Rented a house but have now discovered leaks in ceiling

newaccount2017

Hi, I have a problem. I went to view a house last week and seemed happy enough with it. The woman showing me the house was the mother in law of the owner of the house, as they are in England. There were other people viewing the house too but the MIL said she'd prefer for me to get it. So later that day, I went to her house and paid 700 for the month's rent and 700 for the deposit. She gave me a handwritten receipt. I am supposed to go into a local estate agent's on Monday to sign the lease properly. I told her I'd move in to the house today. The owner called me from England and said how the house has been in their family for a long time, how they hope I will take care of the place, etc.

So I went to the house today to clean up (it hadn't been cleaned at all, and there were things lying around and the bin wasn't even emptied) but I can get over that. It's an old house but it has the zoned central heating which I like. I turned on the heat while I was cleaning. When I came back to the kitchen, I noticed that there were 2 leaks coming through from the ceiling and landing in 2 different places. 1 of those was the kitchen table and I could tell from the marks on the table that this must have happened a lot in the past. Also, the ceiling had tons of watermarks on it, so there must have been a lot of leaks coming through in different places. I hadn't spotted this when I viewed the house. Above the kitchen is the bathroom, but I didn't even used the bathroom there so I'm guessing that the leaks are connected to the heating possibly.

Anyway, it's a big headache for me as I don't want to live in a damp house with all these issues. When I went to view the house, the woman had one of those Yankee candles lit in the kitchen (I hate the smell of them) and I thought at the time, God it stinks. But now I'm guessing it was to cover up the smell of damp possibly. I am only supposed to live there for 6 months, they said they will reroof the house then (and it suited me as I am currently looking to buy a house and I didn't want to sign a 1 year lease for somewhere).

I'm going to try to call the owner tomorrow and ask for my money back. I feel like I've been duped into renting a place with major problems and I don't want to be breathing in damp air. What do you think my rights are, considering I've already paid 700 & 700 but not signed the lease yet? And I only viewed the house 5 days ago, it hasn't even been a week.

Thanks for reading this

handlemaster

Back out. Doesnt sound like they will repairing the ceiling if they were trying to cover up the smell

Boater123

handlemaster wrote: »

Back out. Doesnt sound like they will repairing the ceiling if they were trying to cover up the smell

How do they "back out"?

Rent has been paid, a tenancy exists. You don't a lease in order to create a tenancy.

My suggestion to the OP is to threaten a council inspection.

elperello

The first thing you should do is report the leak.

Graham

Boater123 wrote: »

My suggestion to the OP is to threaten a council inspection.

It would probably be a good idea to talk to the landlord/agent about fixing the problems before threatening anything.

Boater123

Graham wrote: »

It would probably be a good idea to talk to the landlord/agent about fixing the problems before threatening anything.

"I'm going to try to call the owner tomorrow and ask for my money back. I feel like I've been duped into renting a place with major problems and I don't want to be breathing in damp air."

Yes, but the OP wants out, and can you blame him. A roof leaking for some time in several places is not going to be fixed quickly or easily. Or with this LL, maybe not at all.

Damp plasterwork will have to be sorted also, maybe timbers too. Should the OP put up with this also?

The suggestion of the council inspection was made so they can try get out without having to go down the road of putting notice in writing of defects, allowing a reasonable time for them to be rectified, etc etc.

Graham

Boater123 wrote: »

Yes, but the OP wants out, and can you blame him. A roof leaking for some time in several places is not going to be fixed quickly or easily.

It sounds like a leak coming through a ceiling, not the roof. It may not be a huge job to fix.

Even if the OP wants out, a conversation with the landlord/agent is still the sensible starting point.

Markcheese

Probably a plumber with a bottle of leak sealer could fix that fairly easily...
But why haven't they done that...
Mind you if the previous Tennants just left, and it hadn't been tidied or anything maybe they didn't know..