Hi,

My partner and I live in one of four privately leased flats. Each flat has its own private owner; there's no maintenance team etc.and it's in a converted house which is quite an old, large building.

Back in March, we had a really bad flood. We live below ground level and we discovered that the other three apartments' water meters were outside and had burst, flooding down below into our apartment. Landlord was great and came up the next day with a dehumidifyer and was grateful for our efforts which appeared to have saved the carpet in the bedroom. Since then, we've had bad damp in the bathroom which we notified the landlord of and just agreed to keep on top of it as we're not able to open the bathroom windows.

Last month, my partner had turned the washing machine on and had left for work. I came home from work to find my kitchen flooded as the sink had backed up and overflowed. Landlord was amazing again, had a plumber right out who found that *some idiot* had plumbed the washing machine and sink together. This meant that our tap water had been flowing into the washing machine, and now the washing machine was overflowing into the sink as our Saniflow unit had packed in and was leaking. This has since been sorted, but meant that we couldn't wash up for a few days and were without a washing machine for a week.

I'd been having problems with my sinuses for around the last month, but last week, I could smell damp in our bedroom (we've been unable to open the windows in here too which the landlord knew about), so I pulled the desk out and saw that the entire back of it was covered in mould. Upon inspection of all of our bedroom furniture, it was all covered in mould (on the back, under the drawers etc.) and we've had to throw it away. I took pictures and told the landlord straight away on the Thursday, and the plumber came back on Saturday to check whether the bathroom was leaking into the bedroom, but apparently not. The landlord's husband came over on the Friday to give us the dehumidifyer again and I showed him that the carpet was stained with mould. We pulled back the carpet and the underlay was soaking wet along the outside wall of our apartment. The landlord's been out of the country so he didn't want to make a decision without her. He managed to find us a key for the windows but it only opens on bedroom window, and this opens onto the pavement on the street outside so we can't leave it open wide, and it has to be closed when we're at work.

It's been really bad this week and I've been off work since Wednesday with sinus related problems and swollen glands. I've had the doors and window open and we've been sleeping on a mattress topper in the lounge for now and I've seen an improvement in my health, which is great.

I contacted the landlord again telling them that we were really struggling, and the husband popped round immediately. We spoke to Severn Trent who confirmed that the service pipes for the other three apartments run under our apartment, so the likelihood is that there's a leak from one of those or from their drains which runs down the side and into the ground. If one of the upstairs apartments uses their water, we can hear it in our wall. The carpet is still in the bedroom. I'd cleaned off as much mould as I could when I first found it after taking pictures and showing the husband, just to make the room bearable, but it didn't do much.

We've since discovered that the mould has spread across the room and into our built-in wardrobe. My partner's father passed away when he was a teenager and he keeps his old biker jacket, which is certainly weathered, but now this is covered in mould and I'm livid. I honestly couldn't care less about our items, they're all replaceable, but this has been the final straw for my partner. We're both exhausted from this whole thing.

The landlord is coming to assess the apartment tomorrow, but I'm really not sure what I'm allowed to do or ask for? I've got an appointment with ST for a private investigation to determine where the water is coming from, but this is in over two weeks' time, and we can barely live in the apartment as it is. We've never contested paying rent whilst we've had all these problems; we've carried on paying on time without fail. I cannot stress enough how lovely our landlord is, but I really feel like this should have been addressed much quicker.

We've now lost all of our bedroom furniture which was bought brand new in January, and our clothes are covered in mould in the wardrobe (which I'm sure I can clean out, to be fair), but I don't even know where to start with my partner's leather jacket. I called my contents insurance provider who of course want me to pay a hefty excess, but I don't feel as though I should as there's nothing I could have done to prevent this. Is that unreasonable of me?

It was mentioned that they would be happy to relocate us to another property of theirs if we did need to move out while work was carried out, but it's miles away from where we live now. We chose this property because my partner doesn't drive, it's a 5 minute walk into town, practically on the doorstep of my job, equidistant from both our parents' homes and we have two dogs that I need to let out on my lunch break (my doggos are currently at my parents' while we sort this), so moving so far away, even for a short period of time is not feasible for us. I would be happy for us to move back to our parents' homes if they let us off the rent during that time.

What can I ask for tomorrow? I don't want to damage the good relationship we have with our landlord, but I also feel like I'm going to be seriously out of pocket if I don't say anything. Have I said anything unreasonable or silly here?

Please advise