Stress and a Conundrum

Apologies for the lack of posts around here, things have been kinda stressful in these parts of late.
It all began with the boiler breaking down at Christmas and has led to a series of events that are troubling me deeply.

I wont share all of the gory details, but the straw that broke the camel's back was that after enduring days without heating and hot water (first world problems, I know, but the autistic people living here require routine and a daily soak in the tub with a bit of peace is the way I cope) we finally got a qualified engineer out to look at our boiler but his visit quickly became worrying when he uncovered illegal, shoddy and in some places dangerously unsafe areas in our home - including the gas fire that we have been relying on for weeks.



After getting an unsympathetic response from our letting agent and still with the prospect of days before we had any resolution, I promptly gave my (unofficial) notice that we would be quitting the property next month and checked us into a local hotel for the night to thaw and get clean.

Things have calmed down a bit today but I'm left with a difficult conundrum - Do we stay or do we go?

If we move then there's no way I can afford a similar property (this one is cheap) which means no garden and my self sufficient-ish dream is over for the foreseeable future.  
I have invested such a lot of time, effort and money into this house, decorating, improving the soil, planting fruit bushes and much more in the garden - including hundreds of Spring bulbs that we'd never get to enjoy.  
If the property were properly looked after then it would be a dream place to live the life I envisage.



I made no secret of how difficult we found the process of moving house the last time and in many ways I was emotionally much stronger two years ago when we embarked on that move than I am now.

However, this isn't the only issue with the house and I am struggling to trust a letting agent who - instead of being horrified or apologetic for having let errors occur that could have cost lives - has spent much of the day trying to weasel his way out of taking any responsibility, splitting hairs over standard regulation vs current regulation and vehemently protecting the workman that carried out previous safety checks.

Nothing has officially changed as things stand right now but my head is a mess with the responsibility of making a decision either way.  This evening I'm going to draft a letter to send to the letting agent, officially recording my concerns and asking for them to be addressed. Tomorrow I have arranged a tour of some alternative options, just to see what's out there.

I don't really know what I'm writing this here for - I'm sure it's not what you tune in for - but I needed an outlet, so here it is.