Housing dampness/mould

hellokitty888

Hi, thanks every1, its a council flat, I had looked behind my chest of drawers in my bedroom last night to find rising damp and mould along the skirting I only decorated that room less than 3 months ago and had stripped the wallpaper back to the brick you can see on the wallpaper above the dampness that its going patchy white further up (wallpaper is mocho brown) so I think it rising quick, I am going to contact the health visitor to see if she will come out and see the dampness and maybe help to get us out or fixed.

BitterAndTwisted

Angel, your Health Visitor might be sympathetic but I doubt she has an inside-track into the Housing Department to get either this repair addressed or put any weight behind a transfer. Please, please, please get in touch with Environmental Health! They are the people who can compel your landlord to get the repair done or can deem the property uninhabitable.

bigmomma051204

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Angel, your Health Visitor might be sympathetic but I doubt she has an inside-track into the Housing Department to get either this repair addressed or put any weight behind a transfer. Please, please, please get in touch with Environmental Health! They are the people who can compel your landlord to get the repair done or can deem the property uninhabitable.

I would disagree! Supporting letters from various professionals involved in the care of OP's child who can state with some level of certainty that damp etc will be negatively affecting the childs health, WILL have a good level of bearing on a housing needs team decision. This will directly affect the speed of which housing will look and and deal with your damp issues. If the house isn't habitable, it will also have a direct and positive bearing on your points if bidding on other properties. Also, if you are seeing the GP often, they can also write a supporting letter to housing. Any other professionals who are involved with you (support workers, etc) can write a letter also, as long as they have seen the housing issues themselves.

As it is social housing they are bound to ensure that the property is free from damp - it will almost certainly be one of the things in your tenancy agreement that they are obliged to deal with. You need to go higher and speak with someone in the Housing dept (or social landlord).... I would suggest contacting Citizens Advice Bureau about this issue. They will be able to support you and/or point you in the direction of someone who can (such as an independant advocate who can write letters, call on your behalf if you aren't great on the phone etc)

Hope this helps

BitterAndTwisted

"Supporting letters" having a "good level of bearing" (whatever that is) is not the same as going through the legitimate routes to enforcing repairs be carried out or getting to the top of the list for rehousing. They could prove to be an assistance to the OP but not a replacement for the necessary action to be undertaken. That was my point.

If the OP has not WRITTEN to the Housing Department setting out what they have already done to report this situation and giving them an opportunity to address it she should do this right away, preferably before calling in Environmental Health.

bigmomma051204

And my point overall was that the OP has mental health issues - So probably won't feel able to start a fight with the local authority with some level of support from professionals who are already involved with her/her child, and also someone (hence my suggestion of CAB/Advocate or even Health Visitor who will be able to signpost) who has some level of knowledge about the subject.

Also, you seem to have missed the fact that housing are already aware of the issue as they have placed the family back onto the housing list. What needs to be explored, therefore, is whether they are accepting culpability by placing the family back onto the list OR whether this is a situation where the OP just wants to move (for reasons other than just the damp as described in the original post) and is rather over-egging the damp situation to ensure that she can go elsewhere. You would be surprised how often people with mental health issues (please no offence OP, am just using my own experiences through families I have supported over the last 10yrs and certainly not saying this is definitely the case for you!) will focus on their housing (where they are, too isolated, not isolated enough, too big, too small etc) rather than look at their own, personal issues. Deflection.

OP - Just to clarify... you NEED to read your tenancy agreement. Some of the things you are mentioning are actually YOUR responsibility. For example - The garden... Fencing will 9 times out of 10 be the responsibility of the tenant to maintain. Also - The state of the garden will be your responsibility to maintain... So if your child is unable to play outside, thats actually something you will need to sort out if you remain in the property. YOU can get a fence put up. YOU can cut the nettles etc. YOU can get some gloves and pick up the animal faeces. Do you expect the council to come out every few days and pick up cat poo, fox poo etc which may be a regular occurance....? YOU need to take some responsibility for YOUR property. If you owned a home or rented privately, these are thing which YOU would have to deal with.

This is a big problem with a LOT of housing association/social housing tenants. They want to be able to make changes to their property (ie paint the walls, put in a new bathroom, etc) but then when anything goes wrong or looks tatty, they stomp their feet and imply that it is down to the social landlord to maintain the property. Which in most instances, it is not.

Damp is OFTEN an issue - And again, on many occasions, it is due to the lack of maintenance by the tenant... They are often told TIME and time again that they need to adequately HEAT the property during the winter and then open their windows to ensure good ventilation. A large proportion of social housing tenants could avoid or at least reduce the damp issues by simply doing these two things. Plus - If a tenant isn't doing these things, then it does unfortunately give the social landlord a "get out clause" because they can then point the finger of blame with the tenant (despite the damp probably already being an issue, albeit one which could have been less severe had these measures been taken)

Again, OP - The damp is not acceptable at the level you are describing. If it is that bad, then please head to CAB and get some support with dealing with the problem. For all of the other issues, please dig out your tenancy agreement - if nothing else, it will provide clarity over what is YOUR responsibility to maintain and what is NOT your responsibility.