HELP PLS: New to renting in UK, is this normal?
Hello! I don't usually come to the internet for advice, but given the situation I just need a perspective from someone with more experience renting in the UK.
(TLDR if you don't wanna read the whole thing: We've been dealing with mildew/mould in the bathroom for a whole year. Our bathtub recently started leaking water and flooding the bathroom floor, it got fixed but now the whole bathroom stinks of mildew and the floor vinyl is bubbled up. We've reached out about the bathroom mould/paint before this happened and are concerned they are going to brush it off again.)
My partner and I are international students that moved into this flat about a year ago. For the most part the flat is great, but we recently have been noticing that some of the concerns we've raised seem to be getting ignored.
At the beginning of our tenancy last year the realtors had an inspector come in to check the apartment. We had mentioned to her that the bathroom has been growing a lot of mould around the ceiling edges and that some of the paint on the walls was bubbling up and peeling off. She then told us she would let the office know so they could have it looked at/fixed. We never heard back for the entire year and we resorted to just treating the mould as best as we could. Now it's been a year and there are huge parts of the wall where the paint is just flaking off and peeling. Mould still grows everywhere. Just in case, we usually try to keep the bathroom well ventilated by keeping the door and window open during and after showering and also having the extractor fan on. (The inspector came again, I'm guessing cuz its a new leasing year, and when she saw the bathroom seemed confused and surprised cuz she said she had told them about the issue but it had just gotten worse.)
A couple days ago, we went to shower and as soon as the water started draining it began leaking from under the tub and flooding the bathroom floor. We called the after hours number because we had no idea what was happening and they scheduled to come fix it in the morning. They came and fixed the leaking issue, but now the concern is with the water having soaked into the wooden side panel of the tub, the vinyl flooring now bubbling up, and the mildew smell covering the bathroom and spreading throughout the house. I'm not sure if there's water damage or if the mildew/mould will now spread to the wooden panels/underneath the vinyl flooring.
I don't want to sound silly cuz I know mould can be a common issue in high humidity places (like the UK), but I've lived in other high humidity places (Puerto Rico & Texas) and it's never been like this before. Is it common for these kinds of issues to be ignored since they're technically not huge renting factors? What should I do if there is mould growing under the tub and on the wooden side panels? We are slightly nervous we will be seen as problem tenants or get completely ignored again if we raise another concern regarding the same mould/mildew issue.