Stuck in the middle of LL and estate, not sure where to go from here?

sacha28

Also "the whole of Cornwall" is a pretty big area and is a logistical nightmare. There are some beautiful rentals down the lizard but it would take me an hour to get to work and my husband almost 2 hours to get to work. It's not easy to "just move" here.

AdrianC

sacha28 said:

AdrianC said:

Frankly, though, I'm a bit baffled as to why this has dragged on for six years, without you even buying so much as a couple of cheap fan heaters to help yourself out.

You assume wrongly, we have bought an array of heaters... convection, oil filled and fan heaters. All of which provide immediate heat but are absolutely useless as soon as you switch it off. Plus, they are so expensive to run and would need to be running 24 hours a day. Just to reiterate, the house has no insulation whatsoever, we can have a fire burning from the moment we get up to the minute we go to bed but the house is absolutely freezing come morning.
This winter has been particularly unforgiving so all of the issues have been exacerbated

My apologies. I can only go by what you tell us.

sacha28 said:

...
The one heater that was left is in, what is now, my son's bedroom and has never worked properly (it's on overnight but by 9am the bricks have gone cold). This is something I have raised many times over the years. We have a log burner that I'm not convinced meets any kind of regulations, the back fell off a couple of years ago and he just got a mate to come and stick it back on, but that is our only form of heating.
...
So onto the present day.....the house is fast becoming uninhabitable. ... We can't dry the room out with heating because we don't have any, we can't air the house because it's too bleddy cold and we can't heat the house up after.
...

Yes, a lack of insulation will mean that any heat that goes in comes straight back out again.

So why have you put up with it for SIX YEARS? Yes, this has been a very wet winter - but not a particularly cold one, not compared to a couple of years ago - was it 2018/19?

sacha28

Sorry my wording probably wasn't very clear. What I meant was the only night storage heater left.

I haven't left it for 6 years, I have brought up the issues with heating many times over each winter. The mould/damp etc have been manageable up to now but it's getting beyond a joke and I simply don't have the time in my life to wipe down 3 bedrooms of walls every single day (as well as the furniture). 

It's just getting depressing now, living like this, and we are very limited with what we can do (I would honestly move tomorrow if there was a house within our budget that would accept us as tenants, I have genuinely been looking nigh on every day for the past year)

Cakeguts

sacha28 said:

Sorry my wording probably wasn't very clear. What I meant was the only night storage heater left.

I haven't left it for 6 years, I have brought up the issues with heating many times over each winter. The mould/damp etc have been manageable up to now but it's getting beyond a joke and I simply don't have the time in my life to wipe down 3 bedrooms of walls every single day (as well as the furniture). 

It's just getting depressing now, living like this, and we are very limited with what we can do (I would honestly move tomorrow if there was a house within our budget that would accept us as tenants, I have genuinely been looking nigh on every day for the past year)

sacha28 said:

Sorry my wording probably wasn't very clear. What I meant was the only night storage heater left.

I haven't left it for 6 years, I have brought up the issues with heating many times over each winter. The mould/damp etc have been manageable up to now but it's getting beyond a joke and I simply don't have the time in my life to wipe down 3 bedrooms of walls every single day (as well as the furniture). 

It's just getting depressing now, living like this, and we are very limited with what we can do (I would honestly move tomorrow if there was a house within our budget that would accept us as tenants, I have genuinely been looking nigh on every day for the past year)

I think what people are trying to say is that you have been there for 6 years where most people would have moved at the end of the first year and if not then they would have gone at the end of 2 years they certainly would not have stayed for 6 years with all the problems.  Most people I think would have moved on as soon as they realised that the landlord wasn't going to do anything about the heating which for you would probably have been around the end of the first year of the tenancy.

My suspicion is that you rented the house in the first place because the rent appeared to be "good value for money."  There are no rental properties that are good value for money they are all cheap for a reason.

You have a landlord who doesn't want to do anything probably because you are subtenants. The answer is that next time you must check who owns the property.  You now need to have a plan because the chances are that where you are is not going to get sorted out to your satisfaction and if the estate evict your landlord you will have to go as well because you do not have a contract with the estate. Your tenancy is with another tenant. This is one of the problems that you get if you rent as a sub tenant.

It is now urgent.  You need to find something somewhere. The time for trying to get this house sorted out has passed you are now going to have to move.  I don't know why you want to keep your son at the same school but I think it would be worth thinking about how he is going to get on if he doesn't have anywhere to live and I would have thought that a roof over his head would have been a higher priority than your desire that he shouldn't change schools.  The chances are that you will not be able to afford a house so perhaps you should be looking at flats as well.  If you get a two bed flat with a seperate living room you can use that room as a bedroom at night. It isn't ideal but you probably don't have time for ideal just the best you can do now.

Skiddaw1

@sasha28 , is it definite that the estate will be taking over responsibility for the house later this year? If so (and if you have any confidence that they will address the current issues) would it be worth hanging on in there for a little longer? (especially if your husband is likely to still be working for the estate for a while yet). It certainly sounds like you're close to the end of your tether with it but if there IS a realistic possibility of the property being renovated later in the year, then with Spring and better weather coming....

Cakeguts

Skiddaw1 said:

@sasha28 , is it definite that the estate will be taking over responsibility for the house later this year? If so (and if you have any confidence that they will address the current issues) would it be worth hanging on in there for a little longer? (especially if your husband is likely to still be working for the estate for a while yet). It certainly sounds like you're close to the end of your tether with it but if there IS a realistic possibility of the property being renovated later in the year, then with Spring and better weather coming....

I don't think we know that when the estate take over the house they will be prepared to rent it to the OP.  It could mean that they are going to get possession from the tenant by evicting them. If that happens the OP will also be evicted because they are a subtenant.  They do not have a contract with the estate only with and estate tenant.   My guess is that the estate would not want to let the house to anyone in the condition that it is in and that they would want vacant possession in order to carry out the repairs. There is also a chance that after the repairs are done the rent would be increased.

Skiddaw1

Good point @Cakeguts .

Don't suppose the estate has anywhere up for rent at the moment that OP and her family could possibly rent? From what the OP said, they have a fair number of properties on their books.

What a horrid situation to be in...

sacha28

Cakeguts said:

sacha28 said:

Sorry my wording probably wasn't very clear. What I meant was the only night storage heater left.

I haven't left it for 6 years, I have brought up the issues with heating many times over each winter. The mould/damp etc have been manageable up to now but it's getting beyond a joke and I simply don't have the time in my life to wipe down 3 bedrooms of walls every single day (as well as the furniture). 

It's just getting depressing now, living like this, and we are very limited with what we can do (I would honestly move tomorrow if there was a house within our budget that would accept us as tenants, I have genuinely been looking nigh on every day for the past year)

sacha28 said:

Sorry my wording probably wasn't very clear. What I meant was the only night storage heater left.

I haven't left it for 6 years, I have brought up the issues with heating many times over each winter. The mould/damp etc have been manageable up to now but it's getting beyond a joke and I simply don't have the time in my life to wipe down 3 bedrooms of walls every single day (as well as the furniture). 

It's just getting depressing now, living like this, and we are very limited with what we can do (I would honestly move tomorrow if there was a house within our budget that would accept us as tenants, I have genuinely been looking nigh on every day for the past year)

I think what people are trying to say is that you have been there for 6 years where most people would have moved at the end of the first year and if not then they would have gone at the end of 2 years they certainly would not have stayed for 6 years with all the problems.  Most people I think would have moved on as soon as they realised that the landlord wasn't going to do anything about the heating which for you would probably have been around the end of the first year of the tenancy.

My suspicion is that you rented the house in the first place because the rent appeared to be "good value for money."  There are no rental properties that are good value for money they are all cheap for a reason.

You have a landlord who doesn't want to do anything probably because you are subtenants. The answer is that next time you must check who owns the property.  You now need to have a plan because the chances are that where you are is not going to get sorted out to your satisfaction and if the estate evict your landlord you will have to go as well because you do not have a contract with the estate. Your tenancy is with another tenant. This is one of the problems that you get if you rent as a sub tenant.

It is now urgent.  You need to find something somewhere. The time for trying to get this house sorted out has passed you are now going to have to move.  I don't know why you want to keep your son at the same school but I think it would be worth thinking about how he is going to get on if he doesn't have anywhere to live and I would have thought that a roof over his head would have been a higher priority than your desire that he shouldn't change schools.  The chances are that you will not be able to afford a house so perhaps you should be looking at flats as well.  If you get a two bed flat with a seperate living room you can use that room as a bedroom at night. It isn't ideal but you probably don't have time for ideal just the best you can do now.

I'm really sorry, and I don't want to appear rude, but this is a bit dramatic.

Firstly we rented the house because, 6 years ago, it was in pretty good condition. When we looked at the house it still had the night storage heaters, they were removed at some point prior to our moving in, and it wasn't in any way mouldy or damp. 
The house wasn't advertised as particularly cheap, just about market rent price (at the time, rent seems to have increased quite a bit in these 6 years!). Also, if our LL gets evicted, that will not end our tenancy. The estate just take over the tenancy, as they will in September (apparently but this has been ongoing for the best part of 5 years now).

The reason for not changing my son's school is a simple one... throughout primary school I went to 12 different schools and I will not have my son living that way. When my husband and I discuss houses we see on Rightmove his first question is always "I don't have to move schools do I?" No son, no you don't, because as your parent it is my job to make sure you can feel happy, safe and secure in your environment and I don't ever want him feeling like I did growing up. I won't use him as collateral damage, just because"kids adapt" doesn't mean he should have to.

Finally, in terms of finances...now the bankruptcy is in swing we can breathe again and, as such, are now in the best financial position we have been for a while. Yes we got into severe strife, my husband went for most of last year not being paid and I was a student, but I am now qualified on a decentish salary and my husband is also in FT and stable employment and earning almost as much as me. We can afford a house, but availability is an issue.
Also, if the issues with this house were to be sorted, I would love to stay here as it's my home. I'm just hating on it right now because it is getting to the point where it will become dilapidated if it's left too much longer.

Cakeguts you appear to have made a lot of assumptions regarding the estate. The conversations I have had with them is that we will remain living here when they take over, they have no interest in yet another empty property when we are decent tenants, and a new tenancy agreement will be drawn up and signed. The problem is that they have been taking back this property for around 5 years and have yet to do so, so this issue will continue until one of them cracks. Or we move. Whichever comes first.

sacha28

Skiddaw1 said:

Good point @Cakeguts .

Don't suppose the estate has anywhere up for rent at the moment that OP and her family could possibly rent? From what the OP said, they have a fair number of properties on their books.

What a horrid situation to be in...

This is something that has been in discussion. When I first approached the estate I was asked if we would consider moving and of course we said we'd consider it. The house next door, our only neighbour, is sitting empty as they moved at the end of November. The year before that, the estate had a full heating system installed and insulation etc so the house is absolutely perfect for us. The idea has been put forward to the senior manager but I was warned that things on the estate take a long time to get sorted. I emailed for an update last week to be told he is storm damage assessing so won't be able to look at anything for another couple of weeks.

The estate have literally hundreds of properties over the whole county.

[Deleted User]

Then it looks as if you will have to wait until the estate can proceed.  I hope this is resolved.  

You are, I am afraid, putting blocks on other ways of finding housing.  You aren't talking about moving your son to 12 different school, just one so you have more chance to find a decent warm, healthy to live in house.  You are the one being a little dramatic and dogmatic.  I mean this kindly, sometimes we can get locked into a way of thinking.  No child looks at moving with delight, but they do adjust with no harm.., as long as it doesn't happen repeatedly.  I have had to deal with this with my son.  This should be kept in reserve in case things don't happen with the estate.  I looked on RightMove and there were a few properties available when I looked for things in/near Truro, a few for £7-800 pcm.  However, if you have financial problems, being accepted by an agency as a tenant could be more difficult.  Do you have someone willing to act as a guarantor?  Also have you been on the DebtfreeWannabee board to see if there is something you can do about your finances?  Or consulted a debt advice charity?

With the financial problems, it does look like your best bet at the moment is to try and get things moving with the estate.  Do you have a helpful MP or councillor that could apply some 'hurry up' assistance with the estate management?