rented house with mould

quintwins

sorry this is long

we've lived here for 2 1/2 years now and noticed mould in our first winter phoned the LL straight away who came round and said it was condensation, by xmas the walls were black on all the outside walls (inside) so he came back and brought a builder who said that our house was over insulated and there was no gap at all in the roof and no vents in the windows, came to do the windows and repointed teh roof instead, eventually came and did the windows but still didn't do the roof, i year and a alf later were still waiting , our walls are now so bad that i'm scrubing paint away just to get most of the mould away, all our clothes smell damp as soon as i put them away, all our furniture is completely ruined and mouldy, and our kids are contanstly sick, i now has ashma aswell after having nothing at all for 15 years, and the last straw was finding my wedding album this morning completely ruined

i've phoned hubby to say were moving thats it i can't stay here anymore it's a lovely hosue and price but i can't deal with it anymore, but it will take us 3 months to gather up enough to move, and our council don't do a deposit scheme, do you think it would be ok to sugest to my LL that we don't pay anymore rent? after all this house isn't liveable and i'm sure enviromental health would agree and with no rent we'd be out of her in just over a month, also tthe garden is abit wild because it's been winter and this is our responability so wat do you think the chances are of getting our deposite we paid here back?

i'm really can't stay here anymore i loved this house for the first 6 months but i've been so depressed ever since

BitterAndTwisted

I do sympathise with your situation but please bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of problems with condensation and consequent mould in residential properties are caused by the tenant's lifestyles and not any intrinsic issues with the structure or build-quality.

It's not very helpful to be told that you need to address what's causing the high amount of moisture in the air but that is exactly what you need to do. Kitchens need to have windows open and the door closed whenever using the hob. Bathroom windows need to be left open and the door firmly closed after bathing. NEVER, EVER dry laundry indoors. You might find the use of a decent humidifier will help but it should be left on 24/7

I doubt very much that your landlord would agree to you enjoying a rent-free period until you end your tenancy as it's entirely possible that they could take the view that the problems you are experiencing are completely of your own making.

If you don't want to lose your deposit for not getting the garden back into the same condition that it was at the start of your tenancy you know what the answer is: get out there and get it sorted.

This is all assuming that your tenancy began on or after April 2007 and that the deposit has been protected in one of the three deposit-protection schemes and that there was a full, dual-signed inventory at the start of your tenancy.

poppysarah

Get a dehumidifyer.

quintwins

but he himslef has said that the condenstation is caused before our hosue is air tight so heat rises but just gathers in our attic, when we lifted our xmas dec's down last year the boxes feel apart in our hands they were so wet, he said he would send someone out to pull the insulation back and he would rent a few dehumidifiers to leaving running up there for a week or 2, but he never did, it's the fact thats he's done nothing even tho we keep hounding him he always says i'll send someone out next week and they never come

i completely understand thats alot of condensation is caused by the people living in the house however this isn't common condensation, we get water running down our windows even when there all open, and pools on the wondows sills thats if they aren't dried daily drip onto the floor theres that much water, i've never seen anything like it and neither has my landlords builder the 2 times he did acually come

also we live in n.ireland and i'm not sure about the deposit schemes here, and to make it worse i don't think we acually signed a tenancy agreement he was meant to bring one round but again tahst something else he never did, he only bought this house for the land behind it (whic he built in and now works so not like he can't come in) but he clearly doesn't care about this house or the people living in it

quintwins

poppysarah wrote: »

Get a dehumidifyer.

it's well past that point tbh a few weeks ago there was acually water dripping from the ceiling in our diningroom, and even the wondows in there are soaking, and there no radiator on in there and we're in there for an hr at the most everyday

BitterAndTwisted

Well, if he doesn't care about the house then nor should you! Get the garden sorted and save up to move out.

That there's no signed tenancy agreement does not mean that you don't have a contract: you have an implied one. This means that you pay rent and in return the landlord supplies the property. Speak to your landlord about how unhappy you are living there and see if there's any room for negotiation on the rent so that you can save for your onward move.

quintwins

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Well, if he doesn't care about the house then nor should you! Get the garden sorted and save up to move out.

That there's no signed tenancy agreement does not mean that you don't have a contract: you have an implied one. This means that you pay rent and in return the landlord supplies the property. Speak to your landlord about how unhappy you are living there and see if there's any room for negotiation on the rent so that you can save for your onward move.

he knows how unhappy we are, sad this is this is a lovely hosue in a lovely area and we greatly negotiated the rent before moving in so very affordable, but i can't be doing with all this hastle people must think i'm a tramp cause i know my clothes smell musty from my furniture, tried to phone the landlord this morning and this phones off this is pretty common, theres no point in leaving a message because he'll just say he never got it (seriously if i didn't get that many messages i'd be looing for a new phone) so we're gonna keep trying him, oh really likes it here so he's said that he's gonna say if nothings done by the end of the month were moving, which will give us til the end of april to sav, but this hosue has been ruined for me now so even if he does do something i think we'll still move later in the year

i'm just really upset that because of this i've no lost something so priceless and completely irreplacable

BitterAndTwisted

Please STOP trying to communicate with your landlord by phone! You should have been putting all of your concerns in writing some time ago. I cannot understand why you haven't got Environmental Health involved. Please start writing and phone EH now.

quintwins

ok we have his email so will email him from now on, i wasn't really sure EH would be any help surely they'd just tell us to move?

poppysarah

quintwins wrote: »

ok we have his email so will email him from now on, i wasn't really sure EH would be any help surely they'd just tell us to move?

Try the EH.
Got to be worth speaking to them.

quintwins

poppysarah wrote: »

Try the EH.
Got to be worth speaking to them.

ok we'll give him to the end of the month as agreed then we'll contact them and also officially give our notice, if it was just me i'd be out of here in a heartbeat