As the title suggests, we are at a loss for words and are on brink of chaos. We are a very young family living happily. My wife is working for a company as an assistant and I work as a junior analyst but recently quit for a better project. Numbers wise we are earning just enough to pay the bills, travel and have fun. We have a small savings account but it would last us only 5-6 months if we both quit our jobs before we would go into poverty. We have been living in a flat owned by couple whom only rent it out to the people in the church group my wife used to visit every now and then. Hence we got a good deal on the price, around 20% lower for the equal flat.
After living there for over a year and a half we developed a rather friendly relationship with the landlord and landlady. We had few issues with the flat, such as the tap falling off, toilet seat broken, lights flickering etc. however we fixed those problems ourselves as we didn’t consider it major. One issue we did have when we moved in is the window had a problem closing and they gladly came by and fixed it.
When we moved in there was a layer of wallpaper coving the entire shower room including around the actual bathtub and standup shower. The wallpaper goes up from the floor to about shoulder length when an average male stands in it. So naturally over time water starts to get in-between the wallpaper and the wall. At first it started to roll up and hang a bit. That’s when things started to get grim really fast. Black mold started forming, we couldn’t shower for too long and it started to become a problem around August this year. We were worried about our health and so we asked the landlord to help us with it over text. He messaged us saying that its a horrible situation and he would gladly help. He said he wanted to put tiling on the walls for a while now and he would have a worker come by and figure it out. Sizes costs etc. The worker never came. The landlord kept saying that he just can’t find a worker, and said if we could find it for him. We really didn’t know anybody and anybody we found was outside his set financial requirement. A month went by. I started to get very paranoid how the mold affects the in high amounts, however I didn’t want to take down the wallpaper myself because I didn’t want to be charged. Me and my wife went on a holiday trip around end on September and he said that he will have someone come in and take the mold away. And he really did. When we came back we saw bare walls with some yellowish and orange paint. A sight for sore eyes but at least there was no mold. Another month went by and we slowly realized that the problem wasn’t over. The paint that used to be underneath, the yellowish orange started to fall apart from the concrete and filling our bathtub when we showered. It constantly clogged the pipes and pieces kept falling on us.(https://imgur.com/a/SefbBmk) We texted and called our landlord every week to try to get an update on where are they on tiling the place as the problems still persists. November: me and my wife take a trip to Italy and the landlord has someone come in and paint the walls with a water resistant coat of paint. We were over the moon as we thought finally the situation was fixed. Jumping over to now, early December. The people whom painted the walls deserve a noble prize, as they painted the wall on top of the yellow/orange paint and didn’t take its remains off the wall. Since the yellow/orange paint goes above their new layer, the old layer started chipping away again and its taking with it the new layer!! Gosh we were ready to just fix this ourselves already, seeing how long this has been going on. But then we noticed that the wall on the other side of the shower started to be constantly moist. I looked underneath the tub and it just smelled damp. We told our landlord right away, and he once again fed us with his classical, I don’t know anybody whom can fix it. So we told him how serious the situation is, in that wall we have electricity running through and its an extremely large hazard. I also took a look at the piping of the bathtub and it was rusty and leaking. The landlord said that him and his wife are going to come over and take a look at it, yesterday morning. This time the landlady came alone (we almost never spoke to her). Right out of the door she started being disrespectful and yelling at us. She said to pack our stuff and go home(referring to our home country). She said that all of these things are our fault and we owe her money(despite the contract saying that landlord has to make sure a pleasant habitat). She told us many hateful things, and among which was an ultimatum, that we either fix everything: the wall, the pipes, the paint, out of our own pocket or we can get the bleep out by the end of the month. She actually said that we should have showered sitting down in the tub. And later yelled at us for the window that didn’t close(they fixed it earlier). After her raging dialogue my wife couldn’t hold in the shock. My wife texted landlord the situation and we asked if it were at all possible we move out in January after the holidays are over, to which he said sure (on record). However the landlady isn’t so welcoming and after writing her an email she has been quiet.
I’ve had a guy come over assess the damages and the equate to many thousands. It all depends on how far the rusted pipes go and how much of the wall needs to be replaced. The tiling (our initial problem) became the cheapest thing there was to fix. They caught us in a middle of a transition in our lives, as I am currently not working and getting put on a project in February next year. If we tap into our savings fund we can survive as I said for about 5-6 months but I really feel like it’s unfair. We saved that money for a house and other lifelong goals. We are at a complete lack of knowing what to do.
Submitted December 09, 2018 at 11:15AM by TheOnlyRushIn https://ift.tt/2UtUHdB
