Advice needed urgently

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i need help to know excactly where i stand with my housing association and this problem.

the history:
moved in 5 years ago have a partner and 3 children i suffer with severe brittle asthma, house was bit worse for wear had allot of help to paint and make good to move found 140+ internal cosmetic faults that are covered by the association under their tenancy handbook but theyve only completed about 10% of them in 5 years.
noticed black damp all over kitchen wall above patio door and on the brackets of the boiler wich started 4 years ago (had a mainly dry summer and winter) wich is on same wall as patio door (3 bed end house of a block of 4 the rear of the property is exposed to the elements kitchen is at rear) reported to the association in wich internal condensation was diagnosed by their survayor decor voucher issued for paint to repaint wall, not long after painting black spot reapeared, again associations survayor blamed internal condensation, then a few more people in different streets faceing the same direction into the elements had the same problem on the same wall and upstairs association still blamed internal condensation.

recent events:
after a long hard battle with numerous survayors all to do with this association in summer 2008 they agreed to remove a brick or two (by this time to kill the blackspot i painted the wall with sealer paint that prevents it comeing through and repainted as norm but my wall started to produce internal wet patches like the paint had dried in places but not others above the patio door and rust on the courners of the wall and above the door. it was dicovered that cavity wall insulation had failed and was saturated with rain water and they were gunna remove it and leave the cavity walls empty to dry out for a few months.
april this year they finaly got round to removeing the insulation in all of the 50 property's that face into the elements.
meanwhile when it rains the wet patches have got darker when it has rained and then lighter after a few dry days with light brown stain marks around the patch.
friday last week heavy wind and rain battered the rear of the house, saturday was intermitant heavy downpours same sunday but sunday evening came a bit of a devolpment one of the damp patches above the patio door was wet dripping onto the floor touching the damp and wet patch the plaster and paint fell off to reveal a hole of about 1 inch wide and half inch deap and the water started dripping faster and harder, monday was same as sunday weather wise and the upvc strip above the door near the hole bowed down and fell off takeing a huge chunk of plaster with it on the opposite side of the door frame (it has fallen off many times because water has collected on it and have caused the sealer to comeaway) so i have a hole in the wall and no pvc strip either, i called in an independant builder who has over 40 years in the buisiness and qualifiations comeing out of his uhumm! his experience says to him that there may be inward faceing ties in the wall that have clogged up he described to me when they clog up with bits of cement when building the house it can causewater to runback to the internal wall causing this symptom of water ingress, he said that if he were me he'd get the association to remove so many bricks at the bottom to check the bottom of the cavity is full up to dbc level and causing the water to come in at the skirting bourds, so many at ceiling hight above the door to look at the ties and down the wall at the "tray" and lintle and check ibetwen them for blockage if there were blocked ties e.t.c he would get a botton and knock them clean and scoop out any lower blockages and waste i mention a bore cam he said doing it the way i said was better as youd would se more with a torch, he went on to say that he way the guy who put the foundations in ready for the houses to be built by another contrctor but left the job when the contractor pulled out in the first few houses being built so couldnt tell me how well and what meterials were used in construction called the association got the NEW survayor out today to have a look at it, she came put the damp tester on the wall (eventhough you could see the wall was wet) and the indicator went all the way up (you could see it was going to that as it is wet!) she said that this wetness is the aftermath of the cavity wall insultion and after a season or two and time to dry out will be fine when the put back in the insulation! and would get their contractor out to patch up the wet hole, i said that this is something bigger and more sinister as rain water is pouring in through the internal wall and would be pointless in putting plaster up when the rain water wont allow it to dry! she said untill the cavity dry there nothing she could do only patch up the hole for us i said it wont dry as its getting wet! she said we will just have to wait for a season or to to allow it to dry that when i hit her with my independants builders opinion i relayed it word for word to her she then sad that she would get the bore cam in the cavity to check i said whats the point in putting a cam up it sealing it up waiting for you to make a decision about something and the months for you to fix it when you can remove the bricks seek the problem and sort it out at the same time then allow the wall to dry and replaster the inside wall she totally dismissed this and wouldnt consider it then she said i will chat to my head suporvisor/survayor and if thinks its worth putting a cam in there he'll phone you to make an appointment to asses it for himself then decide weather to put a cam in or leave it in the mean time i'll put a job card in for the hole to be fixed.
but from the time she has left till late this evening the rain and wind has picked up the water has poured inharder and more plaster has fallen of revealing a saturated internal wall i have got a dish under it to catch the plaster and water and in the space of an hour the bowl has filled up (normal dessert bowl old one i dont use) and have had to borrow a bucket to put under it the hole is now about 2-3 inches deep and about 5 inches wide and getting bigger i dont know what to do i have photo's and videos of the water comeing in a dripping all over the place and plaster comeing away but feel i'll just be fobbed off by my H association again its just the start of autumn for god sake if we have more rain like this i'll have no internal door frame at this rate! anyone who can put me in the right direction of getting my HA to sort this and asap will be appreciated.

soo sorry its is long winded i tried to give as much detail and actions as i possibly can to give you the whole picture.
any spelling mistakes do apologise anything not clear please ask me to clarify i am loseing sleep over this issue and verry tired too.

timmmers

It's their house ..they should want it fixed.

I'd seek CAB advice. A wall in really bad condition could collapse in large chunks and damage your belongings or your kids. I have a photo of what water did to a house in a period of a few months, and it wasn't as bad as your sounds. About 6 levels of brickwork dropped above the window and made an awful mess. The ties were gone due to water damage making about half a ton of bricks free to move ..which they did in the middle of the night.

A local newspaper would love a story like this...unlike the housing association

t

atrixblue.-MFR-.

timmmers wrote: »

It's their house ..they should want it fixed.

I'd seek CAB advice. A wall in really bad condition could collapse in large chunks and damage your belongings or your kids. I have a photo of what water did to a house in a period of a few months, and it wasn't as bad as your sounds. About 6 levels of brickwork dropped above the window and made an awful mess. The ties were gone due to water damage making about half a ton of bricks free to move ..which they did in the middle of the night.

A local newspaper would love a story like this...unlike the housing association

t

during the night it has worsened and allot more water comeing in, i turned off electrics at mains a water was driping from boiler onto socket and the socket at the other end of the wall where the damage is, my partner phoned HA (housing association) with the devolpments they said as some one has alwready seen it theres nothing they could do! after my partner kicking up a fuss they still refused to budge knowing we have no leky (unable to cook turn on heating do food for kids or warm drinks bottles e.t.c.) this upset her, so taking the preverbial by the horns i called a SHELTER CYMRU for advice and very helpfull he was in giving me thei duty's and my rights regarding a housing association, so armed and verry annoyed i called the HA insisted on speaking to a member of management when reception answered, got through to a maintenence pen pusher so give this guy a chance explained the situation he said i'll call you back i'll speak the survayor who came out yesterday to find out whats going on with things wasnt happy but kept cool but an element of determination in my voice after a 15 min period and no call back decided to ring again got through to reception after the 2nd time of being cut off by them (phone rings they have recording saying high volume of calls yada yada yada then someone picked up and imeadiate hung up not once but twice) told them i wanted to speak to ********* to find out what their going to do TODAY about this situation reception tried survayor that i spoke to yesterday but was in a meeting (aparently it was her day off when partner called) i said then put me through to the company director i want this sorted out today got through to the survayors boss! he said he'd been briefed on devolpments of today and as like many properties that face the same way as my house on this estate have suffered with slight wetness i told him (in a quite stubborn voice but still kalm) i dont care about other propeties and whats happening to them this is worse than you think and not some water patches and its in my/your property and hapening now what are you going to do, he agreed that he would come out tomorrow 9AM to view it for himself and that he would get an electrician to check the wires to see if theyre safe or isolate if wet i agreed and made the point of saying i'll look forward to it.

got on the phone to the independant builder i had out he's agreed to be onsite with me so i'll know if the survayour is talking B*****ks and basically stop him talkin s**t so i wont get fobbed off again. will post back tomorrow with the outcome.

leky back on and no water ingress behind the sockets (relief) leky guy said if water is pouriong on the outside just dont use that socket or cover it then handed me some plastic safety fake plugs to put in the sockets and said use them to stop water going inside the plug.