‘THEY should condemn this place’.

Those are the words of two Hampshire families living in a block of flats riddled with damp and mould.

Residents say black spores are spreading through apartments and hallways of the two-storey block in Copper Beeches, Blackfield.

Mum Vicky Richards said conditions are so bad she suffered an electric shock from a wet plug socket, while neighbour Robi Sterian has thrown out hundreds of pounds of mouldy clothes.

Meanwhile they say that rats have colonised the bin store close to both their ground-floor homes.

Now they are demanding housing association Sovereign improves the building they say is making their young families ill.

Mum-of-three Vicky is too scared to use her bedroom socket after a shock “threw her across the room” while using hair straighteners.

She says the damp has penetrated every room of her two-bedroom property – forcing her and partner Leon to replace wallpaper and throw out a pram .

Vicky, 22, fears for the health of their children aged three, 16 months and nine weeks, and said: “It’s a nightmare. There’s mould on clothes and surfaces and my youngest has had a cough ever since he came back from hospital. This building should be condemned – it isn’t liveable or safe.”

Robi says his partner Zoe, 28, and daughter Kenzie, 8, also regularly fall ill with colds while Adela, one, suffered a chest infection.

The 29-year-old catering assistant said: “It’s so wet in here it’s like a cave.

“Replacing things is draining our money and whenever we try to speak to the housing association they don’t want to listen.”

A Sovereign spokesman stressed they had visited residents a number of times to advise them how to reduce humidity while installing extractor fans.

He said: “We are assessing the extent of the problems and how we can resolve them.”

He insisted the bin area is regularly cleaned but that measures to eradicate rats are underway.