Landlord not dealing with leak and mold issues

Benzino

Hey all, looking for some advice on our current situation. I am renting an apartment in Dublin, along with 4 other people.

Around the 15th of December, I noticed there was a leak in my room. The leak is actually running down the entire right side of our apartment, affecting 2 bedrooms and our kitchen (though my bedroom seems to be getting the worst, as my bed was soaked one night when I returned home). At this time, there was also mold appearing in our main bathroom. I notified the Landlord, and after looking at it he said he would fix the leak by the end of the week, and would deal with the mold in the new year. Additionally, just before Christmas, our smoke alarm kept going off. After unscrewing the smoke alarm, a lot of water came pouring out. We notified the landlord of this also, and had to disable the smoke alarm.

It is worth noting we have had the same leak problem about a year ago in my bedroom, where the water was dripping down the light and actually filling up inside the light-bulb. After about a week of this, he eventually sorted it out, temporarily it seems.

At this stage, all he has done is re-tile a part of the bathroom (as the bath was leaking also it seems, and the tiles were beginning to fall off). However, he took the shower head with him (I assume to prevent us from using it as the tiles were setting), and has yet to return it after nearly 2 weeks. Of course, this is far from ideal with 5 working people now sharing the one shower. We have no smoke alarm in the kitchen now and I have to move my tv out of my room for fear of water leaking on it.

Meanwhile, both the leak and mold is getting worse. As I was typing this, my bedroom light starting buzzing. The leak is right next to the light bulb, so I assume water is getting into it now. There is also mold in my room around the leak, something which I am very concerned about.

We have rang him numerous times, sent texts to him and he keeps saying it'll be fixed, and how he is going to fix it, but he isn't actually doing anything. We are reluctant to go to the PRTB, as at this stage, we are looking to move out and could be gone within 2 months. Is there any other course of action you can recommend?

I've attached some pics to give you an idea of the situation.

Mold in bathroom:



Leak and mold in my bedroom



Leak around smoke alarm in kitchen


Leak in the second bedroom

miller50841

Hi I had huge problem's very similar and some worse.

If you want to pm me and need some advice I can tell you exactly what you need to do to make sure you are looked after and guranteed your deposit back even if you leave early.

You need proof in writing that you have sent to the landlord and all times contacted and of course the pics you have will be great evidence.

edanto

Hell I wouldn't stay there. I don't think it's safe. I sure as hell wouldn't have my friends/loved ones stay there. Obvious fire risk with water anywhere near the electrics. I'd be moving to a hotel TONIGHT until I find a place and sending the bill to the landlord, with a view to following it up in court if he doesn't pay.

Send a registered letter tomorrow to the landlord detailing your various communications by text/phone, his commitments to repair, and failure to do so. That will be useful in any court/PRTB dispute.

There's no question that he is obliged to repair such damage in a reasonable time, and in my mind 6 weeks if way beyond reasonable. It's exceptionally neglectful.

What's your situation with lease/rent/deposit? Is everything paid up to date? Reason for asking is to weigh up the relative effort required to secure a return of your deposit versus just leaving.

Benzino

Hey, thanks for the replies!

I rang the landlord again on Monday, and made it clear how unhappy we were with the lack of progress. That day he came out and removed the mold from my room and the water damaged paint on the ceilings. The following day he painted the the bathroom, although I am pretty sure he just painted over the mold rather than removing it and painting and walls again :rolleyes:

I'm not sure what the progress is on fixing the leak. He mentioned it wouldn't be Wednesday or Thursday before he could fix it, so I think I will ring hime again this evening to see what the progress is on that.

We now have our shower back, my light no longer makes a buzzing noise when I turn it and the mold has been removed (or at least painted over :rolleyes:), so once the leak is fixed we can have the smoke alarm connected back up again and all should be restored as normal, hopefully!

miller50841

Benzino wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the replies!

I rang the landlord again on Monday, and made it clear how unhappy we were with the lack of progress. That day he came out and removed the mold from my room and the water damaged paint on the ceilings. The following day he painted the the bathroom, although I am pretty sure he just painted over the mold rather than removing it and painting and walls again :rolleyes:

I'm not sure what the progress is on fixing the leak. He mentioned it wouldn't be Wednesday or Thursday before he could fix it, so I think I will ring hime again this evening to see what the progress is on that.

We now have our shower back, my light no longer makes a buzzing noise when I turn it and the mold has been removed (or at least painted over :rolleyes:), so once the leak is fixed we can have the smoke alarm connected back up again and all should be restored as normal, hopefully!

I hope there are more then the 1 smoke alarm as if there is just the 1 do not stay there unless you get 1 at argos or homebase and put up as tempory also would suggest a carbon monoxide detector.

amdublin

Sweet Jesus does this landlord care if the ceiling of his house falls in.

:eek:
Seriously???

Benzino

miller50841 wrote: »

I hope there are more then the 1 smoke alarm as if there is just the 1 do not stay there unless you get 1 at argos or homebase and put up as tempory also would suggest a carbon monoxide detector.

Yeah there is another one in the hallway outside the kitchen.

That's another thing about this apartment complex, the fire alarms are constantly going off, any time of the day they are prone to go off. It's gotten to the point that they go off so regularly, nobody does anything (and we are talking about 100 apartments or more here). The people whose apartment is located next to the main console for the fire alarm just go out and turn them off. These are actually the instructions I was given when I rang the landlord after the fire alarm had been going off for about 30 minutes and there was no fire. Been like that for about 2 years. It's pretty shocking when I think about it.

Fiskar

Benzino, why stay there at all? Just move somewhere else. Obviously a big job for the landlord that will only get fixed when you leave unfortunately.
Pretty poor on the part of the landlord not to effect a good repair.

Benzino

Fiskar wrote: »

Benzino, why stay there at all? Just move somewhere else. Obviously a big job for the landlord that will only get fixed when you leave unfortunately.
Pretty poor on the part of the landlord not to effect a good repair.

We are looking to leave, though finding it difficult to find a reasonable priced decent place in Dublin (that is the one good thing about this apartment, the rent ha).

His repair job was poor to say the least, in fact a small chuck of the ceiling where he "repaired" just came off. It is very damp around that part :mad: