Damp in flat after chimney work

themightyo

Firstly, apologies for the epic post...

(secondly, this is the second time I've typed it out - I keep getting refused posting rights even though I'm logged in.... :mad: )

Right.
Me and my girlfriend live on the ground floor of a 4-storey tenement flat in Edinburgh. We bought the place in January 2005 and love it, never had any problems with anything etc...
The council in Edinburgh often take it upon themselves to fix structural damage to the flats, and this is currently happening to our building. The chimney stones on the outside had cracked and so the council has appointed contractors to put this right. While they were up there they found that the chimney itself was unsafe, and they're doing this as well. We were notified of this extra work about 6 weeks ago, and someone went round all the flats disconnecting the fires while the work is carried out. The bloke who disconnected ours took it out and left it on the floor in front of the hearth, then Duck-taped up the hole that was left in the fireplace. Now for the last three weeks, me and the gf have noticed a damp/mould smell everytime we come in the flat which is strongest in the living room. This last weekend, we even noticed mould on our dining table & chairs, and the floorboards underneath were damp as well (we have exposed wooden floorboards throughout the flat, and they are continuous throughout the flat too - no borders between rooms). The damp has even been found in the shoe-cupboard, with some of the less-frequently worn pairs needing the bin.
I am 100% sure that this is a result of the chimney work that has recently commenced, and don't know the best way to go about contacting the council or their contractors to get it sorted. I'm not really blaming them for shoddy workmanship (should I be?), just that the work they're doing has caused the damp in our flat.
I'm not really in the best place to be dealing with this either, as I work away from home for two weeks in every month (that's where I am now), and am also about to lock horns with a debt collection agency who are pestering me for a debt that I have proof never existed...
Can anyone advise on the best way forward for me to get this all sorted. I really can't be doing with paying for a damp-treatment to my whole flat when someone else's actions have caused it.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

Igol

If your a tennant then it'll be down to your landlord which I'm assuming is the council who caused the problem in the first place.

themightyo

The problem is that while we own the flat, Edinburgh council owns the building or is at least responsible for it's upkeep. I think it's the same for pretty much every tenement building in Edinburgh (council owning the outside, public owning the inside) but at least it stops buildings falling into disrepair. That's why they're doing the work.

Igol

Unless you've a leaky pipe then its an external problem then, back to the council