Help! New home is filthy beyond belief

Slithery

wannabe_a_saver said:

Slithery said:

coffeehound said:

They probably trousered the previous tenant's deposit, too.

And who would blame them given the condition of the property?

The point of keeping the deposit would be to cover the cost of rectifying the problems surely?

A common misconception.

Blue_bell_20

I can add something that I have found works well with mould in general: Astonish mould and mildew remover is the best I have found. Even on the sealant in the bathroom. It does take a few attempts with black mould on sealant. I squirted it, then put tissue there to keep it soaking up. It didn’t do too much the first few times but I did this 3-4 times over a week and it removed the black mould. On walls just squirting it, it will usually disappear in 10-20ish minutes. It contains bleach though, so it’s better to not be in the room for a few hours and air it out. 

[Deleted User]

So sorry OP, moving house should be a happy occasion, not one that is clearly very difficult. When I moved into my current place, it was unclean - previous tenant's beard shavings on the bathroom tiles, crumbs in the cupboards etc. I had moved in earlier than expected so can't really blame the LL for not having it sorted, but I wasn't happy with the state of it. Fast forward 2.5 months later and I'm happy here, I hope you will be too once you've overcome the initial hurdle of cleaning and dealing with the bins. Good luck with everything.

leypt1

If it's really terrible, could fall foul of fitness for human habitation act. To enforce you would need to take legal action though, and it's up to you whether it's i. Likely to fail the standard ii. worth the hassle.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018/guide-for-tenants-homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018
Sorry this has happened to you. At times like these renting can feel like pure powerlessness 

ChewyyBacca

People, I need expertise now.

Emailed on 1st May 16 pictures of terrible ness mentioned in the original post to LL. Received a small 'sorry to know this, we will get back to you after talking to agency' No other communication. not even they will pay for the cleaning.  
 Tried to call LL last night (their morning- yes the LL is overseas) they didn't pick up the phone. 

Today is our moving day. I was awake all night thinking, what if LL will be non-responsive like this throughout the tenancy? 
Had a call today at 6 am and it was disappointing to say the least.

Basically LL told me that we are being unreasonable, irritational and we should relax (???) He is in touch with ex tenants and trying to get the whole picture (??) He will wait for their response and see if could get any money from their deposit. That he is extremely busy person, overseas and he cant do magic and resolve. We need to wait for him to call agency (property is not agency managed, LL has emergency cover with agency, for everything else LL is responsible)

We also got told off, that we didn't think it is bank holiday and we need to relax. That we saw the property ourselves (viewing was exactly 2 months back ) and we should have looked carefully, and now we are complaining. when asked how to cook in mould infested kitchen, he laughed saying this is exaggeration, other tenants were living there before you.

I pressed him to give some action plan and timeline and he side stepped saying soon or wait for the agency to come back and to talk to ex tenant.

I don't know what to do. My instincts telling me not to move. We will be living in mould infested house and LL doesn't seem to care much. He is very money minded (He was delaying EICR to May, I asked to give it before moving in, he asked me to pay for it, if I want it urgently)

Mould present in 6 different places in kitchen alone, 1 place in living room, 2 places in 2nd bedroom, 3 places in bathroom.
damp in master bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom

Apart from that manky mattress and sofa (it was covered while viewing)

What are my options? Im out of pocket £3000 (1400 for rent, 1600 deposit) for a mould infested, grime covered, full garbage bin house. Unfortunately, did half the cleaning of grime. But mould is still there.

How do I get my money back? What are the legal precedents here? 
I will go through the post above by @leypt1

Any help will be appreciated.

HampshireH

ChewyyBacca said:

People, I need expertise now.

Emailed on 1st May 16 pictures of terrible ness mentioned in the original post to LL. Received a small 'sorry to know this, we will get back to you after talking to agency' No other communication. not even they will pay for the cleaning.  
 Tried to call LL last night (their morning- yes the LL is overseas) they didn't pick up the phone. 

Today is our moving day. I was awake all night thinking, what if LL will be non-responsive like this throughout the tenancy? 
Had a call today at 6 am and it was disappointing to say the least.

Basically LL told me that we are being unreasonable, irritational and we should relax (???) He is in touch with ex tenants and trying to get the whole picture (??) He will wait for their response and see if could get any money from their deposit. That he is extremely busy person, overseas and he cant do magic and resolve. We need to wait for him to call agency (property is not agency managed, LL has emergency cover with agency, for everything else LL is responsible)

We also got told off, that we didn't think it is bank holiday and we need to relax. That we saw the property ourselves (viewing was exactly 2 months back ) and we should have looked carefully, and now we are complaining. when asked how to cook in mould infested kitchen, he laughed saying this is exaggeration, other tenants were living there before you.

I pressed him to give some action plan and timeline and he side stepped saying soon or wait for the agency to come back and to talk to ex tenant.

I don't know what to do. My instincts telling me not to move. We will be living in mould infested house and LL doesn't seem to care much. He is very money minded (He was delaying EICR to May, I asked to give it before moving in, he asked me to pay for it, if I want it urgently)

Mould present in 6 different places in kitchen alone, 1 place in living room, 2 places in 2nd bedroom, 3 places in bathroom.
damp in master bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom

Apart from that manky mattress and sofa (it was covered while viewing)

What are my options? Im out of pocket £3000 (1400 for rent, 1600 deposit) for a mould infested, grime covered, full garbage bin house. Unfortunately, did half the cleaning of grime. But mould is still there.

How do I get my money back? What are the legal precedents here? 
I will go through the post above by @leypt1

Any help will be appreciated.

Clean it and live in it. I don't really understand why you can't do that.

Try and get your compensation later but as you have already started cleaning you may as well finish.

You should have gone inside when you got the keys and checked condition. If you weren't happy then you could have declined the keys etc there and then.

You now mention the agency I'm a bit confused by their role. Was it to find a tenant or to cover emergency situations? Or both? And what is defined as an emergency situation as this wouldn't be to not people.

Fire or floor are emergencies.

I totally appreciate how unhappy you are but I can't help but feel if you had actually looked when getting your keys or been inside during the inventory etc you wouldn't be as upset over a bank holiday weekend.

Also it is a bank holiday weekend and unusual for an agency to be working.

If it is uninhabitable call your environmental health department

ChewyyBacca

leypt1 said:

If it's really terrible, could fall foul of fitness for human habitation act. To enforce you would need to take legal action though, and it's up to you whether it's i. Likely to fail the standard ii. worth the hassle.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018/guide-for-tenants-homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018
Sorry this has happened to you. At times like these renting can feel like pure powerlessness 

Thanks for the link @leypt1
I read through it, and it talks about rights of current tenants who are living in the property. 
I haven't moved in yet, but I'm sure there's are precedents of new tenants finding their property in horror state. Does anyone have that experience please

However the link talks about unsafe health condition like presence of mould and damp.

There's also asbestos present in boiler as per gsc. But LL said different engineers have different views, asbestos may not be present

ChewyyBacca

HampshireH said:

ChewyyBacca said:

People, I need expertise now.

Emailed on 1st May 16 pictures of terrible ness mentioned in the original post to LL. Received a small 'sorry to know this, we will get back to you after talking to agency' No other communication. not even they will pay for the cleaning.  
 Tried to call LL last night (their morning- yes the LL is overseas) they didn't pick up the phone. 

Today is our moving day. I was awake all night thinking, what if LL will be non-responsive like this throughout the tenancy? 
Had a call today at 6 am and it was disappointing to say the least.

Basically LL told me that we are being unreasonable, irritational and we should relax (???) He is in touch with ex tenants and trying to get the whole picture (??) He will wait for their response and see if could get any money from their deposit. That he is extremely busy person, overseas and he cant do magic and resolve. We need to wait for him to call agency (property is not agency managed, LL has emergency cover with agency, for everything else LL is responsible)

We also got told off, that we didn't think it is bank holiday and we need to relax. That we saw the property ourselves (viewing was exactly 2 months back ) and we should have looked carefully, and now we are complaining. when asked how to cook in mould infested kitchen, he laughed saying this is exaggeration, other tenants were living there before you.

I pressed him to give some action plan and timeline and he side stepped saying soon or wait for the agency to come back and to talk to ex tenant.

I don't know what to do. My instincts telling me not to move. We will be living in mould infested house and LL doesn't seem to care much. He is very money minded (He was delaying EICR to May, I asked to give it before moving in, he asked me to pay for it, if I want it urgently)

Mould present in 6 different places in kitchen alone, 1 place in living room, 2 places in 2nd bedroom, 3 places in bathroom.
damp in master bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom

Apart from that manky mattress and sofa (it was covered while viewing)

What are my options? Im out of pocket £3000 (1400 for rent, 1600 deposit) for a mould infested, grime covered, full garbage bin house. Unfortunately, did half the cleaning of grime. But mould is still there.

How do I get my money back? What are the legal precedents here? 
I will go through the post above by @leypt1

Any help will be appreciated.

Clean it and live in it. I don't really understand why you can't do that.

Try and get your compensation later but as you have already started cleaning you may as well finish.

You should have gone inside when you got the keys and checked condition. If you weren't happy then you could have declined the keys etc there and then.

You now mention the agency I'm a bit confused by their role. Was it to find a tenant or to cover emergency situations? Or both? And what is defined as an emergency situation as this wouldn't be to not people.

Fire or floor are emergencies.

I totally appreciate how unhappy you are but I can't help but feel if you had actually looked when getting your keys or been inside during the inventory etc you wouldn't be as upset over a bank holiday weekend.

Also it is a bank holiday weekend and unusual for an agency to be working.

If it is uninhabitable call your environmental health department

Easier said than done. We broke out backs cleaning along side professional cleaner. It's still just half done. And I'm paying £1400 pm for this. And I will have to dumpster dive and sorry garbage from 4 huge bins, clean out all the cabinets with ex tenants half eaten human and animal food and pellets. That's another bin. This is not expected and not civil. I'm testing up just thinking about what situation we have got in. 

Agent is online portal something and they did ref check and money holding.

HampshireH

ChewyyBacca said:

HampshireH said:

ChewyyBacca said:

People, I need expertise now.

Emailed on 1st May 16 pictures of terrible ness mentioned in the original post to LL. Received a small 'sorry to know this, we will get back to you after talking to agency' No other communication. not even they will pay for the cleaning.  
 Tried to call LL last night (their morning- yes the LL is overseas) they didn't pick up the phone. 

Today is our moving day. I was awake all night thinking, what if LL will be non-responsive like this throughout the tenancy? 
Had a call today at 6 am and it was disappointing to say the least.

Basically LL told me that we are being unreasonable, irritational and we should relax (???) He is in touch with ex tenants and trying to get the whole picture (??) He will wait for their response and see if could get any money from their deposit. That he is extremely busy person, overseas and he cant do magic and resolve. We need to wait for him to call agency (property is not agency managed, LL has emergency cover with agency, for everything else LL is responsible)

We also got told off, that we didn't think it is bank holiday and we need to relax. That we saw the property ourselves (viewing was exactly 2 months back ) and we should have looked carefully, and now we are complaining. when asked how to cook in mould infested kitchen, he laughed saying this is exaggeration, other tenants were living there before you.

I pressed him to give some action plan and timeline and he side stepped saying soon or wait for the agency to come back and to talk to ex tenant.

I don't know what to do. My instincts telling me not to move. We will be living in mould infested house and LL doesn't seem to care much. He is very money minded (He was delaying EICR to May, I asked to give it before moving in, he asked me to pay for it, if I want it urgently)

Mould present in 6 different places in kitchen alone, 1 place in living room, 2 places in 2nd bedroom, 3 places in bathroom.
damp in master bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom

Apart from that manky mattress and sofa (it was covered while viewing)

What are my options? Im out of pocket £3000 (1400 for rent, 1600 deposit) for a mould infested, grime covered, full garbage bin house. Unfortunately, did half the cleaning of grime. But mould is still there.

How do I get my money back? What are the legal precedents here? 
I will go through the post above by @leypt1

Any help will be appreciated.

Clean it and live in it. I don't really understand why you can't do that.

Try and get your compensation later but as you have already started cleaning you may as well finish.

You should have gone inside when you got the keys and checked condition. If you weren't happy then you could have declined the keys etc there and then.

You now mention the agency I'm a bit confused by their role. Was it to find a tenant or to cover emergency situations? Or both? And what is defined as an emergency situation as this wouldn't be to not people.

Fire or floor are emergencies.

I totally appreciate how unhappy you are but I can't help but feel if you had actually looked when getting your keys or been inside during the inventory etc you wouldn't be as upset over a bank holiday weekend.

Also it is a bank holiday weekend and unusual for an agency to be working.

If it is uninhabitable call your environmental health department

Easier said than done. We broke out backs cleaning along side professional cleaner. It's still just half done. And I'm paying £1400 pm for this. And I will have to dumpster dive and sorry garbage from 4 huge bins, clean out all the cabinets with ex tenants half eaten human and animal food and pellets. That's another bin. This is not expected and not civil. I'm testing up just thinking about what situation we have got in. 

Agent is online portal something and they did ref check and money holding.

Why would you have to "dumpster dive"?

Pay someone to empty them and claim the cost back from the landlord. The council may even assist you with a cheaper quote to do this but I expect a local man and van with a waste disposal licence would be quicker.

Write the landlord a letter with a list of your costs that you will be seeking reimbursement for. Your rent and deposit are no goes as you voluntarily took the keys and paid rent. You are a tenant.

Relating to asbestos in the boiler. Must be very very old boiler. But if there is - well you won't be playing around inside the boiler anyway so why does that matter? 

I really do feel you need to take a breather and accept you have chosen to take the keys to this rental and now need to sort it out.

It is a bank holiday weekend you can't expect people to be working. That's the risk you take when getting your keys on a bank holiday weekend.

Marvel1

ChewyyBacca said:

People, I need expertise now.

Emailed on 1st May 16 pictures of terrible ness mentioned in the original post to LL. Received a small 'sorry to know this, we will get back to you after talking to agency' No other communication. not even they will pay for the cleaning.  
 Tried to call LL last night (their morning- yes the LL is overseas) they didn't pick up the phone. 

Today is our moving day. I was awake all night thinking, what if LL will be non-responsive like this throughout the tenancy? 
Had a call today at 6 am and it was disappointing to say the least.

Basically LL told me that we are being unreasonable, irritational and we should relax (???) He is in touch with ex tenants and trying to get the whole picture (??) He will wait for their response and see if could get any money from their deposit. That he is extremely busy person, overseas and he cant do magic and resolve. We need to wait for him to call agency (property is not agency managed, LL has emergency cover with agency, for everything else LL is responsible)

We also got told off, that we didn't think it is bank holiday and we need to relax. That we saw the property ourselves (viewing was exactly 2 months back ) and we should have looked carefully, and now we are complaining. when asked how to cook in mould infested kitchen, he laughed saying this is exaggeration, other tenants were living there before you.

I pressed him to give some action plan and timeline and he side stepped saying soon or wait for the agency to come back and to talk to ex tenant.

I don't know what to do. My instincts telling me not to move. We will be living in mould infested house and LL doesn't seem to care much. He is very money minded (He was delaying EICR to May, I asked to give it before moving in, he asked me to pay for it, if I want it urgently)

Mould present in 6 different places in kitchen alone, 1 place in living room, 2 places in 2nd bedroom, 3 places in bathroom.
damp in master bed, kitchen, living room and bathroom

Apart from that manky mattress and sofa (it was covered while viewing)

What are my options? Im out of pocket £3000 (1400 for rent, 1600 deposit) for a mould infested, grime covered, full garbage bin house. Unfortunately, did half the cleaning of grime. But mould is still there.

How do I get my money back? What are the legal precedents here? 
I will go through the post above by @leypt1

Any help will be appreciated.

Tell him, no probs, when I leave i will leave it as it was when I first moved in as that's what you are expecting and my obligation 

Basically, you don't have to bother with cleaning when  you leave or pay for a cleaner - it still be a in a better condition than your first day.