Rent dilemma

Trix

myself and the boyfriend are living in an apartment for the last 1.5 years.
last wednesday i noticed alot of damp and black mould appearing on our bedroom wall. by friday it was a lot worse. i contacted our landlord who came to look on saturday. he thinks the problem is stemming from the duplex house above us.
we have moved all of our stuff out of the bedroom and into the spare where there is a little damp also but not as bad. we are unable to sleep there at the moment and have moved back with the parents temporarily. we can stilll use the rest of the apartment. we are cooking dinner there and watching tv in the evenings. then we head off to the parents about 9.
my question is, we are due to pay rent tues/wed,700 euro. i don't feel that we should have to pay full rent while we cannot sleep there and the problem is being fixed. would this be correct? what would be an appropriate amount to pay?

Erper

by contract landlords job is to fix it..

Trix

the landlord is going to fix it. thats not the issue. i'm just wondering is it reasonable to not expect to pay full rent when we can't sleep there.

Erper

its been almost a week...
did he do anything

edellc

If u ring threshold they will advise you to continue to pay rent and while this is the right course of action for now it is frustrating...why not ring landlord and discuss the issue...a wk is a long time for nothing to be done and the disruption to both your lives is unacceptable.

peter_dublin

Trix wrote: »

the landlord is going to fix it. thats not the issue. i'm just wondering is it reasonable to not expect to pay full rent when we can't sleep there.

If you owned it, would you ask the bank could you not pay the mortage for that time period, "Assuming" you landlord is decent and by all accounts it would seem he/she is as they arrived the next day then I would say the delay is more likely due to the Management Company / Agent.

As you are under a Duplex it will be upto the Management Company or the Agent acting on their behalf to arrange a repair / inspection, the landlord has no right to engage a 3rd party and is basically at the mercy of the efficency of the Management Company / its agent in terms of getting stuff done. Unfortunetly this is also something that would effect an owner as well as a tenent.

I don't know what others here think but was it neccessary to move out completly rather than getting an inflatable bed. I keep in space just for guests etc, as in sleep in the sitting room.

Trix

well no if i owned it i wouldn't ask the bank could i not pay my mortgage. it would be my problem as i owned tha apartment. but i don't own the apartment so thats neither here nor there.
i didn't say i wouldn't be paying rent just i don't think i should pay full rent when i'm not getting full use of the apartment.
as for the blow up bed solution..again i don't think we should have to that either. plus we don't really have a lot of room and would be a bit tight. we had to move all of our stuff out of the bedroom so living area is full of black sacks with our things.
we're doing what we can to help the landlady and we're happy to stay while the problem gets fixed(unless its a bigger problem than expected). she has been very quick to get things going and i'm not out to try do her out of money.
if people feel that its unreasonable of me to look for a rent reduction while we can't sleep there than i'll take that on board.

The Big Red Button

You're a long-term tenant, so, assuming he wants to keep you, of course it's reasonable to ask for a reduction!

If it were a one-bed apartment, I'd be as cheeky as to say I didn't want to pay rent at all until it was fixed! (Obviously, be open to negotiation, though!)

However, you say there's a spare room - how come you can't sleep there? (If it's because there's no bed or whatever, obviously that's in your favour for arguing for reduced rent.)

peter_dublin - of course it would be different if they had bought the house via a mortgage - sure isn't one of the great advantages of renting that you don't have to worry about paying for this sort of thing! So I don't get the relevance of your point?

Trix

yes there is a spare room but there is damp in that room also. its nowhere near as bad as our bedroom but i just don't want to stay in a damp room.
i'm hoping the landlord wants to keep us as tenants. we pay our rent on time every month. we've had very little contact in the 1.5 years as theres never been any issues. our oven exploded soon after we moved in which was replaced promptly. so we don't want to move either.

peter_dublin

The point is, it is not beyond reason that issues may arise during a tenancy and it is the landlords responsibility to resolve them but that does not automatically entitle you to a rent reduction for the period, you really need to quantify damp here by the way. Are the walls physically wet, obviously the first room has mould so is damp but it would be a major physical issue if damp was effecting two rooms asumming two seperate walls in the same way, this of course assuming the damp is not due to a correct useage of ventalation in the second room, how have you duduced the other room is also damp.

Trix

no the walls are not physically wet. our bedroom has black mould along the top of the wall and down at the back of the headboard. the spare room has none on the walls but does have specks of it on the ceiling. the apartment above has a balcony area which is the roof of our 2 bedrooms so maybe there isn't proper drainage on the flat roof. i really don't know, i'm no builder.

ameee

I had the same problem in an apartment I rented the balcony above up had a blocked drain and we ended up with damp and mould appearing it was soon sorted and was in the living room.If it was a big long job or your landlady was messing you around about it I would maybe look for a reduction but if its only a little bit of mould it should be very easily fixed (if its a lot she could blame you for not notifying her sooner as the more mould the bigger the job) I wouldnt look for a reduction for a few days inconvenience I recently had the whole heating system in my rented house replaced as it was beyond repair,a few days of plumbers and keeping myself and the kids out of the house all day which was a bit of a pain but these things happen its not as if you had to pay to stay in a hotel

Trix

yeah hopefully it'll be easily fixed.
i have since been talking to the landlady and we have agreed that i will pay the rent in full and on time. we don't know the extent of the problem yet so depending on how long it takes to fix she said we can discuss some sort of reimbursment and take it out of next months rent.
i'm ok with this. a few days of inconvenience is not the end of the world and if it does drag on for a few weeks i'm sure we can come to an agreement. she has been quick to respond and try get the problem sorted.
we're not out of pocket and thankfully the parents run a good b&b service

Victor

peter_dublin wrote: »

If you owned it, would you ask the bank could you not pay the mortage for that time period

In such a situation, the insurer would likely contribute to alternative accommodation costs.