Hi There Is Pretty Average But Very High Rent (Signed A Contract Not Knowing The Market...Very Silly I Know)

Anyway My Contract Is 12 Months Long So When I Moved Some Of My Stuff In On July 2nd I Was A Bit Annoyed That The Room Was Damp And Had Mould On Walls. I Informed The Landlord (A Fairly Big Firm) And He Said He Would Get It Sorted ASAP And He Gave Me A Copy Of The Problem Sheet I Handed In With His Signature On It.

Anyway I Didnt Use The House Over The Summer (Soooo Stupid I Know) But When I Moved In Almost 3 Wks Ago The Damp And Mould Was Still There And Since Then Has Escalated Into A Big Problem.

Today The Lnadlord Came Round With A Damp Expert And They Are Now Going To Sort It Out. However this is 3 months into the contract (Quarter Of The Way Through) And I Feel This Is Unacceptable. I Was Basically Wondering Whether Anyone Here Has Experience In This Field Or Has Any Advice. Personally I Want A Refund On The Rent Paid While There Was Mould But Realise This May Be Hard To Do.


Anyone Out Here Help Because Its Really Troublin

ThanksFor Your Time

has anyone else got a headache from trying to read this?

whats with the capital letters??

Sorry about that know it can be annoying but i am very anxious atm about this issue

When the post was moved some of the text was removed. The first Paragraph Reads

Hi There I Am A Student In Sheffield Living In A Student House Which Is Pretty Average But Very High Rent (Signed A Contract Not Knowing The Market...Very Silly I Know)

Have you tried asking your friendly neighbourhood Citizens Advice Bureau for their opinion?

You can find your nearest here

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

one weapon you have is to name and shame the landlord. However, keep that one up your sleeve for when all else fails.

Speaking as a landlord, I would say, firstly legally, you've no chance of a refund, especially as it sounds as though you haven't complained for 3 months. On the other hand though, and as I'm now giving up Landlording, I can tell you if you stop paying the rent, there is very little in the short term a landlord can do to get you out. This depends on how much bond you've had to hand over in the first place. A tenancy agreement as far as the landlord is concerned, has very little value.

Have a look at a local Citizens Advice Bureau there's one on Sharrow Lane.

Good Luck

I personally doubt whether you will have any legally enforcable entitlement to a rebate on the rent for the damp problem.

Normally, if repairs need doing and the landlord fails to do them after being given reasonable notice of them, then the tenant should get somebody in to do the repairs, present the landlord with the bill and deduct this amount from the rent. Provided that the charge for the work is reasonable, I think it is unlikely that the landlord could claim that rent money back in court.

Alternatively, a tenant could inform the landlord that they are reducing the rent they pay by X amount until the landlord sorts out the problem themselves. But I think this is a greyer area, and I'm not sure how it would play out in court.

However, I definitely don't think that a tenant can withhold rent as a retrospective rebate for a problem that is in the past.

Could it be possible that the landlord delayed doing any work because they knew that you was not living in the property over the summer. It sounds like they are now taking action, and as long as they carry this through without unreasonable delay, the best thing is to accept the situation.

If you wasn't living there for 3 months and he is sorting it now then whats the problem?? Stop complaining and just get on withit.

Originally posted by Scottandandy
If you wasn't living there for 3 months and he is sorting it now then whats the problem?? Stop complaining and just get on withit.

if it was sorted already, I'd agree, but if you have to move in and it's not done yet, then I'd suggest witholding payment until it is sorted. Good luck

I take it that it hasn't occurred to any of you that the best time to sort a damp problem is not when the house is empty! According to my husband that would be the worse time because alot of damp is caused by condensation (due to the air trapped inside or something like that) which frequently occurs in empty houses. The chances are that even if they had fixed it prior to you moving in as soon as you moved in it would come back because of the change in temperature. There wouldn't be much point in paying for the same thing to be done twice would there?

However, I do think that you could have a chance at claiming compensation but this could be time consuming to claim. I would think that the Citizen's Advice would be the best place to go about it.

Well, not wishing to be a harbinber of doom, but I think there are times when there's nothing you can do about damp. I lived in a damp flat once, paying an extortionate amount because I didn't know much better. The landlord put in secondary glazing and bought us a dehumidifier but it was a longstanding problem that was going to need serious work.
Sometimes you have to chalk things up to experience - you'll know what to look for next time and not get caught out again.

Hi,
I lived in a damp flat last year, The landlord was incredibly dodgy and claimed the damp on the walls was due to "condensation" and that it happened in all houses. He therefore did nothing to fix the problem apart from sufggesting WE bourght a dehumidifier. We also had lots of other problems and think he was up to a bit of tax dodging as we had to pay the rent to some woman who he claimed was his mother. Eventually we left two months early. As he had claimed it was half rent if the flat was empty we sent dropped a letter off at his house informing him that we had left and a cheque for half rent with the bond taken out.
Earlier in the year i did visit the student advice centre at hallam uni they were very helpful but basically the situation is that you cannot stop paying the rent as you have signed a contract. It is much much easier for the landlord to take you to court than it is to get him to court. THe first step is to send the landlord a "letter of disrepair" stating how long the probelm has been there etc. If this doesn't work then i'm not sure what the next step is?

The most ironic thing was that when we took the letter round to the landlords house he lived in a massive 4 bed modern detached house in the leafy bit of s11!

Can anyone tell me what is happening with landlords a the moment in Sheffield.
I understand that there is bill going through parliament that makes landlords provide safer accomodation,particularly for students.
Does anyone know how this will affect landlords and whether any will be put off buying house to rent to students?