I hope everything went well for you. I was going to offer advice but since the post is older it makes no point now. I would be interested in knowing how yo are getting about.

Thanks to everyone who's replied; I've actually been lucky enough to find a privately rented 2 bedroom house within my price range, so we'll be moving into it within a month and saying goodbye to W&W. I'll check out Surestart though, see if there's any useful advice on there.

Hi Mallory,

Contact your local children's centre (Surestart) as they have parental support workers who may be able to advise you on other organisations. Another good source of information is the children's services social worker duty team where you live, who will signpost you to organisations that support pregnant parents and also tenants with housing issues. They may also be able to provide a supporting letter for the HA which may or may not move you up the priority list. At the end of the day you have an unborn that requires a minimum standard of hygiene and the social work team may be able to provide some influence. Good luck.

Hi, thank you for replying we were in a bit of a state about it last night because of the noise from the neighbours. I am phoning the EH today and will take it from there. We are also with W&W and we are finding our housing officer is useless she just tells us it will be looked into but it never is. We are going to get on the council list but don't think we can apply for Clywd Alun because they refused our application when we first moved up here to be with my family, the council referred us on to W&W that was 4 years ago now so i suppose we would have to start again with their application. Thanks again for your support.

Hi babylashes, thanks for your reply. It sounds like your place is in an even worse state than mine :-( Definitely get EH involved, they'll assess the damage and report back to your HA who will be forced to take action. Don't be afraid to take it to the papers if you have to. Have you thought about applying with another HA or the council? The HA I'm with, which is W&W, doesn't have a 'priority scheme' on their waiting lists so I could be on there for ages. Because of this, I've applied to both Clwyd Alun and the local Council too, explaining the situation and hopefully I'll get something there. Like you, I can't afford to privately rent because the minimum rent prices around here are about £200 per month more than I'm paying at the moment.

So definitely see about applying to other firms, and you've made a good start with Environmental health :-)

Hi i wanted to reply to you because myself and my partner are going through the same experiences at the present time. We have been with a HA in North Wales for 3 years now, a month ago we found out i am pregnant. We filled in a transfer form two years ago because in the last two years we have been experiencing alot of unnecessary noise from our neighbours above us - next door and two floors up, we have also noticed in the last year damp in our bedroom, living room and in the bathroom which i have to mop everyday because its is so bad its almost a cemeter of water if i don't mop! We have reported this several times but nothing has been done about either complaint. We are so worried and getting increasingly wound up because we can't cope in these conditions ourselves and we cannot and will not bring our first child back to live in these conditions but we cannot afford to privately rent. We are going to contact the environmental health tomorrow and do anything we can to get out of this situation. Good luck with your situation maybe we could help each other if we find out any other ways we haven't tried yet.

Yes, this is an open forum but my original post was not 'Should I have become pregnant in this situation?', was it? I was not asking advice on my fertility.

And as a lifelong tax payer myself I have no intention of letting others fund my child's upbringing. I will continue to work right until the last possible minute, and take the minimum required maternity leave. I pay my taxes like everyone else and I have never been, nor ever intend to be, reliant on the welfare' of others. In fact, the whole reason I got my rent in arrears (by a small amount) is because I was ill for a time, unable to work, and refused to sign on for housing benefit. The act of a scrounger? I don't think so!

I sincerely hope that your life is 100% perfect, because that is the only way you would have the right to pass judgement on others and basically accuse me of being an irresponsible scrounger.

I could justify myself to you and explain the full situation but why on earth should I? If it makes you feel superior passing (inaccurate) judgement on others then please, enjoy yourself. But in the meantime, I would welcome non-judgemental comments from others.

Thought I would get a reply like that but as this is an open forum everyone is free to comment whether you like the reply or not. The "issue" seems to be you live in a flat that you are in arrears on the rent with, have got yourself pregnant without thinking through the consequences and want to be rehoused into bigger/better accomodation at the expense of the taxpayer. Your right its none of my business why you got pregnant except that as a taxpayer its people like me who will no doubt fund its upbringing.

XXX I find that comment offensive to say the least. It's none of your business why I chose to become pregnant. That is not the issue here.

I would thank you to keep personal comments such as that to yourself instead of passing judgement.

Sorry to sound unsympathetic but why get pregnant when you do not have the resources to bring up the child and if you are still with your partner as one of your posts suggests whom I assume is the father why not move in with him instead of relying on the state/council to wave a magic wand.

Well I've had the walls tested now and they're saying there's no damp present. So they're going to treat the mould in the kitchen, and check the ceiling in the living room for leaks. Unfortunately it doesn't argue my case much for being moved, but i'm still hoping I can claim overcrowding when the baby does arrive! There's no way there'll be room for a nursery in a one-bedroom flat...

To be honest hes not fobbing you off, I had the same problem in my flat and small flats do get condensation and black mould really easy.

*Update* I had someone come this morning from my HA to inspect the mould, and he tried to fob me off by saying it was just condensation and could be sprayed with mould killer spray from the hardware store. I know from past experience that this isn't a permanent solution, and I suspect that the whole problem is because the building hasn't got cavity wall or any form of damp-proof course. On the surface, the problem doesn't look to be that bad, but when living in constantly damp conditions is affecting health - I have a smokers cough despite giving up nearly 3 years ago, and my partner suffers badly from asthma only when he is in the flat - surely it's a serious situation? Someone else form the HA is coming later this week so I'll see what he says. I just want a decent home with room to bring up my child in!

where i am (scotland) my girl applied for a house when she was pregnant but the council wouldnt give her a house till she had our baby. then i applied to live with her and they gave har a bigger house to accomodate the bigger housing needs. we werent scaming it just the way it was and we got a new house :) xx

The damp has been an ongoing thing for some time. I reported i the first time a few years ago, and they came and fitted extractor fans. That made no real difference. Then I discovered fluffy white mould - a sign of rising damp - creeping up some of the walls. The cause was found to be a fault with the way the floors had been constructed (it's a ground floor flat), so they replaced the floors in the affected rooms. But now, the black mould has appeared in the kitchen and bathroom, despite the fans, and there's also black watermarks on the living room ceiling where there've been leaks from the flat upstairs.

The arrears aren't a problem - I've got a solid repayment plan in place and I can also pay off the full amount in one go if needs be. My main concerns are a) is the flat going to damage mine or the baby's health and b) will it be big enough once the baby comes?

I'll wait and see what the EHO say, and keep you all posted :-)