Condensation issue - Claim and court.

Associate
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18 Oct 2002
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Are you really willing to risk the loss of money in chasing this thing up?

At the end of the day, lots of properties have damp problems, you'd be far better off putting the money towards a deposit for a house or renting a better house. Fact.

People in this country jump the claim gun far too quickly and easily now.

While I agree that not everything should be sent to court the simple fact is that this landlord didn't do his duty and the tenant is within his rights to receive recourse.

To be frank the tenant shouldn't have to do this the landlord is being a chancer as they usual are, I've been in a property where the landlord promised money back at the end of the problem being sort and it wasn't sorted at the end of me leaving 6 months later. In the end I got a certain amount of money back but not what was agreed, in my view if the property isn't up to scratch reduce your rent now.

Keep the excess in a savings account for later but its harder to evict a tenant and generally not worth their time when they consider the alternatives because they just don't want the hassle at the end of the day.
 
Soldato
OP
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28 Feb 2004
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North East, UK
( |-| |2 ][ $;24154321 said:
Looks to me like you didn't have the heating on enough.

The house needs to be warm in order to support the water in the air, then a dehumidifier will work.

We had the hearing on mate, we got advice on this when a damp specialist came out.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2005
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3,913
I can relate to this- my wife threw out hundreds if pounds of clothes when they went mouldy after the built in wardrobe we used actually was against an external wall and it was not ventilated.

I knew it was utterly shoddy on behalf if the landlord but hell, I knew the hassle involved in chasing for compensation was far to big a task.

Fully appreciate your desire to make issue of it though and I wish you luck with it.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Apr 2008
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2,939
Check with your home insurance - it may have legal cover that could pay for some or all of the claim. Other option is representing yourself in county court. Getting the landlord to pay up could be an issue though, so even if you win you may walk away with nothing.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2003
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10,631
Location
London
Even if you seek legal aid, I think their are holes in your case if you do take it to court. The most glaring being that they will want proof that the mould caused some kind of direct actual health issue.

Did you go see a Doctor for any of your family members?
Was it noted on the medical records?
Did a Doctor agree that it was mould spores causing symptoms of a common cold?
I would imagine they probably didn't.

Otherwise, you have now moved out, so the problem no longer afflicts you, compared to if you were still living there and were rightly so still struggling to get the Landlord to remove it.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,159
Location
South, Scotland
Check with your home insurance - it may have legal cover that could pay for some or all of the claim. Other option is representing yourself in county court. Getting the landlord to pay up could be an issue though, so even if you win you may walk away with nothing.

I got to just before this stage but after taking legal advice all it means is the court 'in the best case for the tenant' gets a court order saying that said landlord owes you the tenant money.

You must then have to hire dept collection agents (Sheriff officers in Scotland) to enforce it, there is no guarantee that they will get anything off the landlord and you will foot the bill for the agents until the agents can gain your money and costs back.

Lets just say its no plain easy exercise and I got so sick of the whole thing that I stopped at this stage. Put it this way i will now withhold a portion of my rent if anything like this happens again.
 
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