I’ve been stuck in a Premier Inn six months after a car hit my home – I can’t take it anymore

A grandmother with incurable cancer is still living out of a hotel room six months after a car ploughed into her bungalow.

Jill Robson has spent 182 nights and counting at The Premier Inn in Medway Valley Park, Kent, after a silver Vauxhall Astra knocked through her bedroom.

The 84-year-old was in her kitchen at her house in Strood when she heard a ‘bang’ and ‘crash’.

At first she thought a picture might have fallen off the wall – only to discover part of the bumper of a car was now inside her bedroom.

Since the accident on October 19, Jill has been living out of a suitcase in a hotel room with only a kettle and TV.

The mum-of-three has a catalogue of health issues including a hernia, lymphoedema in both legs, plus osteoarthrosis in both knees and leukaemia.

She is critical of the time taken by home insurer Nationwide and its claims administration partner, Sedgwick, to repair her bungalow and get her home.

Work to repair the damage, which included a huge hole in her bedroom, and a smashed porch and front door, only began on February 4 and at the time she hoped to be home by March 1.

But March came and went and although the brick-and-mortar repairs are now complete, last week she was told all her furniture, which had been put in storage during the rebuilding, would not be arriving until May 1 – extending her stay into the seventh month.

A Nationwide spokesperson apologised for the delays and said it was working with its suppliers to return the items to the property ‘as quickly as possible’.

Jill, a retired lab technician, has now been told the furniture will be arriving earlier. But she said the indefinite stay in the hotel was ‘beginning to take a toll on me.’

A few weeks ago, she broke down to a staff member outside because she thought: ‘I just can’t take anymore.’

She said ‘Now I’m in [the hotel] six months, entering seven months. I thought I would have been in [the bungalow] by March.

‘It felt as though I’m going nowhere and at times, as much as I’ve liked it here, many a time when I’ve sat and watched telly, I think “I fancy a sandwich” and as I get up to move, I realise I can’t do that.

‘I can’t even go out and make myself a sandwich, bake a cake, or whatever you would do in your own home, you can’t here [in a hotel].

‘You are limited, and your freedom is limited to a certain extent.’

While she can’t speak more highly of the staff at The Premier Inn, the grandmother-of-five says she misses her recliner chair from home, which helps rest her legs so she can ‘carry on with the rest of the day’.

In addition, she misses being able to make a sandwich whenever she pleases and being able to wander from room to room without a key.

Most importantly, she’s made up her mind on her first meal once home. ‘I just want my pancakes,’ she said.

While Nationwide currently gives Jill a £10 voucher towards her evening meal, she can only choose from the hotel menu, which she says is ‘the same food seven days a week, every day of the year’.

The grandmother says the temporary accommodation options put forward by Nationwide were not accessible because the showers did not have handrails.

For this reason, she decided to stay in the hotel, hopeful the repairs would be finished sooner rather than later.

Nationwide says it provided several different options for alternative accommodation which met Jill’s accessibility needs but were not suitable because they were outside the area she wanted to remain.

Looking ahead, optimistic Jill said: ‘I’m not bothered about compensation, I just want to get into my bungalow and make it my home, like I was trying to do.

‘You can’t brood on what is not being done or what is not being said, you’ve just got to laugh.

‘It’s the staff that have kept me going, we have a laugh.’

Once she’s back in the bungalow, Jill will be back to the hotel but not to stay. She’ll return to visit the staff who have been there for her day in and day out.

After the crash, the police charged Tamara Bowen, 44, from Strood, with dangerous driving and she is due to appear before Medway Magistrates’ Court on June 19.

A Nationwide spokesperson said: ‘Repairs to Mrs Robson’s home have now been completed and she is able to move back in.

‘We are working with our suppliers to return the contents of the property as quickly as possible and apologise for the delays. We have continued to offer alternative accommodation, but these options were not suitable.

‘£600 compensation has already been provided, and we will discuss any further resolution once the claim is fully concluded.’

It said the time taken to repair the property was what it expected, given the significant damage.

Sedgwick has been contacted for comment.

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