Hey everyone,
Sorry for the wall of text but it's been going on for a while and needs some explaining!
As per the title I am looking for some advice on a smelly situation I am currently in. We moved into this current house in March and everything was going well for the first three weeks or so. It is a 4 bedroom detached house and there are two of us living there. After around 3 weeks we began to catch some nasty smells coming from the en suite and the kitchen. They started as wafts every couple of days till the entire house was completely humming with a horrible sewage smell when either of us would arrive home from work. At this point we decided to start doing some investigation and found the smell got worse whenever my house mate used his en suite.
We informed our landlord of the issue (who lives in Norway) and didn't get much of a reply. He is incredibly hard to get hold of as he never answers his phone and normally takes around 4 days to reply to any texts/emails. We decided to get a plumber round to take a look and see if he knew what was happening. The plumber came over and immediately picked up on the smell telling us he thought the toilet was leaking. Great. Also on the outside of the house there is a long white pipe which goes from the kitchen waste (washing machine, sink and dishwasher) down to a hole where it flows into the waste pipes and under the man hole cover. Apparently the pipe was incorrectly installed as it is far too long and very uneven. Also for a pipe as long as the one we have apparently it needs to go from smaller size to a bigger size to stop the water backing up and creating a vaccum whenever it flushes out the water. e.g. when a washing machine run pumps out its water.
The plumber advised us this was backing up and probably leaking behind some of the units in the kitchen. We were unable to get to the pipes in the kitchen as they are located behind all the units which have for some reason been concreted into place. (So has the oven which is apparently not meant to have happened?). The plumber flushed the system and used some method to clear all the pipes. This hardly helped with the smell and if anything just meant the water was draining away slightly quicker.
We advised the landlord with these findings and he told us to contact one of his builder mates who lives locally. We got in touch with the builder and eventually after two weeks of "I will come round tomorrow" and "I've been meaning to come round but been busy on other projects" conversations he shows up. The builder has a look and tells us apparently there is roughly an inch of stagnant standing water under half the house. The house is a one story building on a slight slope the the garage is under the house.
At this point alarm bells started ringing as that much water sitting on foundations/all the supports and wood under the house cant be good! The smell at this point was becoming even worse and starting to have an impact on my house mates breathing as most of the smell was coming from his en suite. The builder brings around a water pump vacuum type thing and tells us to suck up as much of the water as we can. The pump runs for around 15 minutes till it was full and my god the smell of that warm air in a tiny en suite was enough to make a grown man cry. We spent around a week and a half pumping the water out before trying to contact the builder again.
This time the builder was not getting back to us via text or phone calls. So i decided to call him from my work phone and sure enough he picks up first time. I asked him why he has not been getting back in contact or not been round to take a look and get fed the typical (I've been busy on other sites) this was at the time of the decent heat wave a few months ago so I doubt he wanted to be working in a sh**y smelling house in the boiling heat. He said he would come round on the Monday morning and take another look. Monday rolls around again and sure enough he doesn't show up. Once again we can't get hold of him via phone/text.
We tried to speak to the landlord to ask him what is going on as it was really starting to take the pi** now considering how much we are paying each month and the fact that the landlord really didn't seem to care. This time we had no reply from the landlord for 2 weeks or from the builder. We decided to cancel the standing order for the rent and sure enough the next day we both get a text saying "Why hasn't the rent gone in" and no reply to any of the texts we had both sent asking what's happening with the builder. He eventually phoned my house mate back and assured him the builder would be there in a few days. Sure enough the builder comes back and picks up his water pump and has a quick look. The water is still not going down even tho he thought the problem was coming from the kitchen and nowhere else.
We both tried to tell the builder we thought it was also the toilet that was leaking as the smell was horrendous. We decided to test this by putting some bleach and food colouring down the toilet and seeing if the water that was in the foundations had bleach/food colouring in. Sure enough it did. However the builder still wouldn't accept this and decided he was going to go into the garage and drill a hole in the foundation wall to see if any water would still come out. Sure enough he drills a hole and all kinds of horrible stinking water comes rushing out into the garage. He put a pipe in the hole and left us with a couple of buckets to try and move some more of the water.
This was around 3 weeks ago. We didn't hear anything from either the landlord/builder for the two weeks that followed and once again it seems like they were both ignoring our messages/phone calls. My house mate is now on holiday for three weeks so I have been trying to get things moving again. I finally managed to get the builder to come round on Tuesday when I was at work. I got home from work and it looks like nothing has changed. I asked him what work he did and apparently all he did was look at the water, put some insulation in one of the holes to try and stop the smell then left. He now wants to test if the toilet is leaking and thinks if we flush the toilet in the en suite a few times over the next few days and see if the water rises again.
This has been going on for months now and it's really starting to get annoying as the landlord only seems to care about getting his rent. Surely if you owned a 4 bedroom detached house you would be concerned about protecting your investment/assets and would want it fixed asap? I don't know what to do next as the builder is extremely hard to get hold of as is the land lord. I am considering refusing to pay rent until the issue is fixed. I've had a friends dad come round who is also a builder and he thinks the floor in the en suite needs to come up to assess how bad it is and more than likely the entire floor needs to come up as it has been full of water for the last few months. Where would we stand when it comes to withholding rent until its fixed? The house seems like it's not a safe place to live with the potential risk of the smell and all the horrible **** that's floating around. Can anyone give some advice on what to do next?
Sorry for the wall of text but it's been going on for a while and needs some explaining!
As per the title I am looking for some advice on a smelly situation I am currently in. We moved into this current house in March and everything was going well for the first three weeks or so. It is a 4 bedroom detached house and there are two of us living there. After around 3 weeks we began to catch some nasty smells coming from the en suite and the kitchen. They started as wafts every couple of days till the entire house was completely humming with a horrible sewage smell when either of us would arrive home from work. At this point we decided to start doing some investigation and found the smell got worse whenever my house mate used his en suite.
We informed our landlord of the issue (who lives in Norway) and didn't get much of a reply. He is incredibly hard to get hold of as he never answers his phone and normally takes around 4 days to reply to any texts/emails. We decided to get a plumber round to take a look and see if he knew what was happening. The plumber came over and immediately picked up on the smell telling us he thought the toilet was leaking. Great. Also on the outside of the house there is a long white pipe which goes from the kitchen waste (washing machine, sink and dishwasher) down to a hole where it flows into the waste pipes and under the man hole cover. Apparently the pipe was incorrectly installed as it is far too long and very uneven. Also for a pipe as long as the one we have apparently it needs to go from smaller size to a bigger size to stop the water backing up and creating a vaccum whenever it flushes out the water. e.g. when a washing machine run pumps out its water.
The plumber advised us this was backing up and probably leaking behind some of the units in the kitchen. We were unable to get to the pipes in the kitchen as they are located behind all the units which have for some reason been concreted into place. (So has the oven which is apparently not meant to have happened?). The plumber flushed the system and used some method to clear all the pipes. This hardly helped with the smell and if anything just meant the water was draining away slightly quicker.
We advised the landlord with these findings and he told us to contact one of his builder mates who lives locally. We got in touch with the builder and eventually after two weeks of "I will come round tomorrow" and "I've been meaning to come round but been busy on other projects" conversations he shows up. The builder has a look and tells us apparently there is roughly an inch of stagnant standing water under half the house. The house is a one story building on a slight slope the the garage is under the house.
At this point alarm bells started ringing as that much water sitting on foundations/all the supports and wood under the house cant be good! The smell at this point was becoming even worse and starting to have an impact on my house mates breathing as most of the smell was coming from his en suite. The builder brings around a water pump vacuum type thing and tells us to suck up as much of the water as we can. The pump runs for around 15 minutes till it was full and my god the smell of that warm air in a tiny en suite was enough to make a grown man cry. We spent around a week and a half pumping the water out before trying to contact the builder again.
This time the builder was not getting back to us via text or phone calls. So i decided to call him from my work phone and sure enough he picks up first time. I asked him why he has not been getting back in contact or not been round to take a look and get fed the typical (I've been busy on other sites) this was at the time of the decent heat wave a few months ago so I doubt he wanted to be working in a sh**y smelling house in the boiling heat. He said he would come round on the Monday morning and take another look. Monday rolls around again and sure enough he doesn't show up. Once again we can't get hold of him via phone/text.
We tried to speak to the landlord to ask him what is going on as it was really starting to take the pi** now considering how much we are paying each month and the fact that the landlord really didn't seem to care. This time we had no reply from the landlord for 2 weeks or from the builder. We decided to cancel the standing order for the rent and sure enough the next day we both get a text saying "Why hasn't the rent gone in" and no reply to any of the texts we had both sent asking what's happening with the builder. He eventually phoned my house mate back and assured him the builder would be there in a few days. Sure enough the builder comes back and picks up his water pump and has a quick look. The water is still not going down even tho he thought the problem was coming from the kitchen and nowhere else.
We both tried to tell the builder we thought it was also the toilet that was leaking as the smell was horrendous. We decided to test this by putting some bleach and food colouring down the toilet and seeing if the water that was in the foundations had bleach/food colouring in. Sure enough it did. However the builder still wouldn't accept this and decided he was going to go into the garage and drill a hole in the foundation wall to see if any water would still come out. Sure enough he drills a hole and all kinds of horrible stinking water comes rushing out into the garage. He put a pipe in the hole and left us with a couple of buckets to try and move some more of the water.
This was around 3 weeks ago. We didn't hear anything from either the landlord/builder for the two weeks that followed and once again it seems like they were both ignoring our messages/phone calls. My house mate is now on holiday for three weeks so I have been trying to get things moving again. I finally managed to get the builder to come round on Tuesday when I was at work. I got home from work and it looks like nothing has changed. I asked him what work he did and apparently all he did was look at the water, put some insulation in one of the holes to try and stop the smell then left. He now wants to test if the toilet is leaking and thinks if we flush the toilet in the en suite a few times over the next few days and see if the water rises again.
This has been going on for months now and it's really starting to get annoying as the landlord only seems to care about getting his rent. Surely if you owned a 4 bedroom detached house you would be concerned about protecting your investment/assets and would want it fixed asap? I don't know what to do next as the builder is extremely hard to get hold of as is the land lord. I am considering refusing to pay rent until the issue is fixed. I've had a friends dad come round who is also a builder and he thinks the floor in the en suite needs to come up to assess how bad it is and more than likely the entire floor needs to come up as it has been full of water for the last few months. Where would we stand when it comes to withholding rent until its fixed? The house seems like it's not a safe place to live with the potential risk of the smell and all the horrible **** that's floating around. Can anyone give some advice on what to do next?
