We were (very gratefully) offered a house by the council. We were shown the house by an OT (a 5 minute viewing to assess suitability for SN DD1). We were aware that there was lots of work being done by contractors.
We were then told, on March 2nd, that the property would be ready on March 12th. We had to accept the keys, and in doing so, rent would become payable. In fact, we had to pay 2 weeks rent in advance.
So, we got the keys at 1pm yesterday, went straight over, and stripped the entire house of wallpaper. Several layers, but the adhesive was very weak, so we were able to strip the whole house within 4 hours.
This morning we went in to use a steam wallpaper remover to finish the bits where backing paper remained, etc. As we used the scraper on the wall surface, we discovered a major problem.
The lounge has a very deep crack spanning the entire length of one wall. The plaster is coming away in all 5 rooms (3 bedrooms, lounge, dining room). We've phoned the council & they wanted to wait until 27th March to have a look. We can't have that - we have to be out of our current rental by April 2nd, and we have 3 small children.
I managed to plead with the team, and the surveyor will have a look tomorrow morning. What are they likely to do?
It surely can't be our responsibility to make the walls good? I'm currently paying two rents - the house which we can't inhabit and the one we are serving notice on.