A fuming mum-of-six has been forced to put a paddling pool in her children’s bedroom to catch rainwater after the ceiling fell in.

Kelly Johnson, who lives in London Road, Deal, says if she hadn’t got the youngsters up early for a school trip that day, it would have collapsed right on top of them.

The 38-year-old told KentOnline she first contacted housing association Sanctuary two months ago when she noticed a trickle of water coming through.

But a hole in the roof of the house was not properly repaired - and last week the ceiling in the room shared by her nine-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son caved in.

Sanctuary says it is sorry for the inconvenience caused and will carry out the work needed as soon as possible.

Miss Johnson told KentOnline: “The leaks kept coming and last Monday, when I went to get my little girl out of bed for her school trip, I could hear water literally pouring so I had to turn the light on and wake my eldest son up too.

“It was pouring through the ceiling. I put a bucket underneath and it filled in seconds so I had to get a bigger bucket. I made a joke and said: ‘Worst-case scenario the ceiling will fall down’.

“I wasn’t expecting to come downstairs, make my kids’ breakfast and then the ceiling to collapse.

“If I hadn’t got my nine-year-old up early for a school trip, they would have both been in bed when it collapsed.”

Miss Johnson says her children have been left upset that they cannot use their bedroom and worried it could happen again.

“The ceiling could come down if we continue to get heavy rain. I’m concerned it could fall any second,” she said.

“My kids are scared anyway because the ceiling came down so the thought it could come down again is even worse.”

The single mum, who works as a housekeeper, made an emergency call to Sanctuary - but still had to chase the company to send someone out as after about seven hours, no one had arrived.

“I told them I had no ceiling, water was pouring through the roof, I had six kids in my house and they can’t even go in their room - it was unsafe,” Miss Johnson said.

“I was fuming. This had been an ongoing problem for two months.”

She says a contractor eventually arrived and was shocked to see the size of the hole in the ceiling. He put plywood over it but warned if the roof was not repaired quickly it could come down again.

“I can’t fault the workman – he made it safe and put holes in the wood for the rainwater to drip through,” Miss Johnson added.

“He was disgusted that it was a kids’ bedroom and that it had been left for so long.”

Such is the amount of water still pouring through the ceiling that Miss Johnson has put a tarpaulin, buckets, bowls and even their paddling pool underneath.

The last contact she had with Sanctuary Housing was on Friday when she was told what needed fixing and that she could expect to hear from them again in the next week.

But she says she feels like she has been fobbed off and left in limbo, not knowing if and when her roof will be repaired, causing her worry in the run-up to Christmas.

“I haven’t got ages to wait for it to be fixed,” she said.

“I’ve put tarpaulin down and it’s soaking wet. It’s not going to be long before it starts coming through my living room ceiling.

“At the moment I’m sleeping on the sofa because my eldest boy has got my bedroom.

“I’ve had to move beds around so I can fit my second eldest girl in with the other three children because she’s had enough of sleeping on a mattress on the floor, which I can understand.”

She added her eldest son, who is 13, is having surgery in the new year and she fears he won’t be able to safely recover at home if the repairs are not made.

Miss Johnson said: “I can’t bring him back to being bed-bound for up to six weeks when he has no bedroom and it’s got a gaping hole in the roof. It’s not safe to bring him back after major surgery.

“One of my twins is also waiting to see a heart specialist because he might have to have surgery on his heart. I’ve had enough now.

“I don’t feel safe enough to have my children in my house purely because the water coming through the ceiling is getting closer and closer to the light fitting too.

“I live next to the fire station so asked them what this could do and they said if the water gets too close to the light fitting it could blow the electrics.

“I just feel like I’m not being taken seriously and there’s always an excuse. We have Christmas in two weeks and my parents were meant to come to us but I don’t know what will happen now.”

Sanctuary has apologised for the inconvenience caused to Miss Johnson.

A spokesperson for the housing association said: “An issue with the roof was reported in late October and, following an inspection, plans were drawn up to complete the required repairs.

“Unfortunately, it has taken longer than expected to arrange the scaffolding, which has delayed the start of the work.

“On December 4, we received a call from our customer stating a bedroom ceiling had collapsed and we immediately attended to make it safe.

“We are committed to completing all the internal and external work required at this property and we will liaise directly with our customer to ensure this happens as soon as possible.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience this issue has caused.”