Hey all, hoping someone can help advise me on this.
I rent an old terraced property that is in disrepair. When I first signed the lease it I naïvely thought I'd caught a lucky break of sorts, which obviously turned out too good to be true. I knew there were issues, but not to the extent that was kept from me.
I have many chronic health conditions and am medically retired, so I was grateful to be accepted for a tenancy. The property wasn't in great shape, but neither did it seem overly problematic. More decorative and cleanliness than anything else.
The landlords were pleasant and welcoming, even immediately replacing the boiler (very old model that was causing rust from the hot tap, worse when heating was on) when it unexpectedly broke down, and all seemed fine until a few months in when multiple issues started to appear. I am not sure exactly what type of damp or mould, but my bedroom started getting "lines" of damp. I contacted my landlord who of course said they would address the issue, but did not come to the property or contact me. The damp got worse. I complained again and explained about my health in detail, so they again said they would fix the issues and, I now realise due to the risk of prosecution, offered another of their properties for me to live in while they renovated, as after some inspection it appears that many of these houses have had the same issues and only renovated properties have truly fixed the problems.
I ended up staying in the other property for a number of months, with very little communication, only that they were working on the property and would keep me posted. I was in and out of hospital so had priorities that kept me distracted.
I then got the news that they had went in to receivership, and a number of their properties had been taken over by a company. The locks were changed, and as I still had some furniture in my original rent, and that is the one I had a tenancy agreement for, I have now had to move back in to it while the property goes to auction. There was a lot of difficulty with this. I am looking for other places to live and keeping options as open as possible, but I am limited. I have been told by the company that in all likelihood, whoever buys the property at auction will want to keep me as a tenant, to at least keep some money coming in.
I don't exactly want to stay in this place, but for now it's all I have.
So, to the point at hand...Can anyone tell me what kind of damp/mould this is/what has caused it? After reading I believe it is mainly condensation issues, as while I was not living here, it seems the landlord wasn't ventilating properly, if at all, and sporadically putting heating on to try and alleviate the issues, which I've read has only made the problem worse.
I've been told it was just left like this and then the locks got changed. I should add I always thought the windows had issues, I don't believe the attic is adequately insulated/ventilated, and the property is old and from what I can tell has damage to the outside too. They used to be the houses for workers in the area.
Next door is a council house that recently had some issues fixed including the guttering, and when I enquired to the men what was happening, they said they assumed this property was also council owned and proceeded to replace the guttering on mine too. They may have just been kind to me.
The bathroom has multiple issues too. It's almost like a cardboard box stuck on to a brick house. Bubbling paint on the walls, draft from under the bath, unsealed plastic sheeting around the bath, polystyrene ceiling tiles, the sink is coming away from the wall...the list seems endless.
The back room has similar issues to the bedroom, but again I think this is down to condensation.
Thank you if you have read this far, and any and all advice is welcome. Sorry I am such a novice and have no idea where to truly begin, Google can only help so much and I don't want to employ anyone before knowing where I'm at so I don't get duped.
Anything I can do to improve the appearance of the place I'm hoping will give me a better chance at the new owner deciding to keep me on, and hopefully fix the issues properly. I will add pictures to show. Thanks again
I don't think that you should do anything much and certainly not spend any of your money until you know what the new owners are going to decide to do with the property.
It would be sensible to check your legal status as the new owners will be buying the property subject to your existing lease. So you need to be very sure what if any notice the new owners will be able to give you. Normally you should be able to continue to live there for the duration of your lease!
