Mum traumatised after water gushes from lights at Haven Holiday apartment

A heartbroken mum and her son have been left 'traumatised' after their Haven Holidays apartment flooded - with water gushing from the light fittings 'like a fountain'.

Lisa Johnson had taken her 10-year-old son Harrison Johnson and his school friend to Craig Tara Holiday Park in Ayrshire, Scotland, a fortnight ago. But four days into their stay the 45-year-old heard something pouring onto her apartment floor so rushed to the bathroom to investigate.

Shocking footage shows water gushing down from light fittings 'like a fountain' and flooding the kitchen and living room where the children were. Lisa says she banged at the door of the lodging upstairs but was forced to run to reception with the kids when nobody answered.

The mum claims a plumber found a burst water pipe while an electrician simply removed the light fittings and told her to 'wait for the water to dry'. Lisa says the three of them were left unattended and 'in tears' for almost four hours - and repeatedly having to walk 10 minutes to fetch dry towels to mop up the mess.

Lisa says she was also horrified to see water damage when a site electrician opened her 'damp-smelling' apartment's boiler cupboard. The nuclear energy worker shared clips of the flood and the cupboard to Facebook where she slammed the 'dangerous' situation and explained she's 'heartbroken' over the ordeal.

Haven Holidays say they've refunded the £200 stay and apologised to Lisa that their 'accommodation experienced some maintenance issues'.

Lisa, from Whitehaven, Cumbria, said: "When I heard the water and went into the bathroom, I saw that it was pouring through into the apartment. It was coming from the ceiling lights and the extractor fan like a fountain and the floor was puddling with water.

"The water was tucking underneath the walls and was coming into the kitchen. You could see it coming through the floor from the bathroom into the kitchen so I didn't know where to put the children.

"I thought that somebody was in the shower upstairs. I was by myself with two children so I took them with me upstairs but when I banged on the door I realised the apartment was empty.

"With the water still pouring we ran to the main reception, which is a 10-minute walk, and they said maintenance would come down. I couldn't leave the kids because of the electrics [in the apartment].

"My son saw me crying [about it], it was just traumatic."

Lisa says she's unhappy with the lack of support provided by the site's management team who she claims only send tradies to fix the problem rather than attend themselves.

Lisa said: "The plumber said there's a burst water pipe from upstairs so he went up leaving me on my own. Nobody came to see if I was okay. When the electrician came I said I was by myself with nobody telling me what to do so he took the lights out and said we should wait for the water to dry out.

"I had to run up to reception for more towels because I had no way to stop the water from going further. Someone from maintenance came down and saw I was by myself. He said he'd go back to reception and see what's going on but he never came back.

"Nobody came to see me or console me or help me [after that]. Three or four hours had gone by and obviously that day was gone. I was in tears and the kids were in tears.

"I had to go up for the towels, I had to clean up the mess, there was just nothing, I had to ask if I was going or staying."

Lisa says that her 'horrendous' experience didn't start with the flooding as the apartment was 'dated, smelly and disgusting' anyway.

The 45-year-old claims the sink was leaking on her first day, while issues with Haven's app left her unable to book any activities for one of the days. The mum considered leaving after the flooding incident but decided to stay as there was only one night left and the kids wanted to attend a Halloween-themed disco.

Lisa said: "The general disrepair of the dated apartment [meant that] it just wasn't a great experience overall. If it had happened earlier in the week we would've left but I tried to make the best out of a bad situation on our last night.

"As much as the holiday has been refunded I feel like there has been no compensation for the trauma or for the two days I was left to sort out the apartment when it wasn't my fault."

Lisa posted to Facebook about her experience on Monday [Nov 3rd].

The post said: "Absolutely heartbroken from our five-day stay at Haven Craig Tara Holiday Park. Day four was the worst day. I'm a single parent with two children and the apartment flooded from a burst water tank in the upstairs apartment.

"The maintenance team attempted to fix the problem by just disconnecting the lights and told me it would dry out. You can see from the pics inside the boiler cupboard the dangerous electrics.

"No one from management came, I had to pack up all our things and move to another apartment. I lost a full day, the kids were upset and we heard nothing. A horrible experience."

One commenter wrote: "I'd have packed my stuff up and camped in reception until I got sorted. That's disgraceful. You should get a full refund and compensation."

A Haven Holidays spokesperson said: "We are sorry that our accommodation experienced some maintenance issues and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

"As soon as we were made aware of the issues, alternative accommodation was provided and a full refund was issued. The leaking sink tap was reported and replaced within 24 hours. The guest was moved to new accommodation as soon as further issues were raised.

"The guest received a full refund and a verbal and written apology for maintenance issues in the accommodation."