Advice for damp bathroom

phoebeee

Hello, hope somebody can help me. Sorry in advance for the essay.

I'm a third year student who moved into a flat with my boyfriend middle of August. We had had a flat lined up already but were told last minute that the current tenants had decided to stay, so literally had a week to find somewhere else to live. We found our current landlord via Gumtree. She is not a professional landlord, just a person with a flat wanting to rent it out as she has moved to live with family outside of London. We had tenancy agreement and credit checks drawn up via Tenant Verify and everything seemed fine. The day before we moved in, I got an e-mail telling me that there was a problem 'with the shower' (I still have this e-mail) that would be fixed (I quote) 'in the next two days' and asking if we were still happy to move in. We agreed as my previous tenancy had ended and were just needing somewhere to move into asap and could live without a shower briefly.

Fast forward a month, and 'the shower' had still not been fixed (she had completely disconnected from the wall before we moved in). I sent her a few e-mails asking about what was happening and eventually got a grumpy e-mail back saying 'oh I had a contractor due to come to fix the tiles but he cancelled and I've put an advert up on Gumtree for tilers and nobody's responded'. To which I said that I was unaware that there was a problem with the tiles and I was more than happy to find a tiler locally if it would speed up the process. She then admits that the real problem is that every time the shower is used, water was leaking into the flat below and preventing the freeholder from having tenants. She also said that this was due to a small gap in the tiles and she just needed to get these fixed.

A week or so later the 'gap' (which was between the bath and the floor and not really in a place which got wet when the shower was used) was fixed and we were told we could use the shower a few days later. Two days after we did, tiles began falling off the wall. The 'bathroom specialist' she got to fix the tiles came back and removed a piece of plasterboard in a cupboard behind the wall where the pipes to the shower are revealing that the pipes to the shower were physically leaking. There was also a lot of mould behind here which the landlord refused to let us clean off for over two weeks as it was 'black pen'...! But that's another story, anyway the pipes were 'tightened' and the wall allowed to dry for a week (we didn't use the bathroom at all during this time) before the tiler came back to refit the tiles that had fallen off. Both myself and my boyfriend commented to the landlord that we didn't think he'd done a good job as there still seemed to be gaps in the wall. She also said this and said she would get him to return. The guy obviously decided he didn't want the job any more and just stopped responding to any of our calls. The landlord then said we were fine to use the shower attachment in the bath but not to use it 'as a shower' to avoid getting the wall wet, which we have been doing.

Last Friday, I came back to find that lots of pieces of grout had fallen out of the wall and were just in the bottom of the bath. I took pictures and sent them to the landlord. She's responded today and is now accusing us of purposely digging out the grout from the walls. She doesn't seem to want to admit that there's obviously a problem with damp and is now trying to accuse us of purposely damaging her flat. We're doing everything we can to control the damp, i.e. drying walls obsessively, leaving the extractor on 24/7 pretty much and also bought a dehumidifier (our own money! Which we do not have a lot of!) to attempt to help the problem.

Is there anything else I can do to try to stop the grout from falling out? I feel like the only option now is to remove all the tiles, let it dry out/do something to dry it out and retile... but I somehow think the landlord is going to get rid of us as tenants before going through with that idea. I'm also getting pretty fed up of going to the gym to shower/bath considering the amount we pay in rent to her!!!

Thank you all xxx

Fire_Fox

Welcome to MSE. She is (or should be) a professional landlord now whether she likes it or not!

Lots of questions/ points since the landlord is an amateur!
1. Have you written to your landlord to formally report these issues? Date each contact/ visit in your letter.
2. If you have, contact Environmental Health at the local council who can enforce the landlord's repairing obligations. Tell them there is mould and you cannot always bathe in the flat because it is unsafe.
3. Is your damage deposit lodged in one of the three schemes and did you received the full prescribed information in the first couple of weeks?
4. If there is gas in the flat do you have a copy of the landlord's safety certificate?
5. Landlord cannot get rid of your within the fixed term unless you majorly breach your tenancy agreement
6. Is there a dual signed check in inventory detailing the condition of the bathroom? E-mail is helpful evidence.

phoebeee

Thank you for your response

1. I've been e-mailing her and providing pictures of fallen off tiles/grout/mould, as it said in our tenancy agreement somewhere that for the purposes of reporting issues etc. e-mailing was sufficient. Do you think it would help to send her a physical letter?
2. I'll try contacting environmental health
3. The deposit is with My Deposits I think, I've got a certificate somewhere!
4. Yes we do have a safety certificate.
5. That is good to hear, I honestly can't see how we're breaching the tenancy agreement!

Fire_Fox

E-mails and photos are great, you could cover your backside by sending a summary letter - two copies from different Post Offices getting a proof of posting for each - because sometimes landlords take letters more seriously. Letters are particularly good for court/ proof to deposit scheme in case of dispute, but you have proof the landlord has received the e-mails simply because she has replied!

Or you could go straight to EH if you feel you have made enough effort: let them know you have reported to your landlord on many occasions. You sound like you are doing everything right and are not at fault.