Renting Problems, Damp.

clutton_2

Have you talked to the council to see if you are entitled to any help with your rent and council tax ? do you claim Family Tax Credit ?

T4i

We get child/working tax credits, thank god or I would be stuffed.

My partner is unable to work due to personal reasons, she is on her way to sorting this but even then we would have no one to look after our children so it looks like we are going to have to wait until they both start school so she can look at getting back into work.

My parents have paid off my 2k CC so I'm not paying stupid money just for the interest, we are paying parents back per month at whatever we can afford.

I think a council house is the way forward for us. I'm waiting for a date for EH to come visit, then I will look into our local councillor for a solution to our housing problem.

C_Ronaldo

hope you get it sorted soon, that is totally outrageous, your LL is stupid

bekkithedevil

Hi!

I'm a newbie here but felt compelled to respond!

I used to rent a terraced property that was fine until the house next door had their roof redone and it rained heavily while the tiles were off! I then got a "lovely" wall covered in black (eventually) and it spread right through the fitted wardrobe as well (nice!).

The landlord just gave me leaflets on how to deal with damp (main advice there was dont dry your clothes indoors and open windows - helpful in the middle of winter!). To keep the problem to a minimum I washed the mould off as often as I could manage and used a black mould remover on it too. It slowed the problem down a lot so maybe you could try that (if you can stomach it that is as I know mould smells horrible)?

Definately keep trying to get something done about it - the landlord really should start caring as it's their property the damp is destroying after all!

Hope it gets better

Bekki

Arch-Angel

T4i wrote:

Yeh I meant silverfish sorry.

We can't afford todays rent prices round here. We are looking at an extra £200 for a two bedrrom place.

If e want a 3 bedroom we are talking about £500p/m. This is not possible with the amount of money we pay out in debts.

For this aspect you should visit the Debt-Free board on here. Post your SoA (Statement of Affairs - how much you earn, pay out etc.) - there's lots of people on there who will try and find ways of saving you money and reducing your expenditure. Who knows - you could end up saving £200 a month this way....They'll have all the options open to you on there (e.g. Debt Management Plans and the like).

As for the house - a lot of the options have already been covered on here. Do get the local EH involved along with the local councillor - even your MP if you fell the need! Your LL clearly doesn't care about his tennants; setting aside the damp issues (which I'm struggling to do!!!) the fact that you've got round hole sockets suggests that the house is drastically overdue a total rewire and may not be complying with current regulations.

I wouldn't even worry about the housing contract - IMO no court in the land would find against you for finding somewhere else to live given the state of the property. The LL has unquestionable failed to meet his responsibilities - I would even give consideration to taking him to court; get legal advice on this aspect as soon as possible (NOT CAB - a solicitor should provide a free interview for you to highlight your concerns. You may qualify for Legal Aid - and there are solicitors who would take this case on for peanuts on moral grounds...)

Bottom line? Which is more important - your debts or your health? I know which one I would choose....

clutton_2

i think this case is so appalling that why dont we get Martin onto it in his journalistic capacity ? anyone know how to do this ?

real1314

T4i, how much are you actually paying in rent?

Are you saying that a 3bed place would be £500pcm and that a different 2 bed place would be £200 extra from what you're currently paying?

Presumably you're paying a lot less than £300 pcm say £250 ish?

In which case, if the landlord makes all the necessary improvements, won't he then increase the rent to a comparable level?

and on the subject of money, are you claiming Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit?

T4i

We pay £270/month.

We claim working/child tax credit.

I'm just looking at Rightmove for rents and I would need to pay about £350-£450/month for something suitable. Thats if we want to live somewhere half decent.

Paying £450 a month for rent would leave us with very very little for kids clothing, shoes, shopping etc.

My wage isn't brilliant and if I knew what I know now I would never got into Laboratory work Thats all the skills I have though from leaving school.

If our landlord did the work to make this right then yes i'm sure he would put the rent up, but its still only a two bedroom place and we are all living on top of each other. The kids bedroom door doesnt even open fully as we have had to squeeze two beds into a box room. My eldest girl got a wooden wendy house for Christmas and she loves it to pieces, I don't know if I'm been too picky but I need somewhere that would accomodate what we have.

T4i

Update**

Rung EH today, explained everything. She said she can't do anything unless she can contact my LL. Asked her about confidentiality and she said 'but its pointless us coming out if we can't contact your LL, our hands would be tied behind our backs'

So I am now in the process of writing a letter to my LL and the company that he works for about ALL the problems. We will keep a copy, a copy to LL, a copy to propery owner, copy for EH if they wish and some more copies just in case......

She said from what I told her someone needs to come out, so she has taken my phone number and thats as far as I've got.

Watch this space!

C_Ronaldo

let us know the outcome