No cooker, heating not working, walls running with water....but can't get out with pets

[ChristmasSprite]

Am I being unreasonable to just want a decent place to live with pets
A few years ago (won't say exactly how many) we had to go into refuge and our animals went into foster care. Its been very chaotic and one of the animals, belonging my mid teen DC died as a result of poor care in foster, housing has been awful. Finally we found a place that would accept our pets and we were so thrilled, but within 3 months they'd decided to sell up!!!! We were nearly homeless and had to jump into a place where theres been drug dealing and a catalogue of things wrong. I am grateful we had a roof over our heads, but its a nightmare. When one of us has a bath or shower, especially when temp nearer to freezing, we have to open the window, as the walls literally run with water anyway, without the added steam!
Its just noone seems to be renting to tenants with pets!. We were rural before where there are lots of animals, left our cottage immaculate, but even rural is so hard to find, an we've ended up in this mess.

I am grateful for the roof, but Aibu to expect that we could actually find somewhere decent to live with our pets!

Get on the council list, ask about housing association. This is substandard accomodation. How old are dc?

If it's an out house converted to a bathroom the chances are the it does not have a double wall.This means that in winter there will always be condensation as the wall will also be cold.
Get a dehumidifier as then you can demonstrate how much water is generated,it also speeds up drying clothes in the house.
As for the pets,I know you're attached to them but it's either them or chances of better housing.

Like I said, its the bathroom, yes, has tiles on it. Its an outside wall, there are issues of it being, I suspect still a single-skinned wall, with an Airbrick that let's freezing air in behind the boxing for the pipework. So any warmth inside is going to hit the freezing cold wall, and create what you are in the pic.

That pic isnt the shower wall, although it looks like it.

The rest of the house is warm and dry. I do all the usual opening of windows to clear kitchen steam when needed, have, and use, the window air vents, as needed.

I am really upset by being told my kids are living in squalor and that I'm not prioritising them! We are all clean, dry and warm.

I dry the wet walls every day, I hang our clothing out on our line in our garden, or I use the rads indoors for finishing off anything still damp.

I agree it can be difficult to rent with pets but it is possible.

Me and DH rented 3 different houses in the last 17 years and we had pets (dogs and cats). We didn't go through agents though, we were lucky enough to see private ads in local papers.

We are no longer renting but in the area we live I know of 4 families with dogs (2 also have cats) and they are all renting. All have different landlords so there are some around that are happy to allow pets.

A window vac and a dehumidifier won't completely fix it but it will help a lot. You might need to run the dehumidifier all day for a few days to start with but that will reduce as time goes one. It's cheaper than moving anyway.

Have you looked at these?

www.google.co.uk/search?q=pet+friendly+homes+to+rent+uk&oq=pet+friendly+homes&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j0l5.12767j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

And - do you know what causes the water to run down the walls? Finding the cause would help to fix it.

Sorry, it was me who said squalor, but I got the wrong end of the stick. I imagined water running down all your inside walls due to damp, but you said the rest of the house was warm and dry.

Nellieellie
Our animals have been our lifeline, yes. To have lost one due to bad fostering, was devastating to the teen the dcat belonged too. It was also devastating having to foster them out and live without them while we were in refuge trying to not be terrified all the time of being found; we were very scared of ppl generally by the time we got there.
One of my ddogs now supports me, and is accepted at many places, but I will restrict my options even further being discriminated against if I say this to anyone.

“the pet thing is irrelevant no, no, its really not. Two med.size ddogs and a dcat. Plus teens”

Well, yes it is irrelevant to the condensation problem you have in the bathroom.

What dehumidifiers have you tried? We’ve got an ecoair DD122 and it’s sorted out a lot of the damp issues we get in our flat in winter.

What region are you in? Do you have to stay there? Lots of landlords in Thanet, Kent allow pets.

You might not be unreasonable but you are being unrealistic.

A window vac and a dehumidifier won't completely fix it but it will help a lot. You might need to run the dehumidifier all day for a few days to start with

Strongly agree. If you had more rooms with this problem I'd advise hiring in a builder's dehumidifier (the sort that they use to accelerate the curing of wet plaster) for a few days to kickstart but a good quality domestic model would be enough for a bathroom if the rest of the house is OK. And those window vac can be invaluable for this and other issues.

It’s been getting worse each year for those with pets. More than one pet makes it pretty much impossible unless you already know the landlord or it’s a landlord who doesn’t care as long as they get the money. Just the cat or your service dog fine but if you want better housing sadly you are going to have to regime some animals.

@Eliza9917 I second that. Never had an issue with renting in this area with pets.

Right, so in your post at 4.36 pm you say the rest of the house is warm and dry, it’s just this one tiled wall in the bathroom. A nuisance for sure, but not the picture of a damp and mouldy house you were painting in your first post, hence the comments about squalor.

My bathroom is a corner room and gets very cold walls - it also doesn’t have any ventilation or extractor fan, and we had terrible problems with mould in the painted walls. We’ve scrubbed and painted them with anti-mould paint, got a dehumidifier and a Karcher window vac. End of problem.

It sounds like the outhouse conversion to bathroom has been done in the way that you suspec, or hasn’t been insulated. If it’s been relatively recently done would it be worth speaking to Building Control at your council? We converted our garage into living accommodation a few years ago and we had to put an absolute wedge of additional insulation into it, on the instruction of Building Control

When you say there's no heating, do you mean just in the bathroom? Can you look at getting a towel rail put in? Or sit a heater in there on an extension lead for half hour in a morning and evening? It sounds like the bathroom is now the only problem?

ChristmasSprite you make a very good point, we have a two tier housing system in the UK. Homeowners are allowed pets, allowed to do as they wish. Those that rent are rarely allowed pets, restricted in what they can do in their house, effectively not allowed to make somewhere home. I don't know what the answer is but it's unfair.

(I'm a homeowner, but can still see the injustice in the system.)

@Bombardier25966 if you own a flat under leasehold then your freeholder can prevent you having a cat or dog. So it isn't just renters who are not allowed pets.

Oh and some of these flats are put on the private rental market.

X-posted with you there seventh

If it's an out house converted to a bathroom the chances are the it does not have a double wall.This means that in winter there will always be condensation as the wall will also be cold

Yes absolutely, it that. Its not a damp issue, it is a freezing cold north single skin wall, with a air brick that will let in the icy air, which then the warm air from the house hits and creates the rain! We have our very own weather system!

I am going to fill the holes in the air brick for a start, it will create an insulation gap between the cold outside and house temp. Is all manageable until until temp goes below like 6°

mydogisthebest that's encouraging!!! We have a massive area of possibilities but even so. As i say, mainly rural.

Absolutely yes, @orchiddingme there is very limited selection on offer an of those visited we then ask about pets, some will say, one pet, others, mostly, none,non, no!

The private ads option is something no haven't looked at...thanks..will start looking there too

I didn't say it was damp and mouldy fanjo

Timbertot I have never lied, and always paid another half again deposit, plus fumigation and carpet clean at vacating time. I have never had to replace a carpet, but if something caused damage would do that!

There are different owners of pets! I wouldn't allow animals to be damaging the property, some do. Some allow ddog to crap all over garden, footpaths, school fields, I don't. Some hang their bags of poo off trees s and bushes!!!fgs!
My ddogs are not allowed to even pee in the garden for fear of damaging the lawn weeds