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!

Your OP says no cooker, heating not working - these are essential elements of a rental property and the LL must get them in working order. Contact Shelter or CAB for advice. Dehumidifiers are excellent for situations like your bathroom, we now have one upstairs for the bathroom and one downstairs for drying laundry. Aldi and Lidl often have them.

Yes, southern comforts its the bathroom needing a heated towel rail. I think it will make a big difference me filling in the air brick so that the air between the external wall and the boxed in pipes will not be freezing cold, as that water runs onto the bathroom floor.

In my op I was trying to explain that we arrived here out of desperation, took I because of desperation, and is no great, and only want to be here to give me time to find something that's suitable.

I think the 'window vac' is a great idea,and I'm going to see if I can source one. Just spoken to a friend who recommends as well. They have a käarcher (sp?) one that they really rate.

Nice point for adli /lidl dehumidifiers.
I want to be able to keep the place to a high standard whilst we are here.
Have already been to CAB who have a case file open for me, they are waiting to see that works get done, and I hope that, yes, heating for bathroom, will be installed as promised soon.
Kent area too far away sadly. Schools mean I have to stay reasonably within a certain radius, happy to commute a bit but don't want to make school days too long.
I have a massive dehumidifier/aircon unit in a friends garage, being stored, but think I might have to look at something smaller for here.

nightgremlin 8 times in 10 yes is a lot of upheaval??!? we have already moved 5 times including refuge, in not as many, and every time the housing situation is dire, and that was with help from the Homeless Prevention team

God this bathrooms are a nightmare and it’s all because they are tagged on the back of a house. I know exactly what you mean.
I actually think an oil radiator might help. But I don’t know how expensive they are to keep on a steady heat.
I did that years ago.

Its really not ideal here, but it will certainly do as somewhere to be based whilst trying to find something suitable.

Its the finding something suitable.

Some tenants are a nightmare too. I've seen the states that some people vacate their properties in!

Its some tenants, and its some pet owners.

The difference is whether they are responsible or not! I have excellent references for keeping properties in top condition with animals, but agents are not even bothered, all they care about is your credit rating.

I have friends with awesome homes, plush carpets an furnishings, who have ddogs/dcats, I have seen home with no animals in a appalling state.

Its not the animals, its the owners!

I shared a flat once (old house, in 1980s, with very lax letting standards) with exactly this problem - came off the kitchen of a second floor flat. Walls running and very cold and hard to heat.

It was only when I happened to be in the garden of a house further along that I saw that the bathroom was sticking out into the air , built on what looked like nothing more than a wooden bracket ! Totally illegal. It therefore had nothing above, below or on three sides and must have been made of flimsy material. No wonder it had cold walls - and then the warm air, from the kitchen would have hit those walls and condensed .

The rent was very cheap but we decided that the possibility of one day arriving at ground level in a bath was too real and left.

If you fill in the air brick you will get damp and mould much worse than you may have now.

That's is like our bathroom, we just open the window

@FiveGoMadInDorset did you see the pic and rtft? That's how it is across the entire wall each morning that the temp is around 6° or less, it looks like the shower area after a shower!!! This is without any showering or bathing. I have good light/window options, also with vents.
None of that will work! I have tried, and when bath/shower is used all windows thrown wide open in freezing temps to let all the condensation out.

Your comment comes across as really flippant? Did you mean it that way?

Why @PsuedoBadger? Its not an airbrick that belongs there, as detailed ^thread

@PlatypusPie

B and Q had a sale on K'Archers a few weeks back. Plus Black Friday is coming up.

In the mean time could you borrow a K'Archer/dehumidifier to see if it solves the problem before you have to pay out?

Our house - that we own - was like this. The problem was so awful that one day we had water dripping down from our bedroom light fitting and the light was fizzing and crackling! We had the electrics to upstairs turned off at the mains and we explored what we needed to do to sort it all out. (This was shortly after we moved in).

It hasn’t been easy... initially we tried all the usual, open windows, heating on, dehumidifier etc. Still bad.

Then we had the entire roof refelted with breathable felt and had 4 air vents put in the roof. We fitted a new extractor fan in the bathroom - one which is more powerful and we opened up the old vents in the bedrooms which had been papered over. We also stripped all the old wallpaper off in the bedrooms which the water was clinging too so the rooms could dry out properly.

We’ve now solved it but it’s cost us the best part of £20k to fix. I can’t tell you how much I hate this house sometimes! We would never have purchased it if the survery showed these issues up- it didn’t and we purchased in summer when it wasn’t so visible!

Your landlord needs to sort it out properly.

Yes! I can, can't I! I am seeing friend with Kärcher, possibly tomorrow. I am fascinated to see how much water I get off the walls! that's really sad isn't it

Oh blimey fairylea £20k ouchy!
We will manage as is short-term, I really hope! Yes, keeping on top of it causing damage is an issue to fix, but its the getting out with the awful state of the rental market that's seemingly impossible to tackle! Gah!!!

Will your LL be ok with you filling in holes?

outhouse converted into bathroom

That's probably where your problem lies. I suspect the property has very poor insulation and the bathroom may even have a single brick wall. It sounds like a nightmare! You need to open the window to clear the steam. You could try a dehumidifier but the walls will always run with condensation because they are so cold. Even breathing out makes moisture in the atmosphere resulting in condensation (and there are 3 people 3 pets?).

If the landlord does not sort out the heating and cooker pretty damned quick then talk to the Housing Section at your local Borough Council. This sounds like an environmental health problem. They can order the landlord to make good the heating and cooker. It is illegal to rent a property if it does not come up to certain requirements. That includes exceptionally cold bedrooms, poor ventilation, damp and mould.

I know staying here is a temporary measure but in the meantime why live in such discomfort? You could be stuck here for months until you find a new place.

And what is it with these shit landlords?

Get your self on the local housing list too.

You shouldn't block up the air brick - and definitely not without consulting your landlord. It's there for a reason, so you could be blamed for any mould problem.

Definitely don’t block up air bricks! It will make everything much worse. The house needs to breathe. Unblock any covered air vents you can find.

I have already had to block another airbrick in the bathroom lobby area.
These are not the airbrick to ventilate sub-floor, they are holes in a single skin outhouse wall type. They let outside blasts of icy air straight into the bathroom, and extractor fan left wide open, again blocked it as it likes leaving a window open permanently.

Yes, the instant we get out the bath we have to throw windows open to immediately empty out the steam as the walls are already running.

We just need to 'get by' without any further issues until we can get out of here!

coolwalking I don't think LL will know the difference tbh. It won't be permanently irreversible as if I put some mastick in, the holes can always be drilled back again.

I need somewhere out of town, and there just aren't any housing properties.

I found a perfect one recently that said pets welcome, but when I enquired, theyd meant one cat!

Thank you for the Kärcher recommendation! Its arrived and charging, there is water all over the floor, so I can't wait for it to be ready to use! I think that the water chamber could be woefully inadequate, but I think it will be great for condensation in car too, will save using the blower to keep the windscreen clear!

No I just have to get out of here, anyway, anyhow to somewhere better!