Damp/Condensation Problem With Landlord

jaymoe

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this problem has been going on since last winter and the contract is up at the end of next month and we are concerned regarding the deposit we handed over at the start of the contract.

Whats happened so far is this:

Moved in on November 30th

Mid December my partner asked me to move us into the other bedroom as the current room was freezing, when I moved the furniture round I noticed this black and green mould on the wall in the corner of the room, when I looked at the other corner there was mould there.

It was only when I moved the furniture in our current room that I noticed there was mould there too.

We tried to keep on top of it by buyibng sprays and crystals but it wasnt making any difference, we got in touch with the landlord who said he would get a builder in at the new year although he was confident it was condensation.

He got a builder in, and he said it was damp but the landlord just said he would say that as he wanted the job so he got a friend of his in who said it was condensation, well he would coz his mate is the landlord.

Nothing was done. We were told to keep the windows open but we both work and the flat is on the bottom floor so that wasnt an option.

The weather picked up, I decorated and all seemed to be going well until recently when the weather has changed for the worse and the damp/condensation is back. The other difference now is we have a 3 month old son now and I don't want to affect his health.

At the moment we live in a 2 bed flat but can only use the living room so the bed and cot is also in there but we are about to tell the letting agent we are not renewing but we know come the inspection they will want to dock money as the walls arent 100% but in our eyes it never was and furniture was strategically placed to hide the mould.

The advice I'd like is:

Is it actually mould or condensatiomn
Where do we stabd legally as surely a contract is a 2 way thing and he has shown no interest in improving the living conditions
If they try and deducty money from the deposit can we do anything to stop that.

Its very frustrating as we are paying £775pcm for a 2 bed flat where we can't use 3/4 of the place.

We asked upstairs and they said the previous tenant was the landlord brother in law but there were a couple of women in before him and they also moaned about the same thing.

HELP AS ITS DRIVING ME MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grimbo_Green

Hi im in a very similar situation so im glad you asked. I will be keeping an eye on this thread - hoefully we'll be able to find out !

SABJ

has you mentioned to the ll you want to move out due to the mould
has the ll ever accused you of causing it, sometimes your best just talking to them about it hope you get some resolve soon

jaymoe

We have spoken to the Landlord about it but he has shown no interest whatsoever in this case. We have tried to tell him at the end of the day its his property thats getting the mould and that surely its in his best interests to get it sorted but he just said it was condensation and we should keep the windows open
Like I said, its a ground floor flat and we both work so thats not gonna happen


Grimbo

If you see any other threads that you might think will help can you post on here as I have a 3 month old son and hes not giving me or his mummy any spare time lol.

When I get the chance I'll have a look round and do likewise

stone7

Firstly you need to know for sure what is causing the mould. Buy a "damp meter" off ebay......a cheap one for under £10 will do as you aren't looking for an accurarte reading, just confirmation one way or the other. If it is a damp problem, give the landlord 28 days to begin rectifying the problem or let him know you will find a more suitable alternative flat / house.

If the problem is condensation, to be fair, there is little your landlord can do. I would suggest buying a dehumidifyer placed in the room where you spend most time (or worst offending room).

I notice you say that there was "strategically placed furniture" hiding the mould. In my experience, mould / condensation tends to form behind the furniture placed up against a wall, headboards, settees, wardrobes so it could well be the furniture was there first.

You say you live on the ground floor. Is the damp / condensation at low level...rising damp only rises up to 1 metre from the floor level. Is the damp / condensation only on external walls or does it also appear on the internal wall that divide the rooms of the flat?

Whatever the outcome, be it condensation or damp, the landlord should not hold you responsible in any way and your deposit should be unaffected.

tbs624

stone7 wrote: »

Firstly you need to know for sure what is causing the mould. Buy a "damp meter" off ebay......a cheap one for under £10 will do as you aren't looking for an accurarte reading, just confirmation one way or the other.

If you are talking about the type of pronged “moisture meters” these will tell you nothing useful. They’re designed & calibrated to measure approximates of moisture in timber not bricks, plasterwork, wallpaper etc so save your money. (You’d need to drill holes and take samples to get clear evidence of damp)

stone7 wrote: »

If it is a damp problem, give the landlord 28 days to begin rectifying the problem or let him know you will find a more suitable alternative flat / house.

Proving that it * is * damp is not that simple. The LL would also need to check whether there are any structural, drain, rainwater good issues etc that needs repairs /renewal - some of which the tenant can check for themselves.

stone7 wrote: »

If the problem is condensation, to be fair, there is little your landlord can do.

but there is usually quite a lot that the tenant can do. We all give off moisture just by breathing - add to that steam from washing up, showers, cooking, wet washing hanging on racks indoors or even worse on the rads , and then fail to heat the property adequately and/or ventilate adequately and you will get condensation. That’s especially the case in the corner of rooms and behind furniture that is up against the walls.

stone7 wrote: »

I would suggest buying a dehumidifyer placed in the room where you spend most time (or worst offending room.

I notice you say that there was "strategically placed furniture" hiding the mould. In my experience, mould / condensation tends to form behind the furniture placed up against a wall, headboards, settees, wardrobes so it could well be the furniture was there first.

Good points but the OP needs to understand that if it is condensation & they don’t ventilate/heat the property adequately then the problem will return.

stone7 wrote: »

Whatever the outcome, be it condensation or damp, the landlord should not hold you responsible in any way and your deposit should be unaffected.

If there are no related R&R issues and it is down to condensation caused by the tenant’s lifestyle, and they fail to (a) act on the LLs advice to reduce the problem or (b) clean the mould up, then the LL would IMO be justified in looking to the tenant to pay towards any resultant damage.

OP - if you are convinced that the problem is not down to condensation ( or only partially due to it ) then you can ask the local council’s EHO to check it out for you,

However, many LLs will tell you that they can have one set of tenants who say that a property is damp and then the next set who follow the anti-condensation measures already suggested to you, find that the same property is fine.

Have a look here for the type of advice given out by the EHOs and private sector rentals teams at local councils.

olly300

There is a thread on the DIY board which tells you ways to deal with condensation. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1200763&highlight=condensation

If you also put in a search on that board using the words condensation you will find lots of relevant threads on dealing with it.

Also OP the fact that one "professional" person says it damp while the other states it's condensation is meaningless as they don't live in the property, and I'm talking from personal experience of dealing with damp/condensation since childhood including in rented properties. You need to find the source of the problem then if it is damp you can show the landlord the exact cause.

jaymoe

Stone 7:

The damp/condensation in one of the rooms is mainly as you say about a metre up the wall but there are patches of it near the top of the wall to but not as bad as the bottom.
The other bedroom has it all over the wall but that is due to the furniture being near it.
Robert Dyas's shares must have rocketed while we have lived here as we are constantly buying mould spray and also condensation crystals for each room so the landlord can't say we havent tried to stop the condensation/damp.

TBS624

We have tried everything to stop the "condensation" by ventilating the rooms most of the time, we never hang any washing inside the flat. We have also been given two other bits of advice, firstly from one person it was to put the heating on to dry it out, and the second said ... not to put the heating on as it causes more moisture!!! One thing I can say honestly and that is theres been no lack of effort on our part to combat this and its starting to get us down.
Last winter we bought the dehumidifyer and although it was capturing water it still wasnt stopping the mould

sospanfach1

Surely deposit or bond should have been held by a third party ie: DPS(deposit protection service) Ithink it,s been law since 2007 that landlords or agents dont hold onto deposits or bonds for precisely the reasons you are giving.
DPS administrate and any disputes go thru them

olly300

jaymoe wrote: »

Stone 7:

The damp/condensation in one of the rooms is mainly as you say about a metre up the wall but there are patches of it near the top of the wall to but not as bad as the bottom.

Have you checked to see if there are any drain pipes or other water pipes on the external wall? Also have you checked to see if there is any cause from a property above or next door to yours that could be causing the problem i.e. a piece missing in the guttering which causes water to run on to your wall? Unfortuantely the only time you can look at some of these issues is when it's rained heavily for at least a day. So you need to have a good look at the wall(s) when it hasn't been raining then during and after the rain to see the spread.

Also I have read that rising damp in extreme cases can rise over one metre up. However you need to check out other possible causes of damp/condensation first.

jaymoe wrote: »

The other bedroom has it all over the wall but that is due to the furniture being near it.
Robert Dyas's shares must have rocketed while we have lived here as we are constantly buying mould spray and also condensation crystals for each room so the landlord can't say we havent tried to stop the condensation/damp.

Personally when I've had condensation and damp issues I've found them only slightly helpful. You really need to find the cause then you can notifiy the landlord of the problem.

jaymoe wrote: »

We have tried everything to stop the "condensation" by ventilating the rooms most of the time, we never hang any washing inside the flat. We have also been given two other bits of advice, firstly from one person it was to put the heating on to dry it out, and the second said ... not to put the heating on as it causes more moisture!!! One thing I can say honestly and that is theres been no lack of effort on our part to combat this and its starting to get us down.
Last winter we bought the dehumidifyer and although it was capturing water it still wasnt stopping the mould

Some forms of heating will cause more moisture but central heating won't as it dries out the atmosphere.