I know there are hundreds of threads about damp, but at a loss as to what to do/where we stand with this issue.
Since we moved into the house at the end of June, we've had issues with leaks/damp in the front room on outside bay window wall. We reported it straight away and nothing was done, reported it again when there was water actually running down the wall. The letting agents sent somebody round who said there was a slight leak coming from the roof which would be fixed and set a date for a month later. At the beginning of September somebody finally came and did some pointing, and we have been told the roof has been fixed, although we weren't around when that happened.
A decorator came round a few weeks ago (unannounced, but that's a different matter) and stripped the wallpaper (which had polystyrene paper underneath, so this is obviously an ongoing problem). He said it was rising damp, not a leak and that they'd been told just to patch it up and if it became a problem again to report it. We were advised to leave the heating on and air the room to dry the wall out, which we did (and had been doing since we moved in) although the wall didn't dry out. Despite the wall not being dry the decorators returned and papered and painted the wall. This was around 3 weeks ago and since the wall has got very mouldy (furry, white, now turning orange) and is growing at a rapid rate.
I reported the mould when I spotted a tiny bit a few days after the decorator had been (around 4cm x 1cm) 3 weeks on it now covers the entire wall. The letting agent ignored my first complaint, a week later I emailed pictures and the next day they sent somebody round. He said the gutter needed to be fixed and in the mean time he'd give us a low wattage heater (2000w!) to dry the wall out. I asked if I should clean the wall with bleach and he told me to leave it. The mould is now nearly double what it was when he came last week and today the house smells pretty awful (obviously been smelling of damp for a while now) but it seems bizarre to me that the mould is still there & we're heating it up (at great expense) just to cultivate it!
I'm not sure what to do, they seem to just be fobbing us off and not really fixing anything. We haven't been able to use this room since we moved in. Our lease runs out at the end of December, and I'll be notifying them we'll not be renewing the lease next week. But that still leaves us having to put up with the smell, inconvenience etc. for the next two months.
Any suggestions or advice as to where we stand?
Since we moved into the house at the end of June, we've had issues with leaks/damp in the front room on outside bay window wall. We reported it straight away and nothing was done, reported it again when there was water actually running down the wall. The letting agents sent somebody round who said there was a slight leak coming from the roof which would be fixed and set a date for a month later. At the beginning of September somebody finally came and did some pointing, and we have been told the roof has been fixed, although we weren't around when that happened.
A decorator came round a few weeks ago (unannounced, but that's a different matter) and stripped the wallpaper (which had polystyrene paper underneath, so this is obviously an ongoing problem). He said it was rising damp, not a leak and that they'd been told just to patch it up and if it became a problem again to report it. We were advised to leave the heating on and air the room to dry the wall out, which we did (and had been doing since we moved in) although the wall didn't dry out. Despite the wall not being dry the decorators returned and papered and painted the wall. This was around 3 weeks ago and since the wall has got very mouldy (furry, white, now turning orange) and is growing at a rapid rate.
I reported the mould when I spotted a tiny bit a few days after the decorator had been (around 4cm x 1cm) 3 weeks on it now covers the entire wall. The letting agent ignored my first complaint, a week later I emailed pictures and the next day they sent somebody round. He said the gutter needed to be fixed and in the mean time he'd give us a low wattage heater (2000w!) to dry the wall out. I asked if I should clean the wall with bleach and he told me to leave it. The mould is now nearly double what it was when he came last week and today the house smells pretty awful (obviously been smelling of damp for a while now) but it seems bizarre to me that the mould is still there & we're heating it up (at great expense) just to cultivate it!
I'm not sure what to do, they seem to just be fobbing us off and not really fixing anything. We haven't been able to use this room since we moved in. Our lease runs out at the end of December, and I'll be notifying them we'll not be renewing the lease next week. But that still leaves us having to put up with the smell, inconvenience etc. for the next two months.
Any suggestions or advice as to where we stand?