Mould in a rented house...

Cookie_monster_7

We rent our flat privately and we have a fairly bad mould problem in the master bedroom. Green mould all over 3 of the walls. OH has tackled it with bleachy water but the landlord came out today and said it is due to condensation and we should keep the heating on all the time:eek:, keep the windows open all the time:eek: and get a dehumidifier :eek: We can't afford to do these things! Do we have to do them? Is the landlord not supposed to sort the problem out?

socrates

Tell the LL to get a survey done, £50 maximum. They will make recommendations. If he does not play ball (which it sounds like he will not) honest opinion is move on!

sooz

getting a 'damp specialist' in to do a free or cheap damp 'survey' will involve one man putting a damp meter against the walls, & almost certainly giving a damp reading, & they will then quote for £x for them to install a damp proof course. (regardless of if there is one already or not...if there is, they will say it's failed )

OP - what floor are you on? Are the mouldy walls external ones? Has anyone looked outside to see if there are any visible causes of damp - such as a slipped tile, overflowing guttering etc?

Landlordzone have a great article on damp, condensation & mould

socrates

I disagree I had a chap out for £50 - gave me a detailed report - which included a scaled plan of the property, areas affected, solution and costs.

I agree on the LandLordzone - recommendation

Lokolo

Or you could just open the window once again?

We had mould on the walls, used Mould Remover (recommended on this site), used it, haven't seen it since.

Cookie_monster_7

sooz wrote: »

OP - what floor are you on? Are the mouldy walls external ones? Has anyone looked outside to see if there are any visible causes of damp - such as a slipped tile, overflowing guttering etc?

Landlordzone have a great article on damp, condensation & mould

I'm on the upper floor of a masisonette. The mould is on two external walls and one internal wall (although behind it is a cupboard). I'll check the exterior of the property tomorrow in daylight. The roof is ancient, and I frequently hear banging if it is really windy outside...the guttering does drip onto the path so maybe it does need some structural repairs which the landlord is trying to avoid

littlesnuggy

sooz wrote: »

getting a 'damp specialist' in to do a free or cheap damp 'survey' will involve one man putting a damp meter against the walls, & almost certainly giving a damp reading, & they will then quote for £x for them to install a damp proof course. (regardless of if there is one already or not...if there is, they will say it's failed )

A reputable company would never do this. I happen to work for one of the country's oldest damp-proofing firm (est 1928), which also holds the Queen's Royal Warrant for providing this service, and our surveyors don't rely on the damp meters at all - the reading they give is actually fairly irrelevant, as they are calibrated against the moisture content of a particular African hardwood; not what your average wall is made of!!!

Anyway, I digress: OP, your landlord needs to get it looked at. It's covered under the Environmental Protection Act and condensation can be considered a Statutory Nuisance. They cannot blame it on your lifestyle if you are just doing 'normal' things, and they cannot force you to leave the windows open all the time as a solution. I'd advise your landlord to get a positive pressure unit being installed - this is really cheap to run, and forces the moist air out of the building. You would also probably see your heating bills come down as a result, as drier air is cheaper to heat than moist air.

Hope that helps!

socrates

Well said to the last poster

Cookie_monster_7

Thank you littlesnuggy for your post :T....I'll get back in touch with the landlord

stevetodd

Cookie_monster wrote: »

We rent our flat privately and we have a fairly bad mould problem in the master bedroom. Green mould all over 3 of the walls. OH has tackled it with bleachy water but the landlord came out today and said it is due to condensation and we should keep the heating on all the time:eek:, keep the windows open all the time:eek: and get a dehumidifier :eek: We can't afford to do these things! Do we have to do them? Is the landlord not supposed to sort the problem out?

Hi I am a landlord. A house we (my wife and I own it) rent out had a minor (much less of a problem than you have, ie only minor traces of mould) problem we noticed that the tenants never seemed to have the heating on (they were out a lot), dried their laundry in the house (rather than the garden) and not suprsingly in the winter didn't open the windows.

We bought a dehumidifier for them and it has sorted the problem out. I really do not think that a tenant should have to provide a dehumifier, that should be down to the landlord, they are quite cheap to run, so running costs are not an issue.

Obviously other problems such as leaks have to be eliminated first.

clutton_2

""positive pressure unit" - i'm very interested in this - can you tell us more please ?

i also am a LL who has ocassionally found mould in properties and probably 75% of it is due to tenant lifestyle- ie not opening windows after baths, or during cooking, and drying laundry inside on the radiators - sometimes installing airbricks can help, but then tenants will stuff them up with plastic bags and negate their effect.