Damp, please help

[sugarplumfairy28]

I think I know the answer to this, but I would really like some second opinions.

First question, can having stuff in your loft be the cause of damp or any kind of rotting issue with the roof timbers? The 'Stuff' is old furniture, clothes, toys, cardboard boxes, carpet, fairly normal stuff to have in a loft. The loft is partially converted and the floor is insulated, however no insulation on the actual roof whatsoever literally just tiles.

The loft is well ventilated, its cold and you can feel wind from outside, and birds can get in it somehow. There are some small 'holes' and at least 2 places where it leaks fairly consistently when it rains - this is the cause of the damp isn't it?

Second, the cellar has bare walls which have been painted, the paint is blistering and crumbling off with what looks like dust on it most of the time, the door that leads outside has all but rotted away, it is covered with a variety of different molds which seems to just about be holding the door together. Does this seem like a warning flag for rising damp? Extra information, there is a large 100 year old (ish) tree about 1 meter from the external wall growing at a 45 degree angle to the house (I'm pretty sure there is a problem with the foundations and tree roots)

And lastly, the house is rendered, in places where the rendering has cracked (I mean large cracks) and been left for some time inside there are patches of mold inside. On one side of the house in particular, rooms upstairs and downstairs (actually above the section of cellar with the rotting door) are damp and have to constantly wiped down to get rip of mold building up, for example, one room clearly used to have a window that has been filled in, and in that general region the wall is moldy. Is this rising damp or penetrating damp?

To me, the general disrepair of the house is the cause of all this damp not the act of just living in it, am I right?

www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html

That's a bit ranty but interesting

Are you living in this house or thinking of buying it?

Loft: storing items doesn't cause moisture in the loft. If you can feel a breeze from the wind it probably isn't lined with roofing felt. Holes in roof letting in water is obviously not good. Is ventilation from bathroom venting into loft? Birds nesting not necessarily bad, eg swifts.

No such thing as rising damp apparently, it's a sales pitch. Basements will be damp if damp proofing has failed.

Cracked render will let in rain which will gradually separate the render from the wall and it will eventually fall off. You don't want to be standing underneath when it does. Seriously, if it's in a place where it might hit someone you need to get it sorted sooner rather than later. Re mould, do you mean it's on the external wall under the render or on the internal wall?

We are living in the house, but do not own it and are being told all of the above reasons are why its damp and mouldy and not the general state of house.

The roof has no felt, nothing, literally the rafters then tiles. I know this sounds stupid but I'm not sure what bathroom ventilation is, we have a bathroom with a window, there's no extractor, no vents nothing that leads anywhere. The birds in the loft is just a means of proving there are holes up there.

The cellar is an interesting one, we have water leaking through the wall and apparently the house is on a water table (not sure if that counts for anything) however, there is a floor drain and the water naturally flows to do it, but the door, paint and walls crumbling suggests that something is not right.

The render is cracked in many places, there is a lot of cracking, parts that have come off right at floor level, you can see brick. There is cracking where the 1st floor where a window has been filled and on the internal wall, mould. Generally if there is a crack outside, there is mould on the internal wall. We have a 1st floor balcony, all around the door frame (inside) is wet and mouldy white furry stuff, also the ceiling directly under the balcony is covered in black mould.

I feel like I am going mad, I'm being told that the house was empty for 7 years prior to us moving in, and us now living here is why its mouldy, and that the loft dampness is because there is 'rubbish' up there. I am just looking for some opinions from anyone impartial.

Mold can be a sign of condensation as I understand it? But if the roof is leaking that will be one source of the problem and the cracked render too possibly.

How long have you lived there? If a house is empty in for a long time it can get damp, but things may start to dry out if it is now being heated and ventilated properly?

Get a damp expert in (an independent, not one a twit with a damp meter, they are rip off merchants) and they will give you the proper advice.

Make sure you open the windows every day, I think that can make a huge difference.

Sorry, you don't own the property. The owners need to look after their property!

Sounds appalling- why did you move in? Is it a family-owned property?

Any house that has stood empty for 7 years will likely have damp issues, if it’s been unheated and big maintained.

If there’s no ventilation in the bathroom, or elsewhere (extractor fan in kitchen etc) then general moisture levels from living breathing people using the house will cause damp. But that’s not your fault- it’s the property owner’s fault for not getting the house properly habitable.

You're being fobbed off - it needs some roof repairs, re-rendering or the render repaired and possibly a pump installing in the cellar to remove water more efficiently. It's not unusual for cellars to be damp - unless they are tanked they will be because they are underground. The rotten door needs replacing. Oh and a decent extractor in the bathroom will be more effective at clearing condensation that just opening the window.

Thanks everyone! The house is a family owned house so even worse than just a landlord when trying to get anything done.

We have lived here for nearly 4 years but the damp and mould has only really become a problem this winter and before hand has been fairly minor and I have just dealt with it. We moved in because we were promised any problems would be fixed, stupid I know.

We have dehumidifiers in rooms, we have an extractor in the kitchen and generally have a window open for our cats to come and go. I feel like I am doing a reasonable amount to try and maintain things. Ironically the bathroom has the least amount of mould, it has a single glazed window and the frame is wet and discoloured but it gets wiped off every day.

My son has patches of green mould on his wall (the filled in window) that I have to clean off, he also has asthma and I can't help but think this house is making him worse. Thanks for the replies I do feel slightly more confident in fighting my corner, that it them who need to fix this and not my stuff rotting the roof timber as I was told yesterday.

If your DS has asthma then you need to get this sorted ASAP Sugar. That's not good at all.

If there's no insulation felt on the roof, and holes, then water is getting in there. The render also means you can't see what's going on underneath but cracks mean water is getting in there too.

The rotting cellar door needs sorting.

Can you offer to get quotes for fixing stuff?

Are you paying market rent? If you are renting from family and not paying market rent they may well treat this as though they are doing you a favour by 'letting' you live there. Whether you are paying market rent or not I'd be tempted to show them the standard of other comparable rental houses in the area.

The irony is that people who resent spending money on an expensive asset such as a house because they are renting it out are devaluing that asset by failing to look after it.

We actually pay well above the going rate for the house, other jobs that have needed doing we have gotten quotes for and been told, no. We then stupidly agreed to pay for something urgent on the basis it would be paid back to us and to date it has not been.

We have had many arguments about the house and its disrepair, and keep being told its our fault and our actions that have caused it and therefore not their problem, even when those things were present when we moved in - so for my own piece of mind I just wanted to run the whole damp thing past someone else, so I don't get railroaded into paying to fix it because of the reasons I have been given by them. I can get quotes but its a large house (4 stories high albeit 2 are the loft and detached) so its not going to be cheap so I suspect nothing will change.

Ultimately we are making tracks to move out by the end of the year, they think we're bluffing and therefore not going to listen. But in that process I don't want to have to pay for these repairs in the meantime, I have had to literally argue that cardboard boxes don't cause damp.

God, they sound like idiots. OP. Don't pay for any repairs, concentrate of getting out of there. If they can't see that a leaking roof needs urgent attention, as does green mould in the property, then they are hopeless.

Do you have a formal contract with them? if so I would consider going to environmental health at your local council. Relatives or no not, they shouldn't be renting out a property that's in such poor repair.

so it is a shithole full of crap, without the usual saving grace of being a cheap shithole.

Why are you there?

That seems to sum it up specialsubject

We're here because we were sick of landlords and just wanted a stable place to live, not having to move every 12 months. Stupidly trusted people we didn't think would screw us over and given them the benefit of the doubt too many times.

I'm not a builder and would be the first to admit I'm wrong but this whole damp thing just never sounded right to me.

If you’ve got receipts for the work you’ve had done, I’d stop paying rent for the period before you move out to recoup it. They’re clearly unscrupulous and I assume you don’t have a deposit with them.