Landlady wants £350 from me and GF - with PICTURES

nuttyp

right thats it, a chage of career is needed lol If i can get over £350 to decorate 2 rooms i would definatly do this job. I have to budget and get on average about £50 to do a room, a tin of emulsion only cost about £8 for dulux.
If its such a problem you could paint damp seal paint on and then re emulsion the room yourselves. It should solve the problem and cost you a lot less.

Cant believe they are thinking of asking for soooo much money.

Good luck with sorting it out, i hope your LL/LA see sense.

neas

I'd like to clear this up for all.... because OP is twisting things (prob not intentionally)

Damp is almost like water in the walls.... its caused by bad sealant a leak from outside or in cases of rising damp its when the damp is absorbsed from outside.

The letter clearly states... MOULD... not damp. MOULD is a living organism found everywhere... it helps decay living matter (Carpets, Clothes, Humans, Animals, Cheese, Fruits etc). We have a slight mould problem at our house and this was partly our fault as well.

MOULD... as the letter states... needs the following to survive:

1. Warmth
2. Humidity (Lots of water in the air)... Its why you have mildew/mould in bathrooms alot as the steam and heat and poor ventilation of bathrooms causes perfect environment for mould/mildew to grow. (the black stuff between grout).
3. Food source i.e carpet, wall, wood, paint, food, human, clothes etc


Now Mould Can be caused by DAMP, but the letter doesn't state this, it usuallt is created by the following:

1. Not opening Windows in a house enough (POOR VENTILATION)
2. Drying CLothes Inside a house (INCREASED HUMIDITY)
3. Not opening windows after a bath/shower... or leaving the bathroom door open so humidity can spread around a house (INCREASED HUMIDITY)
4. Placing furniture or other items too close to a wall (POOR VENTILATION)

So where do you see mould OP?

Cause MOULD caused by the above 4 items... will appear.... in tight spaces i.e behind wardrobes/draws too close to a wall (less than 4-5 inches), near window sills (as moisture gathers most there)>

Just a final Note:

MOULD Is a black organism that grows rapidily in warm, humid, unventilated conditions... its seen more in rented accomodation because we dont care as much for these issues...

DAMP is water content being absorbed by a wall....and can cause MOULD as it provides a nice humid condition too.


Also: When you 'simply wipe off the black marks'... with water... you inadvertingly help the mould spread... as it spreads via tiny spores in the air, and will simply grow back (with avengance in another place as well)

To Clean mould off try using Vinegar and Bleach on the wall (Sparingly)...

While the Costs are alot... it also depends on the scale of mould infestation. I would offer to repaint the room or rooms yourselves... in the Owners choice of colour etc. As quite frankly... it appears to be mould caused by yourself rather than by DAMP.... while you didn't realise it was mould and thought it was dirt... the end result is the same... your lack of proper upkeep means there are most probably permanent stains on the walls.

To properly treat mould one cannot just paint over it... as it will slowly grow back through the layers of paint. You need to sand down the paint.. to get rid of all traces of mould... treat it with detergent/vinegar or a commercial mould cleaner to kill/prevent any further mould... then repaint over it all. This is a fair amount of labour.

neas

To give you an idea of how long it takes to do the job right...

Time taken to slap on 1ftx3ft paint - 5 mins
Time takent to repaint a room - half day to 1 day
Time taken to rub clean mould off a 1ft x2ft mould patch - 5-6 hours.

Thats right... my wife and I sat for ages cleaning and recleaning the same patch... slowly but surely removing all mould from the paintwork.. our infestation wasnt so deep so alot of rubbing with veingar/bleach removed all of it.... we've since gone and cleaned every surface nearly with vinegar/bleach solution to destroy any unseen mould. Pretty confident if we keep an eye out for early signs and ventilate, dry clothes outside we wont see much mould in our rental.

neas

DAMP




MOULD



Note the bove picture would require a significant amount of work but thats alot of mould lol.

fischer79

I had the same view from the ll's comments as you neas that this is a tenant preventable mould issue rather than landlord responsible damp issue.

I've had this problem in my flat which is a real pain but we've managed to control it by buying a moisture trap from Wilkinson (under a£5 with top up chemical £1.49).

LittleMissAspie

Eww that picture is gross.

I for one thought that damp and mould were the same, now I get the difference.

However, in some properties it is seriously difficult to avoid a bit of mould. We get so much condensation in our bedroom - the windows are literally dripping with water in the mornings - that inevitably we get a bit of mould on the ceiling. We can't keep the windows open while we're out at work. I am actually at home 4 days a week and I open the windows then, even in the winter, but it still takes hours for the humidity to clear. And don't forget that in flats you can't dry your clothes outside, you have no choice.

If the OP is wiping the beginnings of mould away regularly (yes even if you clean it with proper bleach-based mould spray, it still comes back eventually) then I don't see the problem or why he should have to pay £350 for... for what? Repainting? That won't keep mould away anyway.

I would be very interested in this moisture trap thing, how does it work? I've looked into silica gel but I'm not sure that would be effective enough in a non-enclosed space.

fischer79

I have similiar issues to youLittlemissaspie as we can only have windows open on weekends (grounbd floor flat and both work out).

I'll try and find the make tonight but the one I got is just a type of salt in a grilled plastic container with drip tray. I'm shocked by the amount of water thats collected in the tray in 2 and a bit weeks - about an inch deep already and its a long tray!

It's really working for us at the moment,since our last clean we've had no mould reappear.

The packet said refill every 6-8 weeks but looking at the crystal levels I think every 4 weeks is more realistic.

poppysarah

fischer79 wrote: »

The packet said refill every 6-8 weeks but looking at the crystal levels I think every 4 weeks is more realistic.

If you read up on the substance you'll find you can heat off the water and reuse it. Won't be as crystaline but should rework.

B&Q do refills bags for about £2.75 though

redrabbit29

I can see staining above the windows, on the ceiling skirting board, it's not much and is very light. Even the mould is hard to spot, but it is most visible on the wooden windows.

The estate agent and repair man still told me it was damp when they came round. I still feel it's unfair to ask for this money, when I had no idea what it was. I never questioned it, and if I had believed it was a direct issue of the houses health I would have reported it.

Do you honestly believed I should compensate my land lord for this? What if I had have found it a year ago and recognised it as potentially a problem, and reported it? Would we be in a completely different situation here?

I'll adjust my letter to my Estate agent.

neas

Aye, its partially a tenants fauly but sometimes mould caused by condensation is harder to fix.

The obvious ways to avoid it are to:

1. Open windows regularly, wipe down windows of condensation in the morning
2. BUy a dehumidifier (these things draw humidity out of air like a tumble dryer draws water out of clothes (deposit water in back of unit).. cost about 100 quid tho methinks. Can also be used to dry clothes as moisture is 'sucked' from clothes.
3. Buy a moisture trap and place near hotspots for mould.

It is true Mold will regrow.. but the annoying thing about it... is it can be dangerous to your health.. the spores present can aggravate asthma for example...so its best to keep on top of the mould. Mould grows exponentially... if there lots of mould there it will grow faster... as its a very simple organism. Mould helps things decay in nature.. just we dont want it in our homes :P

We got ours because we have no washing line, it always rains so we dried clothes in bedroom... where di we get mould? in the bedroom by the window and behind a cupboard we left 1 inch from wall :P...... Lesson learnt for us.