Had sister in tears about damp flat.

[Evilwater]

Ok first time poster to AIBU.

Just had my youngest sister crying her eyes out, because the cheap nasty landlady won't pay for roof repairs and tried to blame it on my sister!

How bloody dare she!!

My sister who has asthma, is going to the dampest flat I have EVER seen.
My sisters health is suffering and now my sister can't fight anymore.

She is leaving that damp, but there is no suitable flats out there for her. Yes I've already said she can stay with me, but she is so down she is going to stay with mum and dad.

Should I sue that landlady? So cross........ Please mumsnet help me do the right thing. Before I do something I will reget.

EW

The advice I was given from shelter when my ll refused to fix the boiler was that I had to obtain 3 estimates and show them to him.

If there was still no action I could call the contractor who provided the lowest quote and deduct the cost from my rent.

You do have to allow "reasonable" time for the ll to sort it out though.

You're not allowed to just stop paying the rent however if environmental health issue an enforcement notice (which forces the ll to carry out repairs), they can decide that based on the condition of they property you are paying too much and have it reduced until things are fixed. This can be backdated.

The rules are such a minefield, I really would urge anyone in this position to contact shelter/cab for advice.

Got info from CAB and shelter. Huge thanks mumsnet.

Not read the replies, but I once put in a County court claim against a landlord that did the same to me. They kept ignoring my letters but the day before the claim was due to be heard they settled. I can't remember how much we got, but it was between £1000 and £2000 and we didn't involve any solicitors at all. I think it cost around £30 to do the paperwork at the county court.

i'm having similar problems its been easier just to move... had environmental health round and they said it was bad (you can smell it as you walk in), but because the landlord has done a damp course where they inject stuff into the outside wall (theres no cavity wall to inject it into so pointless) and got me to paint over the damp with damp proof paint they have said the jobs required are just so expensive to fix the house they cant force my landlord to do anything they told me to get a dehumidifier i have little ones on every window sill.

my house is covered in green mould, i get it on anything wood i clean it it comes back by the end of the week, i am now asthmatic after living in this house for 16months, i can only use 1 bedroom out of the 3 so i am sharing with ds, its awful but no one will do anything.

These situations are atrocious. People could get prosecuted for keeping animals in those kinds of circumstances.

What doesn't make sense to me (I'm a landlord) is that the costs of remedial work will get more expensive as time goes by. We encourage our tenants to tell us about problems asap, partly because it's usually cheaper for us to get things fixed before they become worse, and partly because we couldn't abide leaving someone living in conditions we wouldn't tolerate in our own home while taking money off them.

Maybe also go to the Rent Tribunal and get them to assess what is a reasonable rent. By the sounds of some cases here, an appropriate rent would be very minimal.

I'm feeling very angry about these situations. For goodness sake, it's the 21st century and we're supposed to be a civilised society.

Technically the landlord could be subject to criminal proceedings under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection act or civil proceedings under section 11 of the housing act. No time now but google them and take a look. HTH

Outcome ?