What can I do about my damp house problems...?

beautiful_ravens

Hi everybody,
I want to decorate my house but we have a lot of types of damp.
Theres blown bricks on outside of the kitchen and mould inside the kitchen.
Theres render which has been painted on the rest of the house, and the house 'sweats' inside in winter. Theres some sort of chalk-like growth which grows up from the plaster through the wallpaper, thats on an internal downstairs wall; seems theres rising damp too, no dampcourse from the looks of things [but not sure] also big random patches of damp appear on the walls when its rainy, and the chimney gets really wet when its rainy and has made the woodburner go rusty, and weird brown liquid seeps through the upstairs wall by the chimney.

Its an old, rented house, detached and theres a well in the garden... and the landlords [big country estate] are VERY unlikely to re-render or sort out the house as I now know the last tennants withheld rent over this damp problem and then left, but.. is there anything I could do at all about this? [apart from a dehumidifier, I cant afford to run one]

I decorated the bathroom in summer, and now the wallpaper and polystyrene wallpaper is covered in water drops and mould, and is flapping loosely around not stuck to the wall

beautiful_ravens

I guess nothing can be done....?

Steve_xx

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1985, landlords are obligated to keep the structure and exterior of the property in a good state of repair. You are entitled to incorporate potential cost of repairs into the rent you charge, but you may not charge the tenants separately for repair to any of the things mentioned above. You have final responsibility for ensuring that the following areas are safe and fit for use, as well as effecting repairs when necessary to restore them to a fair condition:

• The structure and exterior of the property.
• Any hot water installations, as well as the supply of water itself.
• Basins, sinks, baths and other sanitary or drainage installations.
• Ensuring an adequate provision of lighting, heating and ventilation.
• Treating of any health-threatening damp that occurs (not to be confused with condensation, a more common but less serious problem caused mostly by poor ventilation).
• In flats and maisonettes you must also repair any other areas or installations which you own or control and whose disrepair would affect the tenant.
• Anything else that you mutually agree with the tenant in the tenancy agreement.

Westvleteren

I am not an expert. Do you have extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom. If you dont have one in the bathroom that will probably be the cause of the damp there. Also, when your fire is on does tha dampness dry out? It should do because the heat should evaporate any moisture and rainfall. If it only gets damp when the fire is not on for long periods of time ie in the summer when you might get heavy showers a cowl might help.

dampdaveski

Hi Ravens,
without going into the why's and wherefore's of what to do to repair the property
I see you have maybe 3 choices
1. Leave and find somewhere else
2. Ask the landlord to instigate repairs and threaten to report him to your local environmental health dept if he doesn't
3. Report him to your local environmental health dept and tell him when they're coming
They can serve an improvement notice on him and make him do something about the problems
hope this helps
DD

saver_1_2

Only one thing for it. Leave. If you serve him with a notice for repairs he will not be too pleased and probably bodge the repairs and put up your rent to compensate for the work.

Fire_Fox

Contact Environmental Health, they can enforce the landlord's repairing obligation. Do NOT withhold rent, you would then be in breach of your tenancy agreement.