream and ‘leaking ceiling’ lollies outside their letting agents’ office.

Leva Grigelionyte, 33, and Harry Schone, 30, claim nothing is being done about the mould and leaks in their flat, despite numerous complaints.

They say the mould is so bad that they can taste it and it began growing on their clothes but say their landlord has failed to carry out essential repairs.

Feeling powerless, the pair decided to get creative by handing out free ice cream inspired by their squalid conditions today outside the Glasgow office of letting agents 1st Lets.

Artist Leva used activated charcoal, Oreo cookie crumbs, blue cheese and a few other ingredients to make the treats, available in flavours such as ‘black mould’, ‘leaking ceiling’ sorbet and ‘damp walls’.

The couple first reported leaks at their property in March 2019 and are still getting them now, but as they like the neighbourhood so much, they remained hopeful that a solution could be found.

Having been promised the issues would get sorted soon, the pair were furious when they got an eviction notice in October because the landlord wanted to sell up.

The couple challenged it and are taking the landlord to tribunal. They also got in touch with tenants’ union Living Rent and came up with the plan to stage a protest.

Ieva, originally from Lithuania, said: ‘For over the past two years, we have shared our living space with rain and mould which moved in on the damp walls and ceilings.

‘Being exposed to these conditions made me realise that eviction and mould can be also translated into ice cream.

‘However, this time not with taste but with a visual representation of it, trying to recreate the looks of our peeling off ceiling and black mould.

‘In a way, ice cream has proved to be the right media for getting the message across.’

Data worker Harry, who works for Police Scotland said constant leaking in multiple rooms led to them having ‘black walls’ and mould everywhere.

He added: ‘You could literally taste the mould in your mouth when you were in the flat. It just got worse and worse and started growing on our clothes.

‘Around Christmas 2019 we had five or six pots and pans stationed around the flat, and we couldn’t leave the house for long periods of time.

‘We were onto our letting agent’s with endless emails and phone calls, and they just kept promising to fix it.

‘An environmental health agent even came out and said it was far below the living standard – yet none of it led to the landlord taking action.

‘The protest is about the systemic failures of the housing market to protect vulnerable people who just want somewhere safe and dry to live.

‘Letting agents and landlords refusing to do repairs or take responsibility for the state of properties is common across the city, and they rely on testing people’s patience until they just give up and move on.

‘We hope that by organising this event with Living Rent, we’re able to show people that collective action can be an effective way to highlight the problems and force some accountability.’

However, 1st Lets told the Big Issue that tenants living in the building had been given a rent reduction since January last year and that repairs were carried out on a leaking communal roof area in July.

It said the landlord needed to sell because he had been badly affected by Covid-19 and that the pandemic had led to a delay to remedial works.

A spokesperson added: ‘The tenants are illegally withholding their rent, and have done so for the past three months and have stated that they will only release the rent if their “demands” of payment in excess of £3,000 and a three month extension to remain in the property is agreed with.

‘The eviction process has been carried out legally with the prescribed paperwork and notice period in line with the current temporary legislation in place in regards to any eviction notices set by Scottish ministers.

‘We feel that the actions and comments from the tenants within this property are both unfair and unjust.’

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