Try asking the landlord to go halves after all its in his interest too, if he says no check out your rights on some of these sites that help when you rent properties.

Your landlord is usually responsible for external and major structural repairs. You are usually responsible for internal decoration and for making sure that furniture and other contents, and fixtures and fittings are not damaged because of your negligence (see under Damage or loss to contents/furniture).

You will not usually be responsible for making good any deterioration caused by ‘fair wear and tear’ (see under Wear and tear). Your exact responsibilities will normally be described in the tenancy agreement.

You must take care of the property by doing the little jobs which can reasonably be expected of you, for example, unblocking drains and mending fuses.

You should also inform the landlord about any situation which could cause damage to the property, for example, a leak in the roof.

If your landlord claims that you have damaged the property, they will normally keep all or part of any deposit you may have paid to cover the cost of damage

i`d try posting your job here and see how much you can get it done for , i had a complete kitchen refit done for £550 that included laying a stone tiled 30 square foot kitchen floor and they were jolly good too yet i`d been quoted over £2000 by others before i found this site
http://www.mybuilder.com/plasterers/in/uk

have to say hun I would get it professionally done if you can, I do alot of DIY and we had exactly the same with this house, it won't stay even if filled. Try asking the landlord to go halves after all its in his interest too, if he says no check out your rights on some of these sites that help when you rent properties.

we had to get a plasterer (which I said earlier) and I will tell you he only had to knock it and the whole lot came off in less then 10 mins

Thankyou Dooley, I'll get onto the landlord again & tell them this. I do have a picture of the ceiling before I started stripping the walls, for that 'just incase' moment. It shows the ceiling sagging xxx

if you think you are being treated unfairly by your landlord you do have rights and any major repairs he is responsible for. you could always go through the private sector through the council , who would will duly shove a rocket up his bum where repairs are concerned that they feel he is responsible for