A DAD suffered a “nervous breakdown” over a home revamp intended to improve the quality of life for his disabled wife and son.

Darren Potter, 45, says the work has made his home in The Glade, Malvern “uninhabitable” for himself, wife Millie, 41, and their son, Kieran, 17, as they struggle without a working kitchen or bathroom while the work is finished.

They have been without their kitchen since Monday and their bathroom since Thursday. He said his wife had to struggle on crutches to a neighbour’s toilet and the family had been forced to rely on expensive takeaways while builders had not even turned up on Wednesday.

The work, he said, was supposed to take between two and three weeks, from October 13, but he has been told it will not be completed until the week beginning Monday, November 17.

Landlord Fortis Living are adapting their home.

Mrs Potter and her son both have myotonic dystrophy, which involves progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Sometimes Mrs Potter uses a wheelchair and finds it very hard and painful to climb the stairs. Their son, who has autistic traits, “lost the plot” because he saw his mum crying over the stress caused by the work, Mr Potter said.

Mrs Potter also suffers from sleep apnoea, which means dust from building work can cause breathing problems, and hidradenitis suppurativa, a painful, long- term skin disease that causes abscesses and scarring on the skin and requires daily bathing to stop infection.

The work on their three- bedroom house includes putting in a disabled ramp, installing a downstairs toilet, re-instating an old access to the kitchen, installing a new upstairs shower and turning the upstairs bathroom and toilet into a single room by demolishing a wall.

The work itself was recommended by occupational therapists and by a worker from Care and Repair, a home improvement agency that is part of the the Fortis Living Group.

The family has been waiting nearly two years for the adaptations to the home after they were initially refused, Mr Potter said, because the family had a small amount of rent arrears.

Mr Potter said: “I have just had a nervous breakdown because of this. I am crying, just constantly shaking.

I just sat in my chair and started crying and shaking like a leaf.

“I’m on really heavy medication — anti-depressants and diazepam. They need to start treating people like people. We are not just numbers in a system.

“My house is uninhabitable. It is disgraceful.”

He added: “We are living in the front room and a bedroom.

“My wife was supposed to stay away because of the risk of dust.

“She was staying with friends in Devon but I had a breakdown and she refused to stay there.”

A spokesperson for Fortis said: “This has been a long standing case involving complex adaptations to provide a ramp, downstairs toilet, kitchen and bathroom adaptations.

“We are acting as an agent for the client in overseeing the project, which has been funded via a grant that has to be applied for and authorised via the local authority.

“The family originally requested a purpose-built extension but were declined funding from the local authority and so changes had to be made in line with the allocated funds — unfortunately, this held up the customer’s original application.

“Due to the nature of this type of work and the funding that has to be applied for from various agencies, these types of jobs can often take many months before works can actually commence.”

She added that plumbing and electrical works were due to be done on Thursday and the kitchen units and flooring are due to be installed early next week.

“The bathroom works have not yet started as the priority is to complete the kitchen works but the project, is currently on target to complete to the original timescale — November 17 (subject to agreement of the recent requested changes),” she said.