Tenant Rights/Rental Advice -Please HELP!

Hey there, haven't had time to read all responses, but wanted to say..I totally agree with the others about the mould being a long term thing, GET OUT NOW!!!!!! I know it's hard to find places to live that are suitable but seriously, you need to, you already know how badly it is affecting you guys.

Our last house was like this... we moved in on a rainy day so didn't think much, we'd looked around on a rainy day too so again, hadn't worried much.

But over time, the house just made us sooo ill. I soon found that in the lounge, despite being the room in the house that got sun full on in the mornings, the wallapaper behind the couch, upon further looking, has mould ingrained into it.. it had been cleaned but it was still there and required constant cleaning... even exit mould would not make it stay away.   same all over the house, I had damp walls in our room, i mean actually you could put your hand on them and it would come away soaked, crying windows constantly, we kept thick towels ont he window sills otherwise by middle of the night we'd hear water streaming off the sills and spilling onto the floor, like someone literally was pouring water on the carpet, we had a heat pump in the house, which did diddly-squat for the problem except make our power bill sky-high. We borrowed mikes parents dehumidifier for that winter and were needing to empty it 2 times a day most days, and still the house was , well, more than damp.. it was WET.

Paris's room hardly got any sun and her roof started going a funny colour on the inside, we got the rental people to come and they said the guttering by her room was blocked and water had obviously gotten into the roof and discoloured it.   Summer wasn't really too much help, just a short reprieve..

It got really bad, while we were looking for a house in the month or so of the start of winter again, I soon discovered that the beautiful wooden scotch chests we had only just bought for the girls before moving, were now both coated with mould along the back of them, the drawers were coated thickly with mould spores both underneath each drawer and on the insides.... it's like it sprung up overnight. I took to cleaning constnatly, the girls clothes were moved out of them and alot of clothes were gotten rid of, the drawers were useless, the wardrobes weren't much better, even those thing you stick in ther ein the containers to get rid of damp - they just filled so quickly it wasn't wroth it...all the clothes got moved into the hot water cubboard.

....but health wise... i was sick sooo often, my asthma - which had not been around since i was about 10 - came back with a vengeance.   

Paris, who had had mild asthma up till that point, while being diagnosed with heart probs that year... she also got very very ill alot, that whole winter she was on antibiotics constantly for serious chest infections, she'd come down with them within 24hrs...from a sniffle to full blown rocketing temp, and at one point we thought she might have menninggitis as she got so sick so quickly as was lying on the floor not letting anyone touch her, shaking and hated light, she was so sick from a fast moving chest infection that took hold literally in hours.. she's been happy as larry when we picke dher up from daycare at3, and by 6.30 this was the change.

she was put on many inhalers, daily most of them, and had numerous asthma attacks that really scared me.   She turned from a healthy bubbly girl into a very pale, drawn out little person who got sick all the time and had no energy.

The day we moved out, after being there less than a year, and having cleaned constantly throughout that time, we pulled out the drawers to find BLACK mould on the backs of them, in paris's room especially - no wonder she got so very very sick, she was breathing that in constantly. We got rid of them, sadly, $500 down the drain, man i was p'ed.

I cleaned that house top to bottom thinking that otherwise we would not get our bond back, despite telling them all along it had bad damp and mould problems....never any help from them.    As a result of cleaning it all, I was short of breath for weeks afterwards, it felt like someone was sitting on my chest, I was puffing back the inhalers 24/7 and i even had a chest infection.   Paris took a long time to come right from being such a siky but the change in her asthma and sickness was almost isntant, she has since had no more chest infections, this winter we have not even had to use inhalers i think more than 1 time. daily inhalers no longer needed and she's got more colour and is not so sickly anymore.

Seriously...get out as soon as you can find another place. It's not worth it... my asthma hasn't gone away again, now i get it for really small things, stupid things like running around with the girls, and i still feel like i just can't breathe as deeply as i used to. I really wish we hadn't stuck it out for so long, my only consolation is that we found this awesome warm great place.

It's so not worth it, for you or for your little guy.

Edited by mum2paris

youve got some good advice there and i dont have anything to add to that.

will say tho that gas heaters arent good for condensation either tho so you may have to look at another form of heating...

also, and i hate to add this, but you are a young solo mum and the property manager probably thinks you won't have the guts to do anything - or have the brains to follow through. so hold your ground steph - cause you re anything but!

Aww try not to stress too much hon. I know it's horrid but don't buy into the 'what if's' unless you also consider the positive what ifs.

I can't see how this would put a blemish on your renting history so long as you follow the proceedures outlined by the tenancy tribunal. I don't think any decent person would hold it against someone for moving out because they and their child were getting sick from the extreme damp.

It's a pity you can't talk to the owner directly and explain that you would like to stay in the property but the house is causing you so many issues. You will probably find this is why previous tenants have left and that the property has high turn over... perhaps the landlord would like to find out why? In my experience (I deal a lot in the area of real estate misdemeanours) property management companies are used by landlords who are absent from the process and rely on their "professionals" to do right by them. You will probably find the landlord has little or no idea about the state of the property!

Also, don't clean the curtains as you could end up paying to replace them if anything goes wrong in the process. Instead explain to the property manager that you expect the curtains to be cleaned by [date] as per your original agreement, and you can even suggest that you have the number for curtain clinic (google search them - very very good). It isn't good enough that they have agreed to have the curtains sorted & not done it. Misrepresentation really!

I would ask for all those costs you are talking about from the tenancy tribunal if you move on because as you said, you wouldnt have moved in there with your health conditions if you had known the true extent of the house. They may not give you all of it but the property management company may have to fork out some to help you move!

Also, name the property management company on here, or PM with the name? I work in a capacity where I have to recommend companies to Landlords and deal with a lot of this (we tell people how to be better landlords & improve their homes to keep people longer funnily enough) - and I would really like to know who I SHOULDNT be recommending!

ooh if we're going to name and shame can I say that 101 Realty is terrible? I'm going to say it on here because I'm mighty p'd off that we paid them $506 letting fee for the following:

They didn't run the open home as in weren't even there - they let the last tenants host about 10 couples through their house in one evening. They didn't tell any of us it was a group viewing.

They were impossible to reach on the phone with any questions

They never advised that the LL just hired them for the placement and background checks and we weren't actually going to go through a PM company long term.

They told us that they had rung tenancy tribunal and checked our bond amount and we only had another $165 to pay on top of what we were transferring. I found out when I rang the tenancy tribunal to check (as the numbers just didn't add up) that it was actually $565. They had never actually rung the tribunal they just assumed that we had paid 3 weeks bond in the last place too.

They gave us the wrong bond forms to fill out. How hard is that to get right? They gave us a new bond form and a top up form instead of the transfer form which has a section to top up.

We just got a letter from them 8 weeks later advising that we had to change the acct that our rent pays into - even though we pay direct to the LL. So great record keeping going on as well.

Hey BuzzyBee...

I work for a rentals so I have a fair idea of what your rights are...

Firstly it is their responsibility, because you have asked them multiple times and they have not solved the problem you are now able to issue THEM with a 10 day notice (just like they would you if you weren't keeping your end of the deal) if after 10 days they have still not remedied it you can take them to the tribunal, from there its up to the tribunal to put the harsh word on them.

They'll take you to mediation and if the deem it to be hazardous to your health (which we all know mould is) they will get it fixed... (take something from your doc about you and your bubs reactions and some pictures to back your case)

I hope this helped, and good luck hun :)

If your LL/his dad are quite approachable, is it worth talking to them about the possibility of putting a DVS/HRV in as a more permanent solution? They will be able to get a subsidy on it as you have a Community Services Card, plus it will improve the condition of the house which is a benefit for them.

Our house used to be really damp and my three youngest were all chronically unwell, it wasn't necessarily caused by the damp, but it sure didn't help and we were running 2 dehumidifiers 24-hours a day. Our room was the worst, the curtains were mouldy and smelt disgusting and there were patches of mould on the ceilings as well.

I eventually convinced the landlord to install an HRV and it has made an amazing difference, the house is so much drier. It hasn't made a dramatic difference to the girls health, but it's definitely made the house warmer and drier.