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Renting Problems, Damp.
T4i
Posts: 1,845 Forumite
I was wondering if anyone reading this has been in a similar situation to me currently.
We rent a terraced house in Halifax, it suffers from damp. I think the damp is quite a big problem but my partner thinks we are lucky that the damp isn't as bad as other peoples damp.
We have no idea where the damp is coming from. We initially thought it was rising damp from the cellar which is like standing in the rain outside when it rains quite hard. We have large puddles of standing water in the cellar after periods of rain. We can not store anything in the cellar as the damp attacks it turning everyting it touches green/mouldy. Our gas meter fails every 6 months because of the damp and we have to go a day with no gas before they will fix it (we have 2 small children). This again happened last night, and when the engineer came today he said to my partner 'I'm going to ring my boss up to tell him we will no longer touch the gas meter if it breaks because there is no light situated in the 'back' cellar. Our electricity supply is also located in that area of the 'back' cellar and I am constantly in fear that one day it might just go bang.
The 'back' area of the cellar is below our yard, when you look up all you can see are the flags that are layed on the yard area outside. So not suprising when it rains the rain water just filters through any gaps and into the cellar.
I spoke to my landlord on many occasions about this and after calling out env. health to review the situation he approved some work carried out to lay sheeting under the flags in the yard to prevent water draining through. Unfortunately it was the biggest waste of £250 spent. It has had no effect at all.
My landord made it quite clear that if I ever pulled a stunt like this again I would be out quicker than I could say bye. Now I know he can't do this as I am concerned about a factual problem but my partner (who's name is on the tenancy agreement is bothered that we will be homeless if we kick up any more fuss)
The damp doesnt stop there though, it is a foot high from the skirting board in the room and about a foot and half down from the ceeling (all on the back wall of our house - has no windows - behind that wall is a church/yard)
The wall in question is soft in the areas with damp, the bottom bit of the wall has turned the wallpaper black but has like a white/glow/green growing on it - almost looks like efflorescence is a sense.
The top area of the wall is very soft, and I think the wallpaper is actualy holding the plaster onto the wall, we have no chance of re-decorating because I have a bad feeling the plaster would basically collapse. The damp/mould attacks anything that is within a foot of the wall (includes our setee as we use it to prevent the kids from touching it)
Our bedroom is directly above the room and again its the same wall that shares the church/yard. We have a wardrobe that just about runs along the whole length of that wall and the damp has attacked all of the chipboard which backs the wardrobe. It has even attacked clothes that 'touch' the back chipboard panel, of which we have to throw away.
We can not get into the loft as the hole is far too tiny and the roof is really high.
Our house is littered with whitefish, which I know are good for us because they eat the badness from the damp. But how do you tell a 11 month old child to leave the whitefish alone? Again how do we tell the children not to be interested in the fuuny looking wall, kids have fingers and then they go in mouth.......YAK!
I really can't see how my landlord would solve the problem even if he could be bothered, it looks like such a big job.
I've put my name down for a council house but I've never heard anything from them and everytime we see a house and we ring them up we get told its already been allocated.
I understand council housing works on a points system, and I hope that our damp problem could give us more points to get us re-housed to a nice clean dry house.
I've been to my Dr's about breathing problems in the winter, all I can put this down to is the higher levels of damp in winter, and with the central heating on I think it affects me, god knows what its doing to my little ones with tiny weak lungs.
My Dr said you can't prove damp does or doesnt do any harm to a humans health but if it is attacking leather, hardwood, textiles then surely it can attack tissue/organs. Me and my daughter also suffer from really bad itchy bums (sorry
) and the Dr can't find anything wrong with us. This comes and goes but it gets to the point of me bleeding sometimes because I can't stop itching. The whole family also gets dioreah quite often too which I have no explanation for....
Does anyone have any suggestions to my next steps? What would you do in my situation?
We rent a terraced house in Halifax, it suffers from damp. I think the damp is quite a big problem but my partner thinks we are lucky that the damp isn't as bad as other peoples damp.
We have no idea where the damp is coming from. We initially thought it was rising damp from the cellar which is like standing in the rain outside when it rains quite hard. We have large puddles of standing water in the cellar after periods of rain. We can not store anything in the cellar as the damp attacks it turning everyting it touches green/mouldy. Our gas meter fails every 6 months because of the damp and we have to go a day with no gas before they will fix it (we have 2 small children). This again happened last night, and when the engineer came today he said to my partner 'I'm going to ring my boss up to tell him we will no longer touch the gas meter if it breaks because there is no light situated in the 'back' cellar. Our electricity supply is also located in that area of the 'back' cellar and I am constantly in fear that one day it might just go bang.
The 'back' area of the cellar is below our yard, when you look up all you can see are the flags that are layed on the yard area outside. So not suprising when it rains the rain water just filters through any gaps and into the cellar.
I spoke to my landlord on many occasions about this and after calling out env. health to review the situation he approved some work carried out to lay sheeting under the flags in the yard to prevent water draining through. Unfortunately it was the biggest waste of £250 spent. It has had no effect at all.
My landord made it quite clear that if I ever pulled a stunt like this again I would be out quicker than I could say bye. Now I know he can't do this as I am concerned about a factual problem but my partner (who's name is on the tenancy agreement is bothered that we will be homeless if we kick up any more fuss)
The damp doesnt stop there though, it is a foot high from the skirting board in the room and about a foot and half down from the ceeling (all on the back wall of our house - has no windows - behind that wall is a church/yard)
The wall in question is soft in the areas with damp, the bottom bit of the wall has turned the wallpaper black but has like a white/glow/green growing on it - almost looks like efflorescence is a sense.
The top area of the wall is very soft, and I think the wallpaper is actualy holding the plaster onto the wall, we have no chance of re-decorating because I have a bad feeling the plaster would basically collapse. The damp/mould attacks anything that is within a foot of the wall (includes our setee as we use it to prevent the kids from touching it)
Our bedroom is directly above the room and again its the same wall that shares the church/yard. We have a wardrobe that just about runs along the whole length of that wall and the damp has attacked all of the chipboard which backs the wardrobe. It has even attacked clothes that 'touch' the back chipboard panel, of which we have to throw away.
We can not get into the loft as the hole is far too tiny and the roof is really high.
Our house is littered with whitefish, which I know are good for us because they eat the badness from the damp. But how do you tell a 11 month old child to leave the whitefish alone? Again how do we tell the children not to be interested in the fuuny looking wall, kids have fingers and then they go in mouth.......YAK!
I really can't see how my landlord would solve the problem even if he could be bothered, it looks like such a big job.
I've put my name down for a council house but I've never heard anything from them and everytime we see a house and we ring them up we get told its already been allocated.
I understand council housing works on a points system, and I hope that our damp problem could give us more points to get us re-housed to a nice clean dry house.
I've been to my Dr's about breathing problems in the winter, all I can put this down to is the higher levels of damp in winter, and with the central heating on I think it affects me, god knows what its doing to my little ones with tiny weak lungs.
My Dr said you can't prove damp does or doesnt do any harm to a humans health but if it is attacking leather, hardwood, textiles then surely it can attack tissue/organs. Me and my daughter also suffer from really bad itchy bums (sorry
) and the Dr can't find anything wrong with us. This comes and goes but it gets to the point of me bleeding sometimes because I can't stop itching. The whole family also gets dioreah quite often too which I have no explanation for....Does anyone have any suggestions to my next steps? What would you do in my situation?
0
Comments
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The first thing I would do, is I would get the councils enviromental health dept round to assess whether the property is fit for human habitation
If its not, you are classed as homeless by the council and in priority need, wheras at the moment its just you & other families all bidding for the same properties. Fair enough, carry on bidding by all means, but once you are in priority need they have to house you.:beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
This Ive come to know...
So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:0 -
Thx for the reply.
Thats what I thought too, trust me to get the new starter from env. health, she even admitted she didn't really know what she was doing.
Maybe its worth ringing them back up and asking for a 'experienced' person and for them not to contact my landlord.
Does anybody know if env. health contact landlords if they are called out to a property?
Thx0 -
T4i wrote:Does anybody know if env. health contact landlords if they are called out to a property?Thx
I would assume that under the new HHRS standards (Health & safety) the environmetal health would have to assess the whole property to see if it fit for habitation.
They would then contact the LL to make him carry out repairs, however if they are as major as you indicate it would probably be better for you if they condemned it.
Why is your partner so concerned about not finding somewhere else to live? Are you not in a position to look for alternative accommodation?
Contact the senior officer at the council and they must act.My Shop Is Your Shop0 -
amboy wrote:Why is your partner so concerned about not finding somewhere else to live? Are you not in a position to look for alternative accommodation?
She likes it here even though we have problem neighbours and IMO a damp problem.
I'm fed up with a dirty, damp, tatty house. Its in desperate need for asthetic improvements such as decorating but I really dont see any point when its just going to turn black after 6 months. Just a complete waste of money and time.
I wonder if there is somewhere where I can send some pictures of the problem areas before getting EH involved.
If it was my house I would be kicking up a right fuss, but I have to respect my partners opinion on it and she really doesnt want to complain as the LL has always been nice to her. I personally think the man is a waste of space, he is full of broken promises.
Our rent is cheap compaired with the going rates now and we are worried if he has to do any work he is going to bump the rent up bigtime to get it all back in the long-run.
Thzx for your help, much appreciated!
God I wish I could afford a mortgage!!!!!!!0 -
Not surprising given the condition of the place. How much is your health worth?T4i wrote:....Our rent is cheap compaired with the going rates ....A house isn't a home without a cat.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others.
I have writer's block - I can't begin to tell you about it.
You told me again you preferred handsome men but for me you would make an exception.
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.0 -
I expect that you could send some photos in, but what is the point of that? EH will go, oooh looks like damp ,we better go round.
There is nothing to say you might have to leave- the EH could make a decicion that its only minor works ( i dont think so , but im not an EHO, and I havnet seen the place) and that a schedule be set on when the work shuold be completed.
To be honest, Ive seen the health effects of children raised in damp property, and I think that you have to make sure your OH understands the long term risks in terms of breathing difficulties and so forth.:beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
This Ive come to know...
So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:0 -
BobProperty wrote:Not surprising given the condition of the place. How much is your health worth?
This is exaclty where I am coming from, my health is a concern but my little babies are a much much bigger concern, we are just lucky the damp isn't anywhere near where the kids sleep.lynzpower wrote:To be honest, Ive seen the health effects of children raised in damp property, and I think that you have to make sure your OH understands the long term risks in terms of breathing difficulties and so forth.
This is my biggest fear, I've really been looking into damp in houses and what I found was quite varied. I understand the damp has never been proven to have an effect on health, BUT the mold that is caused by the damp does have toxins which are released into the air. These toxins are completely varied depending on the time/life span of the mold. ie, if the mold was new then it would release certain types of toxins and if the mould was in the middle of its life span the toxins would be different again.
I've stuck my neck out on this one and emailed my local council EH department, I've explained the situation I'm in and asked for them to be descrete about the matter. Hopefuly I will get a reply soon and we can get something sorted.
I just can't understand why the nice lady from EH who came round last year only commented on the damp in our cellar, saying as a cellar is not for living in its not a problem. she did comment on how new she was to the job and hopefuly she may have assesed our house wrongly.
I thank you again for your help......0 -
keep us informed on it.
Also dont be scared to get a second opinion if you dont agree with what the EHO is saying, as in the last yers example.:beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
This Ive come to know...
So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:0 -
EH are coming round ASAP.
I will not give up until I get somewhere....
Sorry for all the horrid pictures, makes me look a right scuffer
I've done research into mould, lots of research. Three of us suffer from dioreah, itchy skin, burning skin after itched.
I suffer from flaky scalp, mood swings and lots more embarrasing problems. Everything fits now, it all makes sense. I just thought we were all picking up the same virus or something and passing it on to each other......
I just cant understand why EH said it wasnt a problem last time......Either it is mould or it is not. If it is not mould then I want to know what it is. If it is mould then how can it not be a problem. The mould has never been tested so how can they judge its 'not a problem'?0 -
Not that I'm saying this is the case in your house as the problem seems quite large but often mould is caused by lack ventilation and humidity in a property. Generally evident on the "cold wall" or in places where air does not circulate properly like behind wardrobes, where sofas are against the wall etc. A humdifier is often a great help, you will be amazed how much water a humdifier will suck out of the air in a well maintaned property never mind a poorly maintained one. Treating the affected areas with a mild bleach solution and repaint with anti fungicidal paint in conjunction with using a dehumidifer can solve the problem in some cases.
In this day and age of double glazing the moisture has nowhere to go and will settle on the coldest wall of the property. When I fit double glazing in any of my properties I always fit the type with a trickle vent and ensure it is fixed open. Drying clothes indoors is an extremely common cause of condensation/mould growth, cooking without opening a window or an externally vented extractor fan again is a common cause, hot steamy bathrooms can suffer with excessive mould also.
See the links for other info
http://www.northlincs.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/58A9FB5F-AE66-4103-936F-AD1BCFC3D6DD/11168/condensation.pdf
http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/condensationproject/condensation.htm
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/pdf/Mould.pdf#search=%22condensation%20mould%22
http://www.woking.gov.uk/council/envhealthservice/housing/condensation0
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