Hi all, First post after hoovering up the info here, thought i'd as my query for clarity. I bought a new motorhome. Part of the deal was to PX my old one. I accepted the dealers valuation of my motorhome, sight unseen on their part. On the day of the exchange, we handed over our docs, full service history and importantly the habitation inspection reports done yearly one of the checks is to check and report for damp. These came back without issue and we have always been happy in the knowlege that the van is in good shape. we then exchanged paper work, and shown the van. overall there over 2hr 15 mins of which just 40 mins was the actual signing and showing. I asked if he had looked at out van and was happy. He said yes. Happily we drove off. over 2 weeks later and the dealer now saying there is damp in the van, we should pay to put this right. First news to me and came as a shock. 1) Are they allowed to demand more money long after the deal 2) If 1. is yes, how long does a dealer have to ask for more money? What if they then decide I owe them more later for other issues, am i liable? Thanks all M

I have spent thousands on damp proofing over many years, I let my premise in 2013 and in 2014 had the whole ground floor damp proofed, replastered and decorated, I also had the roof sorted. I have had to request my builder to treat my walls for patches which are caused from one of my neighbours, I have asked him if he plans to tackle it and he says no, affordability, my property is being badly affected as a result, what can I do?

Dear all, I've just discovered that the sub-floor and joists that were replaced only 6 years ago in my Victorian house have rotted again, I'm told by an independent building contractor, due to inadequate damp protection. A master carpenter/joiner replaced joists/sub-floor and oak flooring only SIX years ago, due to the originals rotting. My question is can I reasonably expect the carpenter to contribute to the cost of this new work, which will essentially be to rip up what he did 6 years ago, beef up any existing damp protection and then rebuild the floor from the ground up? I feel he bears the responsibility for not highlighting the need for adequate damp protection in the first instance. Many thanks.

Hi guys I rent a 2 bedroom house with my partner and 2 children 1 being 3 years old and other being 9 weeks. I pay full rent and work full time but having an issue with these idiots at the moment I called them out to acess the damp to see what they can do as im sick of scrubbing the walls and re painting them he messes about with this laser tool i asked him what he was doing and he says it will tell him how cold the walls was he was doing this for 20 minutes hoping he came to a solution for us his only solution was to keep my heating on 24 hours a day 7 days a week What a stupid solution when i asked him are they going to pay my gas bill he just laughed really annoyed this is one of the worst people i have had a home off nothing but hassle from day one they have never done any work on this place from day 1 of living here 5 years

Morning all after some advice as to what my daughters rights are regarding a privately rented flat that is suffering from extreme mould and damp, this has left the 2 bedrooms as uninhabitable and she is having to live in the living room. The property maintenance company originally said it was condensation but the letting agency sent around someone who confirmed it is caused by damp. She is now stuck in a property that she cannot use half of and paying full rent with £1000's of personal furniture and clothing ruined. Would it be worth with holding rent? who would we claim her personal belongings that have been destroyed? any advice would be gratefully received

Hi Guys, I had some guttering repaired last year, albeit a shoddy job, as I have now found out. We had noticed that the outside wall seemed to be getting wetter and upon further inspection by a friend, we have realised that instead of informing me that the guttering section was fitted incorrectly by previous workmen ( the section is roughly 1 inch lower than the joining section ) they just carried out a poor repair. This has now resulted in the guttering collecting water and it has been running down inside the cavity, causing damp to now appear on our interior walls. I have removed as much of the so called repair so that the water can run out of the gutter and drip away instead of causing further damage. I am now unsure as to who I approach to get the problem rectified, the workmen or my insurers

Hi This is a long one!! Sorry in advance My husband and I purchased our leasehold property 9 years ago come this November. We have had a constant problem with damp, especially in my sons bedroom. I've contacted the company who carried out the damp course over the years as in our leasehold contract it stated there was a 30 year guarantee and twice they have been round to re do it only the damp keeps coming back. I had them round for a third time and was told that the black mould growing up my sons wall was only condensation and told to move all the furniture away from the walls! How anyone can live with all their furniture in the middle of the room is beyond me but still... I done the best I could and washed down the walls again. (His room has had to be decorated every 9 months to a year because of the smell of damp). The walls are black again now. In June of this year I called a damp expert round to have a look. He put his damp detector thing on the wall and said there is definitely rising damp and the damp course needed re-doing. I sent the managing agent (who is also a local estate agent...) the copy of the damp report and quote. He in turn got his company round (the ones who had originally done the damp course) and I was told that yes the walls were damp. I would need air vents fitted and the damp course would need to be redone as our walls are 12 inches thick and they had only gone in 3 inches and never filled up the holes hence water was still getting in. This was back in June. August 21st two men turned up and put an air vent in my sons room and my bedroom and I asked about the damp course. They didn't know anything about it. We've also got a problem in our dining room which we believe has been a pipe coming from the upstairs flat that has been leaking. (Our place is a house spilt into 2 flats, we have the ground floor, the managing agent is the freeholder who has the upstairs flat) either that or the pipes in my bathroom (which was only renewed in January this year) are leaking (which we are not sure about) but decided to try and claim on the buildings insurance, this has to be done through the managing agent. I've been emailing the managing agent every few days asking what is happening as I am waiting to re decorate my sons room AGAIN and have now been told that the damp course doesn't need doing at all. Also the damp in my dining room cannot be proven to be coming from the pipe in the wall therefore he will not allow me to claim on the insurance for the water damage from the pipe or bathroom. We have paid a maintenance charge every month for the last 9 years and all we have ever managed to get him to pay for was a new gutter at the front of the building as my room was damp and that was caused by a leaking gutter. Do I have a leg to stand on if I get the work done in my home ie another company round to carry out a PROPER damp course, the re-decorating of my sons room and through lounge diner and charge him for it?

Hey here from the UK, England me, my wife and my baby recently moved out of a property due to black mold growing throughout the house, we were release as the landlord couldn't (or wouldn't) pay for the repairs or improvement needed to make the property livable. when we first moved in we did have pets (two smalls dogs) but as you can see in the email below they were removed from the property. we have now moved out and had the carpet professional cleaned as instructed in our agreement, i went back into the property to finish cleaning with a horrible smell of damp in the property and was still there when we handed back the keys, me and the man who conducted the inventory commented on the smell. we have now received a call for the letting agency saying that we need to sort out the smell of dogs in the property, i said that it was the smell of damp and she disagreed. we have now received emails that you can see below: Thank you for your receipt for the cleaning of the carpets. With reference to my conversation with lee last week regarding the strong smell of dogs that remain at ** Address removed ** have you spoken to the cleaning company regarding this ?. Unfortunately the smell is not acceptable and this will need to be rectified before we can release the deposit. If you wish to discuss the matter further please do not hesitate to contact me. Kind Regards. We replied with: The smell in the property is not that of dog but rather the smell of damp. The damp is visible in all rooms of the house and is the reason we were released from our contract in the first place. We haven't had dogs at the property since 15th February, I informed Louise of this in an email, so I think it's highly unlikely that there would be a smell of dog over a month later, after all the carpets in the property have been professionally cleaned and deodorised. We have not spoken to the cleaning company regarding the matter, you have their contact details should you wish to contact them directly. I have read through the contract and cannot find anything regarding the smell of the property upon check out. If I have missed something then of course, please send me the section highlighted, otherwise we have abided to the terms of the contract and had the carpets cleaned as requested so I will be expecting the deposit back without further delay. Kind regards and she has replied with: I have personally visited the property and both I and the check out clerk can confirm there is a strong smell of dog at the property, to such an extent we would not be able to relet it with that smell. Under section 3 (e) (xi) of your assured shorthold tenancy it states that you are to hand back the property in the same state as specified in schedule A. If you would like to re visit the property with myself and the cleaning company to discuss how we could resolve the issue please contact me to arrange a mutually agreeable time. we have had multiple inspections and visits during our short time there because of the damp and this has never been mentioned before any advice would be amazing. Thank you. EDIT: i forgot to mention that the damp was there when we moved in and we were assured with was dealt with. we found from a neighbor that the damp has been there for years with previous tenets getting there rent reduced because of it.

Hi I'm not sure if I've posted in the correct place so please feel free to move. In 2008 we had a damp proofing done to our home but the last 12-18 months its gradually coming back. The plaster has fallen off in the bay window and of the walls are wet/soaking. The thing is we live on a street of 12 houses and almost all of them are having the same problem. Our neighbours have there home done twice and its back and the homes 2 doors either side of us both have returning dame. One home has had the course done 3 times and its still back. We now feel there is a more underlying problem. One neighbour has had the council out to inspect and he seems to think that maybe when a old school opposite us was demolished over 20 years maybe the pipes weren't capped correctly and over the years it has seeped into the homes. So what do we do now? There is no point in me decorating as the paint just peels off and there is no point having the course repeated as it will just come back. Who is actually responsible for the repair work? Many Thanks

I moved into a flat about 5 years ago. The one bedroom had a problem with mould about a year later, this was treated with a fungicide at the time, but it keeps coming back. It turns out there was a problem with the damp course on the exterior wall, and that's been dealt with. The mould keeps recurring so I decided to strip off the wall paper, when I took it off the base of the exterior walls had a foil liner. The walls above this liner were treated with what looks like sealant primer paint. When I purchased the flat there was no mention of damp problems, but this liner and primer does suggest that the previous owner was aware of the problem. Did they have a legal duty to inform me of the problem, and if so does the fact they didn't tell me mean can I still make a claim against them?

We are first time buyers and had a survey undertaken by aPCA registered surveyor, now we have a mortgage with £4500 retention, requiringDamp Proofing our walls. I have done some research and found various sites saying there’sno such thing as rising damp! But I’ve still got to spend £4500 on treatments? Any help guys?

Hi all, and thanks in advance for any advice. I rent a good standard bungalow, good in sense of area, size and land. (doesn't come cheap either) We have been here 13 months. Now in December we had a leak in the kitchen ceiling which was immediately reported to the letting agent. As it was just days before Christmas I was told it would be dealt with after the Christmas period, but told to poke a small hole through ceiling to relieve any pressure, which I did. The water has come from the chimney stack, it's soaking wet in the attic. There is also damp coming into the 3 bedrooms, living room and bathroom, with pieces of rendering falling off and cracking all over. We cleaned this up but the damp reappears within days. The agent has said the rendering will have to wait until spring time to be done. 2 weeks after Christmas someone came to investigate and give a price. We then heard nothing. 4 weeks ago part of the ceiling came down, they sent someone round to patch it up temporarily. (Looks awful) I called the letting agent this week to ask what was happening and was told that the owner is going through his insurance and needed a second quote, but was given no timescale as to when this would be. I called a friend of mine who is a builder to give me a quote, just to see if this would help things along. The price for all work is £750 - Hardly worth going through the insurance in my opinion. Also forgot to mention, where the damp is coming from the chimney stack it has soaked the hall wall and carpet, so stepping through a wet carpet every day is getting rather annoying. Also the boiler has packed in 6 times in 3 weeks. They have sent someone round to fix it, but it seems to be the same problem each time. Now, after this waffling on, I get to my question. Do you think it is reasonable for me to ask for a rent reduction due to these issues? Thanks again P

hi there. We have owned our flat for 5 years. Its bottom floor. We are having problems with damp , condensation etc. But 7 days ago our fuse box when crazy, and left us with no electricity. We got a electrician out who replaced and fixed it. It lasted a day and the fuses started to blow one by one. Electrician came again (good friend of ours) came again. Fixed and repaired the lot but again it happened a few hours later. He thinks its due to rising damp causing the problem. but yet again he fixed it and all is not working again and we have no electricity. I have come home to my mums for 3 wks on a break after having my second child. I cannot go back to a flat that has no electric. So as you can imagine i am pretty stressed. We pay flat management fees of £100 pm. I dont know what to do to fix this problem! I am a leaseholder. My partner who is there has called flat management and they said to e-mail details. So he did. They came back and said unless we can prove its rising damp they are not going to do anything. A survey has not been carried out since 2007 on the building and they are refusing to do anythin g. Does anyone know or advise on what my position is here? is it my problem or theirs? Who can i get to prove it? and what rights do i have if my flat is not fit to live in. WORRIED SICK

Hi everyone hope i am on the right place to post this i live in a private rented house and as i was decorating babys nursery as i pulled off the old wallpaper it was soaking wet infact the whole wall was, so i telephoned my letting agent who send someone around and he said it was something to do with the roof and would need replacing he said he would tell the letting agentcy and get back to me that was over 3 weeks ago I have contently been in the phone to the letting agent who promised me they would sort it but still no word, i have had enough!! i am 37 weeks pregnant and dont need this one bit!!! is there anything i can do? who can i get to help me

I have a Money Claim filed against a damp and timber surveyor who failed to spot rising damp when commissioned to provide a report for a property. After receiving the report I went ahead and purchased the property and as a result have had to pay for costly damp proofing works. Because the report stated "there is no rising damp", I was not aware I would need such works when agreeing a price for the property. Prior to instructing repair works, I invited the surveyor back for a free re-inspection where they confirmed their estimate for remedial action was some £3k short of the mark and that rising damp was present. Open and shut case I thought - however, they refuse to admit any responsibility hence the money claim. My partner was responsible for purchasing the damp survey and the report is in her name; yet I am the claimant. Does this render my claim invalid as I do not have the contract with the surveyor? The property was a joint purchase however the claim was entered in my name as I filled out the online form which only allows 1 named claimant. The defendant has instructed solicitors who are threatening to claim their fees (£3.5k) if I go to court under, the pretence that my claim is unreasonable due to my partner purchasing the report and not me. I know they are trying to intimidate me but are they correct?

Hi I am new and this is my first post. I hope this is in the right section. I rent a shared student house in our 2nd year and I am having heavy damp and white fluffy mould and black spots on the wall. It gets that bad that water runs down the wall when it is raining. I have told the letting agency and they told me that they would pass this onto a contractor. This has not been resolved. Where do I stand with this please? I have heard I can stop paying rent if the room is unfit to live in? What is the legalities regarding this? I am fed up with living a wet room and nothing seems to be getting down All help welcome xx

I'll try and make this brief whilst covering all the key points. Conservatory was built in 2005 whilst previous owners owned our house. We moved in in 2007 and from 2009 onwards there has been damp rising up the walls all over 3 of the 4 walls (all brick walls sparing only the patio door "wall" attached to the house). It's steadily been getting worse to the point where we got round to calling Anglian in April 2012. They asked us to pay £49 to transfer the guarantee from the previous owners' name to ours. So far so good. The initial site visit by, let's call him "Derek" (not his real name), was on 10th May. As we understood it, this was to scope the work which needed to be done and to determine if it fell within the guarantee. Derek just looked at the inside of the conservatory on this visit. Then Derek called to do an additional site visit on 7th June. We didn't really understand why this was necessary in addition to the 10th May visit but this time Derek accessed our next door neighbour's garden which was not something he did on 10th May. An appointment was made with the Installation team to carry out the works identified in Derek's report on 26th June (we were not told what that work would be). Two installation lads came round and through discussions with them, it was decided that the work recommended in Derek's field report was not consistent with the damage seen in the conservatory. Derek had told the lads to put in a membrane on the outside of the wall to stop the damp from the outside. I believed that the damp was mainly coming from the floor up and this would only solve the problem if there was a build up of soil all the way along the neighbour's side of the wall. There wasn't, it was only in one corner - so where was the damp coming from 2 metres away? The lads reported this back to Derek and another appointment was made on 13th July for Derek to reinspect the damage. Following this, on 6th August, one of the installation lads again attended our property and completed the work to the walls to create a gap between them and the floor to prevent damp rising. This work was completed to our satisfaction except a couple of weeks later when I'd mopped the floor a few times (plasterboard is very dusty) I spotted damage on the flooring in at least 9 places where it appears the angle grinder caught the flooring leaving deep scratches. Damage is parallel to the walls about an inch away from the walls. So outstanding work which we believe needs to be done includes skimming & repainting the walls in the conservatory to make good the damage done by the damp and also rebuilding the external brick wall installed as part of the original work. This wall's purpose is to hold back the soil from our neighbours' garden to prevent damp in the corner of the conservatory. Currently the wall does not extend to the boundary of our property so there is future risk of damp issues in that corner. As we understand it this was an oversight on the part of the original installers as it could be foreseen that the bank of soil in our neighbours' garden would need holding back from our conservatory wall. If the wall was extended by between one and two feet the potential damp issue would be stopped. As there is 3 years left on the guarantee, time spent putting this right now saves further costs to Anglian in future. Realistically the entire wall needs rebuilding as it was not built to a sufficient standard given the large degree of brick flaking across the whole wall. And of course there's making good the damage caused by the angle grinder! So to chase up the outstanding work I sent an email to Derek on 16th August to which no reply was received. I therefore made a verbal complaint to Head Office on 22nd August with a response promised in 16 working hours. A follow up phone call was made on 29th August to Head Office as no response was received within 32 working hours (assuming 8 hour working days and excluding weekends and bank holidays). At this point I was told the complaint had been passed onto Derek but he was the person who had failed to respond to our concerns in the first place! On 29th August I was told to expect a call within 16 working hours so called AGAIN on 31st August to be told that finally they were escalating the complaint and I would receive a call on Monday 3rd September. In the meantime I received a letter on 1st September addressed to Mr & Mrs (previous male occupant's initial) Oursurname dated 30th August saying our details have been forwarded to their Central office so "he" is aware of the issues we have raised and we will be hearing from our regional office (again this is Derek) without delay. BUT NO PHONE CALL TODAY!!! Things I want Anglian to do 1) Tell me what work they think is outstanding 2) Tell when they're going to complete it by 3) Tell me what they're going to do about the new damage 4) Tell me how I'm going to be compensated for having no conservatory for 4 months What I'd like the forum to advise on is what I do next? I feel I've exhausted all Anglian avenues and have got nowhere. I understand poor service happens but it's the fact that I feel there are no internal routes left to actually act on this poor service & communication that really frustrates me. 16 working hours seems to mean nothing! There's not actually going to be any summer left by the time this is sorted and with a baby on the way in February I could really do with a) no stress and b) an actual usable room without damp. All advice welcome!

Hello, I'm really hoping someone will be able to give me some advice, I don't know what to do. I moved into my flat last week (4th Jan). It's in a converted Victorian terrace. When I looked round I thought the flat had a musty smell but the lettings agency told me it was because the flat had been empty for a few months. Despite my best efforts to air the flat, I can't get the smell to go. The carpet lifts up in a couple of corners and I can see that the carpet underlay is pretty black and smells of mould. I can't see any other signs of mould around the flat apart from in the bathroom, which is windowless and has no ventilation (there is some mould inside the cupboards). The bathroom also smells terribly of drains. I've contacted the landlord about both issues but haven't heard back from him at all. What I want to know is, do I have any rights to end my AST early? I hate being in the flat because of the smell. Even if he fixes the bathroom and puts in an extractor fan, the rest of the flat will still smell. Most of what I've read online implies that mould and damp is down to "tenants lifestyles" - but I've only been there a week! Would really appreciate any advice you have. Thanks Kate

Hi there, I'll try and keep this short and sweet. Bathroom had a few cracks in floor when we first moved in, after 5 months it got so bad the tiles and grout are cracking off the floor, almost no grout left between the tiles. We reported it nearly 3 months ago but still it is not fixed. We have a 3 month old son and walking on the bathroom floor is not safe, and it's damp, smelly and mouldy. Someone came to assess it after about 2 weeks but we are now told (when we chase it up and can actually get in touch with someone with half a brain!) that the landlord refuses to pay for it, as it was fixed about a year before we moved in for the same thing, and that the insurance company who originally fixed it should pay. So the argument lies between the landlord and his insurer as to who should pay, and this has been going on 3 months, but still our bathroom is getting worse and wetter and smellier and damper! What rights do I have and is there anytihng I can say or do to get it done quicker? We continue to pay full rent and I am not happy! Can we request a temporary reduction in the rent or something? ANY advice welcome, thanks!