not able to move house

Former Member

I suffer from asthma which has now become severe thanks to the place that i live as the bathroom is full of damp and there is no ventilation, and the other people in the house spray large amounts of air fresener outside my door and smoke, so struggling to breath everyday.

i cant afford to rent out private as on benefits and so is my partner, i had a suitable flat waiting for me at ymca as applied for a crisis loan as would be able to get it for rent in advance if i had the tenancy agreement which i did and i got turned down for it saying it was not a crisis even though it is, they just lie out of thier arses, and council wont rehouse me despite the house not being suitable for my disabilties and putting my health at risk. what has the world come to, even envriomental health would not do anything about the damp and even if they told the landlord to sort it he wont, as last year they gave him a page of things to repair and he only done two things. my only option is to really keep going on at my doctor and get them to take my asthma seriously and to go on more meds to calm it down, also dont help my other conditions :mad:

Former Member

If you're asthma is causing you problems then you need to go back to your doctor to get better advice on managing it.

This is likely to come from a combination of good monitoring, suitable medication and life style changes. There are some pretty simple things that you can do to improve where you live to help with your asthma, and an asthma nurse should be able to help you with this.

Do you dry laundry in your room? Or keep towels in there after use? Those are both things to stop immediately.

Do you air it daily? Windows and door open to get a draft through? If not that's worth starting.

**helen**

Hey Sinead,

There seems to be a lot getting to you with your housing situation at the moment and lots of what you've told us seems to be pointing to the fact that you're simply unhappy there and would prefer to move out. I'm really sorry to hear about what's happened as not feeling like you have a comfortable place to call home can feel really depressing.

It's great that ScaryMonster has mentioned ways to improve your place in terms of the asthma issue at the moment as I think tackling each of these problems individually is a really sensible way to go - that way you can continue to find other options for a new place, but slowly improve your current place so that it becomes easier to live there should it take a while to find an alternative.

Alongside the asthma, another issue you mention is your landlord and the repairs. You mention there was a page of things, but he has only responded to two of them. How frustrating! :grump:

We have a factsheet on TheSite.org that looks at this issue and includes advice on what to do if repairs aren't being done:
http://www.thesite.org/homelawandmoney/home/renting/repairsandmaintainence

It includes a list of repairs that the landlord is legally responsible for compared with what you are legally responsible for. Take a look and see if there are still things that need looking into.

Let us know if you come across any issues with these specific areas.