Hello everyone, and sorry if this is not the right forum! I'm not sure where this question should go.
Basically I rented an apartment in HK and the contract began in December 2010. We noticed slowly that in the 2nd bedroom the wall was starting to peel, and was damp. This gradually got worse and worse and as the wall was shared with the bathroom sink, we believed a water pipe was leaking.
We called the landlord who advised that this is an issue which has previously been noticed. They ended up asking us to remove some of the furniture from the room, as they were going to drill through the wall, remove the concrete and take a look at the pipes.
We duly allowed this (the remainder of the furniture they covered). It turns out they could not fix the pipe and had to install a new water pipe. They installed a new water pipe through installing scaffolding on the outside of the bathroom wall (going through the bathroom window in the shower to do this). They then eventually concreted the wall back (using an electric fan to dry it quicker- leaving it on for hours and therefore increasing our electricity bill) and then painted over the wall.
The whole process took around 3 weeks and interrupted my time as I work from home, and additionally, make the flat a mess (their attempts to cover the furniture also did not work and there was dirt, and particles of 'wall' everywhere).
The landlord refuses to reduce the rent for this period, which is unfair as the tenancy agreement states that the landlord is responsible for structural repair and as a tenant we should of course be entitled to the full useage of the flat. We pay rent on the basis that the full flat is available to us.
Additionally, this was a problem they were previously aware of, so it is not like it is something which was not present before we moved in.
Do we have any rights to withhold rent based on the unuseable period (although note our bathroom was a mess, and there is a huge patch of concrete where a tile should be as they drilled through the bathroom wall too) and the unuseable spare room? If we were not a couple, and were co-sharers, one whole bedroom would be unuseable. Note that bedroom is actually used as a study, as I tend to work from home for half the day (and was forced to work through noise and the work).
To be fair, the landlord did try to push the work along, and the landlord's father obtained our key to be there for the workers when we were not able to be present to let them in. But it still is not fair that we had no access to the spare room and had to live with our stuff sprawled all over the living room when it was a problem they should have sorted out earlier.
Does anyone have any ideas how to resolve this issue?
Thanks