Recently signed tenancy agreement for flat, moldy smell was masked up when viewing

benjus

This really belongs on the House Buying, selling and renting board.

Supernaut

Tansy_1980 wrote: »

It's really difficult to get out of a contract because you're unhappy with the condition the property is in. You'd at the very least need to exploit every option open to you which means

• notifying the landlord of the problems and giving him ample time to repair same
• contacting the council if the landlord doesn't do anything to see if there are any fitness/serious disrepair issues

Have a look at this video, it explains what you need to do if you want to try to get out of the contract. Even if you follow the advice in this video and have evidence to support your claim that the landlord has failed to carry out repairs that are his statutory or contractual obligation, there is still a risk that a judge at court will find in the landlord's failure.

As far as I'm aware, landlords and agents are under no obligations to disclose known faults in the property when you view it. They should provide you with an EPC (normally on the property spec flyer) but they don't have to tell you about any damp/mold problems. As said above, most moldy smells are caused by condensation, rather than penetrating or rising damp so ventilating the property fully and taking care when doing anything that causes steam might help.

Thanks for the information, especially the link. I rented this property through an agent, so I suppose she would be the first point of contact for this regarding repairs?

Despite the information given in the video I'm very tempted to approach the letting agent casually to let her know of this problem. It seems a bit ridiculous that I write in asking to carry out repairs on the flat when this issue would only affect a tiny minority of people, seems a lot more sensible to just let me go and find another person for the flat. I'd like to get the tenancy agreement to look at break clauses and such but since I'm waiting for her to drop that round I'm afraid of leaving it too late to say something, in case she thinks I'm lying. Another thing is that I'm not even 100% sure if the tenancy agreement is legally binding yet, she was meant to get a witness to sign it (one of her secretaries) but before the weekend said she hadn't done, so maybe something I can exploit if I'm quick enough?

Regarding past tenants habits, as the smell is there I'd think it would suggest an irreversible damage had been done, and no amount of dehumidifying or ventilating would fix the issue (however I will be doing that anyway of course).

HappyMJ

Supernaut wrote: »

Regarding past tenants habits, as the smell is there I'd think it would suggest an irreversible damage had been done, and no amount of dehumidifying or ventilating would fix the issue (however I will be doing that anyway of course).

Damage and damp problems can be fixed. It's not irreversible.

Tansy_1980

The agreement is legally binding. It doesn't need to be witnessed and you don't even need a paper document just an intention to form a contract. If you don't have a paper contract that specifies a term for the contract the default tenancy term is 6 months,so that's the lowest limit of liability. Most paper contracts will be for 12 months although some student lets will be for 9.

If the landlord/agent agrees to release you you need written confirmation of this signed by the landlord. Otherwise, they still reserve the option to sue you for breach/unpaid rent for the remainder of the term.

At this point, you should also be checking that the landlord is properly registered (you can search the register online via NI Direct) and that the agent has properly protected your deposit, given you a rent book, gas safety certificate, EPC etc. If they haven't you may be in a slightly stronger bargaining position as you could always threaten to report these infractions of the Private Tenancies Order to the council if they don't allow you out of the contract.

And for those saying this should be on another board - it probably should stay here if Supernaut actually wants to get information that will help her. The law on housing, and particularly on private tenancies, is very different in GB so any advice given on that board would likely be incorrect when applied to these circumstances - e.g. the information given about HHSRS which doesn't apply here.

Supernaut

Thanks for the info. Yes, I thought the same regarding the agreement. I was provided with all the documents you mentioned, and the landlord is registered on NI Direct, so everything is above board. I'll contact housing rights NI and see what they advise in this case.

toofy

Hi Supernaut, are you a student by any chance? I feel your pain, I am the mother of a student who leased a house on Tate's Avenue in Belfast last year. It was a last minute viewing and signing up as Queen's had let her down on halls accommodation as it was over-subscribed.

The house was old and rundown, however the 2 shower rooms were re-plastered with pvc cladding, so regardless of advice from me they went ahead and signed up. Not long into the lease they realised that one of the showers did not work properly, so they all (5 of them) used the one room with little ventilation; this quickly became an issue as mould covered the whole ceiling; bedrooms were also susceptible to mould and damp with my daughter's clothes and shoes being ruined.

They ignored advice and wouldn't report to Environmental Health. At the end of the tenancy the so-called landlord sent in workmen to re-plaster the bathrooms again, before showing the house to other prospective tenants. He also retained almost all of their deposits for "cleaning".

Moral of the story is - trust your instinct and inform the relevant authorities, follow up on complaints as they happen, and don't be naive like my daughter and her friends. According to the letting agent all certificates were up to date for the property. Landlords and letting agents can be greedy and unscrupulous... Seek advice from housing authorities and Environmental Health Depts of the local council..hope you get sorted.