Damp in the house, nothing is being done?

daniellog

I have been renting a terrace house with my girlfriend for around a year now. Last year when winter kicked in we noticed a lot of condensation on our front facing wall in the house that has caused us no end of issues, lots of mould and ruined furniture. We have two damp companies come around saying different things but we have now had a damp company take samples from the walls and I think they have confirmed it is condensation and they are recommending fitting some vents to fix the issue.

I know they have sent the report to my landlord last month and I was expecting by the time I got back from our holiday that he would of read it and sorted a plan out with them to fix it. I got an email from the estate agents today to say no progress has been made and he's "working away" (he seems to work away a lot...).

I've kicked off and threatened a small court claim today as they are doing nothing about it. But I just want to know what I can do realistically to get this moving along as they are reluctant to fix the issue? We also don't want to move if we can avoid it as its a nice house and location for us both.

Pixie5740

What would you take your LL to small claims court for?

Assuming you are in England, see Shelter's website:

What to do if your landlord is refusing to do repairs.

It explains how to escalate the matter up to the council.

Is there anything that you could be doing to encourage the mould? Not opening windows to ventilate the property or drying clothes indoors for example?

daniellog

There is nothing we can do really to stop it, trust me I've tried everything. We need some vents fitting to really sort it. Would the house be not legally safe to live in with this problem?

suestew

Damp companies will tell you it's damp issues to get business out of you, usually it's more down to ventilation, especially old properties.

You can really help the problem with some easy steps, this link is quite helpful.

http://www.wisepropertycare.com/news/article/how-stop-condensation-10-steps/

I have a property that I rent and I know my tenants do not help matters. I have also offered to buy moisture traps for them, they use them for a while then don't bother.

Vents will help, I would wait a while and contact him/agency again and press you would like this done.

daniellog

I've been fed lots of things like this, we have bought moisture traps and even had people tell us stupid things like us breathing. The only way to sort it out if to have proper ventilation in the house.

So basically to get things rolling I should contact the council first?