Interview 08
Transcript from interview conducted with survey respondent, Jessica. The interview took place at the flat she was currently experiencing a damp issue, but from which she was about to move about of. Text has been redacted in cases of personally identifying information (of the interviewee or others they know), irrelevance, and the interviewees asking for certain topics not to be recorded.
| Me | So is this the flat that had the damp problem you wrote about in the survey? |
| Jessica | Yes. |
| Me | Okay. And how long have you lived here? |
| Jessica | So this is year four – so we moved in September 2018. I live with my boyfriend who is not here clearly, at the minute. We lived in Shadwell, like just down the road before with flatmates and it was a shithole. It wasn’t. But it was shit. So we were like, we’re gonna move, found this and thought it was great. It is great – in summer, but it’s also damp. So it’s like dual aspect. So obviously like this is south facing here, but that side is totally north facing. Yeah. So it gets like next to no sunlight, which we just didn’t think about when we said yes. |
| Me | And do you find that like it’s on those walls? |
| Jessica | Yeah. So you get a tiny bit, can you see the peeling at the top? That is damp, we think. But it’s primarily in the bedroom. In the bathroom. Yeah. |
| Me | And, so you rent here privately? |
| Jessica | Yeah. |
| Me | And is the block – is it one big landlord, or mostly different landlords? |
| Jessica | So yeah, different landlords. So they only own this flat. I would say about 50, 60% are leaseholders, owners, and then the rest of it is private rented, I’d say. But yeah, our landlord only owns this flat. |
| Me | And is the block in charge of doing any sort of maintenance work? |
| Jessica | We have a maintenance guy. We’ve got concierges, they’re great. We’ve got one maintenance guy that they really overwork. So for that side and this side, everything.We have cleaners who do all the communal areas and stuff. The actual maintenance is really, really bad. And it’s so bad that the leaseholders are trying to get a percentage to do right to manage. Which is, yeah, I can’t remember. I think they have to reach 50% and I think they’re nearly there and then they can ballot to get the right to manage the block so they would choose the contractors that come in and do maintenance. They’d have more say over what maintenance has done and what their lease charges go towards. And that’s because the quality of the maintenance has gone down so much. You can tell, even since we moved. |
| Me | And is there a company at the moment that kind of manages the like maintenance concierge sort of thing? |
| Jessica | I think it’s all in house. Like it’s this whole block, then this whole development is called the Aldgate Triangle and there’s definitely some stuff online about it. Like, okay. I think it was built in 2000. So these were about 22 years old, roughly 20. Which means they’re kind of too young to be having this much of a damp issue, you would’ve thought. |
| Me | Yeah. It’s funny, because you always see stuff where, especially in social housing, someone will be like well it’s because it’s so old. |
| Jessica | Yeah. And. It’s not even that old. It’s not even that old. Like, social housing is built so much better as well than these flats are. Like my mum, I grew up in social housing and it’s like properly insulated. It gets so warm in there. It’s so nice. And then you move to this. It’s like… |
| Me | There was one more question I had about the set up. You said it had gone downhill. Do you know when that started or do you remember when it kind of of shifted? |
| Jessica | I’m just trying to think. Not necessarily just with the damp and stuff, but like, there’s definitely less cleaners than there were pre COVID. We have a rooftop, like across the road, so that building has a rooftop that we are allowed access to. And that used to have like five tables, loads of chairs, all of that stuff. There is now one table. And I was like to the concierge, hey, so where have the tables gone? And he was. I dunno. I think they’ve replaced a couple now, but just, how do you get rid of four tables in the course of a few weeks? What is happening? |
| Me | Were they big tables? |
| Jessica | They were huge. But yeah, it’s definitely gone down hill. I think – I wouldn’t say it’s completely related to the pandemic, but in the last, like two and a half years, I’ve definitely noticed just like the quality of maintenance has gone down quite a lot. |
| Me | I was gonna ask maybe if it was related to the pandemic, but I guess it’s hard to know if it’s like, did it just happen around the same time as the pandemic or is it related? |
| Jessica | I can’t really see how it would be related because like, I can’t see how they would’ve lost leasehold charges during that time. I don’t think there hasn’t been a lot of transience, like resident transience, since I’ve lived here, there’s been a few moving in and out, but they’ve all been private rental as far as I know. So you’re not getting leasehold charges from them anyway. But yeah, so it’s definitely gone downhill. |
| Me | So if it’s a private rental, would the landlord still pay the leasehold charge? |
| Jessica | Yes. But I think they have to do that even if the flat’s vacant. So I think it’s just the same. So I honestly don’t know, I’m like who’s creamy some money off the top. But yeah, we’re leaving at the right time. |
| Me | And is it because of the kind of issues you’ve been having? Is that one of the reasons you’re leaving? |
| Jessica | Yeah. A hundred percent. So it’s such a nice flat in summer. It’s really lovely. Like, yeah. South facing, you’ve got these big windows. I think the temperature in here is quite nice. Um, Even the bedroom’s like fine in summer. In winter, like between about November and March, the bedroom is so damp. All of the clothes that we have… Because obviously this flat has three completely external walls, which means that heat does not stay in anyway. But the wall at the back where we have clothes against, my boyfriend has a chest of drawers next to that wall – our clothes – Like we go to get clothes out and they are smelly. Like they smell of damp. They are moist. We haven’t had anything like bringing out a piece of mouldy clothing yet, but it’s like, oh, I want to wear that jumper. Oh, that jumper’s got to go straight in the wash. And it’s freezing. It’s freezing in here in winter. In this bit as well in this bit as well. And because of the damp issues, the cold air is wet. So I’m just like, I’m not doing another winter here. They’re also upped the rent by 255 pounds. It’s a lot. So even if we hadn’t decided to move that would’ve forced us out anyway, cause we can’t afford that, but we were already like, we are not doing another winter here. Clothes takes six days to dry. In winter. |
| Me | I always think it’s funny when you live somewhere where you have quite a seasonal problem. Because in summer you’re like, this is great. And then it gets to winter. You’re like, why did I forget? Why did I forget? |
| Jessica | Why did I forget, it’s so horrible? It’s the worst. So I want to leave on a high, cause it is so nice to be in summer. But like if I have a bath in winter, cos there’s so much like, like the bathroom window doesn’t close, so much air gets in. I can have a bath for like 15 minutes and then I’m so cold. I have to get out. It’s really bad. Like the water’s just like cold. |
| Me | It’s hard to imagine now, cause like it’s sunny and like it’s, it’s pretty warm and I can’t imagine almost being cold. |
| Jessica | Cold. Yeah, exactly. The radiator is tiny – they’re shit. I can’t remember what you call those heaters. They have a name, but I don’t know, but they have a name. |
| Me | My room at uni had one, and I remember it was just boiling hot around this much around it, and then freezing everywhere else, but so hot right by it. |
| Jessica | And the heat just goes up. So on that it goes up, that is obviously an external wall. So it doesn’t stay in this one. Also that one, you get like little flickers of electricity coming off it, so I don’t wanna turn it on. Cause I think it’s a fire hazard. Yeah. This one, the heat goes out to about here and… So like, what’s the point. So we had to buy a portable radiator. We’ve had to buy an electric blanket, like all of that stuff. Cause it’s just so cold. Like in winter it’s really bad. And the only radiator in the bathroom is a heated towel rack. So that does nothing. |
| Me | Is that your heated towel rack or came with the flat? |
| Jessica | Yeah. |
| Me | Oh, I bet were like, and it comes with a heated towel rack! |
| Jessica | A heated towel rack! Like cool, and that’s also a radiator. Why didn’t you tell us that? |
| Me | It’s funny the sort of things that estate agents or landlords will try and sell as perks. |
| Jessica | Yeah, this is fantastic! And it’s like, is it though? They also clearly know that there is a slight problem because when we moved in, in the moving instructions for the bathroom, it was like, you must keep the heated towel rack on at all times. They were like, you must keep the heated tower rack on at all times. You must keep the extractor fan on – when you turn the light on and the extractor fan runs, they were like, you have to keep that on as much as possible. I’m like, have you heard of an electricity bill? Like, no, I’m not doing that, but you wouldn’t have those instructions in there if you didn’t know that there was a humidity problem and a damp problem. Like… |
| Me | So they were asking you to do that instead of a heater? |
| Jessica | Yeah. For like the like – to dry the air out basically. So it costs money. Like this is not an energy efficient flat. Okay, we’re on 91p today. We probably spend about four quid most days at the minute on, and that’s in summer without radiators. It’s not good. And they want us to do that. |
| Me | And how much would you say a day, like an average day in winter? |
| Jessica | Last winter, cos obviously bills went up, we often got to seven pounds a day. It was really shit. That’s another reason we’re leaving too. Like with the like cost of living and everything, even if we could afford the rent, like we couldn’t afford the energy of living here. It’s so energy inefficient. |
| Me | I think people would often think flats can be a lot warmer than say like a semi detached touch house, cos like there’s people above people, people below. |
| Jessica | Yeah. And we don’t have any of that. We also – the flat below us is vacant. So we don’t even get heat coming from there. It’s been vacant the whole time we’ve lived here, but we have nothing. So. Yay! |
| Me | And in terms of like other flats, do you ever get a sense that other people who live above or elsewhere in the building have problems with damp as well? |
| Jessica | Um, so we’re the top floor above. |
| Me | Of course, sorry. That makes sense – we walked up all those stairs. |
| Jessica | Yeah, I honestly don’t know. We are the top floor. I think one of the issues – I think the issue that’s causing this in the corner of the living room with the paint peeling off the ceiling is the fact it’s a flat roof. Like, I don’t know if you’re allowed to build with these roofs anymore. I’m pretty sure you’re not because of the way that water collects on the roof. And it can be a really big flood hazard if there’s lots of rain and stuff. Cos that started coming up in winter when it was really, really wet. So I wonder if that’s caused a bit of it. That big building over there – I feel like wouldn’t have as many problems cos it’s got the insulation of having people around every side. But if you walk onto Commercial Road, when you walk out and look up, you will see a massive damp stain up one of the external brick walls of that building on the front facade of that. Which I think is interesting. |
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| Me | So you’ve lived here for four years. And did you notice the damp soon after you moved in? |
| Jessica | Yeah, so we moved in, in September. It was great. Our old flat really was pretty horrible. So I think we were just so happy to be in here. And then by November it was like, we were noticing the clothes were taking longer and longer to dry. I think that was one of the first things we noticed. Like we normally do washing at the weekend. And by the Friday of the following week, it still wouldn’t be completely dry to put away. And then it got really cold that winter and I weighed a lot less than I do now. So I was really cold all the time. And like, I have really bad circulation in my hands. And I remember. I wasn’t working from home then, so like that helped, but like the odd occasion I would – I’d just sit here and like, not be able to feel my fingers. We’d be going to bed and
I’d be too cold to go to sleep. And that room is what, like, again, the air and it was so wet, so that didn’t really help. And at that time – my boyfriend does a PhD and I was on way less of a salary than I get now – so we didn’t wanna run a heater all night. Like we couldn’t run a heater all night. And we were like, shit, have we made a really big mistake. And then, like you said, it goes to March and you’re like, it’s lovely. And then you forget about it. You know how I said to my friend the other day, you know, how like women give birth and then forget about the pain. So you do it again. It’s like that, but with a flat and maybe less extreme, but yeah, we forgot about it. And then the next winter was the same. And we did complain to the landlords and they were like, make sure you’re ventilating the rooms… thanks! |
| Me | Is that the only thing your landlord has said in the like four years? Have they sent any maintenance people, for repainting or things like that? |
| Jessica | So we’re having a bit of an issue at the minute, but like – I will show you. Like the painting on the window sills, like the wood paint in the bathroom and the bedroom is incredibly cracked. We sort of raised the concern about the damp in the bedroom, particularly. And they would just like, make sure that you’re keeping everything ventilated, keep the heaters on. And like within our financial capacity to do that, we absolutely were like… There is just something about the way that landlords talk to you. Like you’re an idiot and it’s like, I have the common sense to ventilate the room and put the heater on in the evenings. But like we did that. We have damp traps, like everywhere. We had damp traps in the wardrobe at one point. And they sent out a maintenance man, that also happened to be their son, to have a look at it. And he came back and he said, oh, the only thing he said is when you move out, you are not liable for the damage to the paint. They are now trying to say that we’re liable for the damage to the pain. I think they might have given up now cos I went back with some strongly worded citizens advice stuff, uh, because tenants are never liable to that kind of weathering. But yeah, we’ve raised it before. We’ve had so many issues in this property and they’re really unresponsive in terms of how willing they are to actually deal with them. Like they do respond, but it’s never to say anything substantive that will actually help. So yeah. |
| Me | And you mentioned like your hands getting so cold you couldn’t like feel them. Did you or your boyfriend at any point feel like you were developing other health problems? |
| Jessica | No, like, it’s really hard to tell. I don’t think allergies. There was one year when I did get like a cold every other week, it seemed like, but I was also super stressed. Yeah. So I don’t know if it was just that. But I got like – my hands were so dry, like it would bleed like in between here. I think the worst winter was the first winter of COVID, cos we were in all the time, obviously. I think that was a colder winter than last winter was. So yeah, I would sit here, this would all be like bleeding. like this would all be scaly. And I started getting this like, cracking, like all up here that was kind of eczema-y and I’ve never had eczema or anything. So that was pretty like, ugh. And like hand cream didn’t help. Oh and all here as well. Like, I’d get all these little paper cut looking things here. And it was just like, urgh. He doesn’t feel the cold as badly as I do, so he was kind of okay. Men! So he was kind of okay, but I really struggled. He got shingles for a while actually, and I think the cold really did not help how gross he felt like during that. But we didn’t get any like respiratory, or anything like that. I have a friend who lived in a flat in Layton that was so mouldy that she got bronchitis. Which is just horrendous, but no, nothing, nothing that bad for us. |
| Me | Yeah. I always feel like I ask most people this, but it’s always such a weird question to ask because it’s so hard to pinpoint. Especially with like the types of health things that I think damp is often linked to, it’s all stuff that is so nonspecific. |
| Jessica | Yeah. And like a doctor will never say like, this is because of your housing, which they should sort of thing. I guess that is the interesting thing about this flat as well. Cause when I think about like damp, and of people who live in places that have damp and stuff, you think about health, inequalities and comorbidities and like demographics of people that normally have to deal with that kind of shit housing, right? And I think that’s what makes me so cross with this is that it’s quite a nice flat that we pay an absolute fortune for, and it isn’t the normal demographic. I’m not saying that I should have damp less than other people. I’m saying it’s just such a unique and weird situation to be in, in a flat that looks like it should be so nice and is so hell for like half of the year. But like all of my family living council housing, and none of them have anything like this. |
| Me | And are your family from London? |
| Jessica | Yeah. I’m from like, Hounslow? I’m from Hounslow. And we all live in council housing out there, and I’ve never seen anything like this in any of the houses that we’ve lived in – we’ve lived in loads – or like my family have lived in and then you come to this and they market it as like a sort of exclusive opportunity. Like it’s so cold. |
| Me | I see so many stories, from flats that are much newer than this, like built in the last three years, someone who’s paying four grand to live ‘luxury exclusive lifestyle accommodation.’ And it’s like, the lift floods every day. |
| Jessica | Oh my god. I mean, I don’t believe that there should be anything like elite or exclusive accommodation anyway, like everyone just deserves to have a good home. But like, if you are making someone pay a grand and a half a month, it probably shouldn’t be damp. Like, I dunno, it shouldn’t be damp for anyone, but I just think the lack of accountability when it’s a private landlord is just so much worse than when it’s a bigger housing association. |
| Me | And talking about accountability, did you ever at any point think of contacting anyone other than your landlord? |
| Jessica | Yeah. I’m a member of London Renters Union, and I was really, really considering it cause we had that, and at the same time as we had the damp last year, the cold water tap in our bathroom sink stopped working and it didn’t get fixed for 11 weeks. So I was just washing my face over the bath for 11 weeks, which is obviously an absolute first world problem, but it’s still annoying and shouldn’t be the case. So I was so close to contacting London Renters Union, but I was so scared of getting Section 21-ed that I decided not to. But obviously the renters reform stuff should assist with that in future. So I didn’t, but I did think about it. And with Tower Hamlets Council. I dunno. I was just like, they’ve got a housing waiting list of 20,000 people to deal with, are they really gonna come and like, look at my damp. And my landlords live in Essex. So I was like, they’re not exactly close by to – I dunno. And they’re really old. They’re like in their seventies. And I didn’t like, even though it’s really shit, I was just like, I don’t want to cause them tons of stress either. I dunno. But I considered it very strongly. |
| Me | And you keep saying landlords, is there more than one of them? |
| Jessica | Yeah, it’s a married couple. I think the woman actually owns the flat, but it’s very opaque, we’re not hundred percent sure. |
| Me | And to your knowledge, this is the only flat I own? |
| Jessica | I think so. Yeah, I think so. They used to live in it. Which is also interesting because they kind of said, they did say once, like, oh, we never had these problems when we lived here and I was thinking that was 10 years ago, babe. Like, that’s not, our fault as tenants. The implication was definitely, but like we’ve done something wrong and it’s like, no housing depreciates over time. |
| Me | And were you the first people they’ve rented at two since moving out? |
| Jessica | No. No, I think they lived here, yeah, like 10 years ago. It was a couple before us and the women got pregnant, so they had to move somewhere bigger. But they were here when we came to view the flat and I was like, oh, there any issues that we should know about. And neither of them said damp, so, wonder why? It’s not us, I promise, it’s not us. |
| Me | Wait. They said did say damp or they didn’t? |
| Jessica | They didn’t. Which, like, a tiny bit of my head is like, have we done something wrong? |
| Me | You would think as well, if it’s so soon after you moved in that, like ‘your lifestyle’ can’t have impacted it that quickly. |
| Jessica | Exactly. But I think that’s the problem with like, this really like, combative relationship that people have with their landlords, right, is that it gets into your head and then you are sitting here thinking actually, have I done something wrong? Like have I been a bad tenant when you’re pretty sure you haven’t and like, we’ve always raised it as soon as, um, like stuff has come up, but… |
| Me | And as you’re like the top floor, there anything that the management people do in terms of like clearing the gutters? |
| Jessica | No, not that I’ve ever seen.No. No, because we get people like coming to clean the windows and stuff and you see them sort of abs sailing past, like, hi. So I feel like I would’ve seen if people were vibing up on the roof, but, I’ve never seen that to my knowledge. No, which is probably quite bad, now you’ve said it. I dunno what’s up there. There’s like a hatch just outside and I’ve been really tempted before to just be like, but I dunno what’s up there. It’s probably like a load of moss because I don’t think they’ve cleared the gutters. I’m just going to grab some water. |
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| Me | And yeah, we were talking about physical health, but how would you say it’s impacted your mental health, or affected you emotionally? |
| Jessica | I think just it’s definitely impacted me more than my boyfriend. But it does impact him too. Like it’s
his clothes that get the brunt of it in winter. So I think he finds that tiring. I just don’t want to be here in winter. I think it was especially hard over COVID because we either have to have the heating on, or three sets of heating on, and you’d still be in like three layers and you’d feel like the Michelin man trying to work. And it was just awful. It was just really crap to be in. And when you couldn’t escape it as well to like go to the office or to like go and work somewhere else, I think that felt incredibly suffocating. Just, you couldn’t even… Oh, what was really bad actually is when we were both wanting to be on calls that the bedroom was so cold, neither of us wanted to go and sit in there for like the duration of a one hour call. Cos you would just be freezing or like you would get out the shower – between like November and February – you get out the shower, your teeth are chattering. Like you go into the bedroom, it doesn’t warm you up. Like you are shaking, getting into bed. That is tiring, just emotionally exhausting. But I think some of that is, yeah, I’m just quite a cold person, but that’s not the point, is it? Like, my boyfriend would always be like, is it really quite that cold? And I’m like, yes, it’s freezing. And just things like, oh, if you wanna leave your hair to dry, it will take seven hours, like rather than one or two in summer. So you just don’t have choice. You don’t have choice. And I think that’s the tiring thing, right? You don’t have choice of like going into a different room. You don’t have a choice of like whether or not to spend half an hour blow drying your hair. Like you don’t have a choice between like, okay, I’m gonna rotate one of my three thickest jumpers, because like literally nothing else is gonna stop you feeling cold and down and gross, like yeah. |
| Me | Do you feel like it makes you use your flat less than you would do otherwise? Like in terms of finding reasons to be out. |
| Jessica | Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely, definitely. Like, it wouldn’t feel like a cosy space to be in, in winter. I’d like, be like, I’d rather go down the pub – cause at least it’s warm in the pub – than sit here. And if you sat here and you came in, like, I felt like I had to sort of gear myself up for it. Cause I was like, cool, five hours of being cold before I can go to bed. And five hours of feeling damp. I know I keep talking about cold rather than damp, but I think a dry cold is so different to that like, wet cold that you really got just from being in here. So we’d have to like stuff stuff under the door here to stop the damp from that side of the house coming in, which was beautiful. |
| Me | Maybe this sounds weirdly specific, but it’s something a lot of people I’ve spoken to have brought up. Did it like make you feel like you didn’t wanna bring guests over or was that not an issue? |
| Jessica | That’s interesting. I definitely think it’s like a running joke with my friends that I would always rather go to someone else’s house anyway. So I don’t think it impacted me that much, but I think Jack, my partner, like he really likes entertaining and yeah, in winter he definitely didn’t really, because it was just like, I’m gonna invite people here to be uncomfortable. But yeah, for me, not tonnes. But it did make me want to go out more. So I would be like, hello, can I come to your house? Cos it was a warm house to be in in the evenings. Also made me want to go home to my mum’s house a lot more than I otherwise would’ve done. So I think I spent more time there than in the flat I was paying rent for. During winter I definitely went for longer over Christmas and stuff, cos I knew it would be warm, than stay in here. Cause like January’s bloody cold, isn’t it? |
| Me | I have one more question. What would you think, like in an ideal situation, would happen? |
| Jessica | Yeah. Yeah. I think there’s like tons of issues. I think one is accountability, right? Because I think the level of damp we have probably contravenes the Decent Homes Standard, I would imagine. And I don’t think the accountability for private landlords to have to like retrofit stuff to alleviate that is anywhere near strong enough. I think once we had complained about it, they should have had to, I dunno, insulate. I know there’s a program going on about retrofitting social and housing association homes. I think that should be extended to the private rented sector, like with immediate effect. I think the lines of communication between landlords and estate agents and tenants need to be mandated to be a lot stronger, because we would just email about stuff and they would just ignore it and ignore it. And they have every right to do that. Like, we can’t do anything as tenants when they do that. So we were just stuck waiting for like repairs or answers to questions or whatever. We probably should have asked for a dehumidifier to be honest, but like, there’s not really anywhere to put it in this flat and they’re expensive to run. So I wonder if there’s also something about like, whether landlords should take on the costs of like mitigating that kind of action to alleviate like damp and cold and stuff in the house. I also think that they should have been mandated to change the radiators. These are clearly not fit for purpose. Yeah. And I think at the heart of it, I mean, obviously this is gonna change, I think just scrapping, like Section 8 and Section 21, because we didn’t feel like we were empowered to complain about some of this stuff. And the market is so stuffed, that we were like, if we complain and we get checked out, where else are we gonna find that is this nice for eight, nine months of the year that we can still afford? So I just think like genuinely empowering tenants to be able to raise things without fear of like no fault eviction – no brainer, right? Is that helpful? |
| Me | That’s really helpful. Is there anything else you wanted to add. Did you want to show me the damp? |
| Jessica | Yeah I’ll show you some damp. Let’s go see some damp. We’re pretty sure that was caused by damp, I thought it was actual cracks for a while, cos I was too scared to go and touch. And we also realised that these bits of paper have been falling into that lamp, which is obviously a fire hazard. Which is great. Oh, I think I can see one here. Yeah. There’s a bit of paper under here. That’s just our ceiling coming off. So that’s definitely damp.We’re getting a bit of cracking on these window seals like a little bit from winter. Like, can you see that there? Like, but they’re not too bad. This is the worst. So yeah, like, sorry it’s a bit messy, like Jack’s stuff is all up against that wall. Mine are all in there. This is three months worth, in summer as here. Can you see all this crack in there? Look at the mould on the back of there as well. So that’s like completely cracked. We can’t really open this that wide quite a lot of the time, cos that’s actually a church and there’s always people outside being really loud. |
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| Jessica | Look at all that these flakes, you just touch it and it flakes, all up the sides as well in winter, this becomes covered in mould. And I have to just wipe it off, like as soon as I notice it every day. Which is really great. I feel worse for Jack. Cause like he sleeps on this side, his stuff is here and it’s just like mould in winter. My clothes are in that side of the wardrobes cos it’s bigger, and all the ones that are lining up at the top corner, especially, which makes me think there’s something to do with the roof, like all my jumpers that are on this side, they smell, they will, they will smell that if I get them down now, and there’s just nothing I can do. And it makes me feel gross. Just that that’s happening to my stuff. And we’ve just got a tiny little radiator behind there as well. That’s for the whole room for the whole room. That doesn’t close. They have said twice that they will come and repaint this. They haven’t. It’s gross. Like, I don’t know why this doesn’t close. I don’t know if it’s like an expansion thing, cos there’s so much water in the wood. But like some of our stuff that we have here, like in winter gets kind of coated, with like a weird, like humid – you even see a bit like here. But there’s nowhere else to put it because there’s no storage in this flat. But it’s freezing. And it’s a bit mouldy up there as well. It gets really mouldy here in winter. And obviously, cos this doesn’t close, you’ll see what I mean about the shower, like the air just gets in here and you’re freezing by the time you’ve had a bath. That’s kind of it. We’ve also had like three heating replacements, like heated water replacements since we’ve come in, cos the plumbing’s been an absolute mess as well. Oh, yeah, there’s some cracky over there as well. Oh, a bit of mould that I haven’t noticed, fantastic. But it’s very much in the corners. So I think it is something to do with the fact that we’re top floor. And it just makes me really cross. Like that is just gross and just, I find it quite embarrassing. Like when people come round, like it’s bits of our ceiling hanging off, do you know what I mean? There’s nothing we can really do. And also someone that really – I think if it’s someone else’s responsibility, I’m someone that very much is like, that is your responsibility you sort it. You know, some people, oh, that’s okay, I’ll fix it. I’m like, no. Like, no, this is your job. You do it. |