A Southampton couple have said they are at breaking point after their £12,000 car was destroyed in a car park flooded with sewage.
Stefania Nuca, 26, and Ionel Stresna, 28, have told of being ‘shocked and devastated’ after walking to the carpark of their building on Chapel Road on Tuesday morning to find their vehicle had been engulfed in sewage.
A spring tide on Monday night caused the drains around the carpark to overflow, and now the couple have been left without a way to pay their rent and bills after already struggling to make ends meet.
Stefania said that after getting the early bus to her job at an IT company in Eastleigh she was horrified when she had a text from her partner Ionel saying their Nissan Juke was destroyed.
The 26-year-old said: “I was so shocked. The car park is so secure the last thing I expected was the car to be the problem.
“I rushed straight back from work and could not believe what I saw. Now we have been left without one of us being able to get to work.
“This month we were really struggling with money and now we have lost a car worth more than £12,000.”
The car park had been flooded by a few inches of water on several previous occasions in the past six months, and the building's management company, Alexander Faulkner, had arranged for the water to be drained away.
But residents have grown frustrated that this kept happening.
READ MORE: Hythe residents wake up to discover homes flooded
In this incident, at least seven vehicles have been destroyed.
The IT worker continued: “What is worse is that we contacted Alexander Faulkner at least twice before when the car park had a few inches of water after heavy rain.
“We warned them and now it feels like they did not take us very seriously.”
Vehicle technician, Ionel, takes the car to work in Basingstoke so relies on the vehicle to go to work every morning.
He said: “It’s a 37-mile journey to work every day. I said before that having water in a car park would be no good for the cars – and now look what has happened.”
The pair moved into the Chapel Road flat in September 2023, and said that one of the reasons they chose the building was due to it having a secure car park.
A spokesperson for Alexander Faulkner Partnership said: “Recent adverse weather has unfortunately caused flooding in the car park at Chapel Road.
"A specialist contractor is currently on site to remove the excess water and we are keeping residents updated.”
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