Condensation in flat - rights as a tennant

Helsieboo

Apologies if this is the wrong part of the forum and also apologies if this gets a bit ranty - it's been a really bad day.

I share a two bedroom flat with a friend and in December, we really started noticing an issue with what I thought was damp. We mentioned it to our landlady and she was really nice about it, but then we didn't hear anything. I sent her an email with photos for her own information and also as a reminder and she called to say she hadn't forgotten, she'd had a bereavement and things were a bit mad. Fine, I'm reasonable, I accepted this. Anyway, one night I had my boyfriend over and he noticed a wet trickle down the corner of my room and we both agreed that it looked a lot worse. I phoned the landlady the next day to report this to her. She then phoned the management company of our flats who said it was most likely condensation due to the way we live, but the landlady agreed to send someone round to look at it anyway.

Anyway, the damp-man came over and had a look. He was very helpful and explained it wasn't damp, but condensation as the landlady suspected. He did say to us that it wasn't entirely our fault or to do with the way we'd been living and that all it would take would be cleaning the mould off the walls with a possible paint job. He said that installing vents would help to prevent the problem, but that as tennants, that probably wasn't anything to do with us. Anyway, he submitted his report to the landlady and she contacted us today.

Long story short, she wants a thousand pounds off of us to install vents, she's wanting to withhold our deposit and it also seems like she wants us out. I am so stressed about this, I have been crying most of the afternoon and feel sick - at the moment, I have no regular income, I don't have that type of spare cash and I can't afford to lose the deposit - this on top of an injury to my wrist and a dying grandmother - irrelevent I know, but it's just all getting on top of me. I was part-time employed and part-time self-employed but my part time job recently came to an end (I was maturnity cover) and I haven't yet found something else, although not for lack of looking. I am making enough cash to just about stay afloat from my self employed stuff, but it is literally treading water and I don't have the spare money she wants.

I am willing to accept the cost for cleaning the mould and repainting, but I don't see why we should pay the bill for installing vents. I do admit to keeping the window closed for a couple of weeks when it was really cold, but I had kept the window open prior to that and the mould had already set in. Also, despite the window being closed, the "trickle vents" were kept open, so there was never no air not being circulated. The heating is also on every day for a few hours. We were not told when we moved in that the entire block is prone to condensation and that extra care would need to be taken. We do not have access to outdoor drying space for clothes so they are dried on racks inside, but this is in the living room, never the bedrooms. My bedroom is the most mouldy - that said, it is not inhabitable in my opinion and my housemate has a fraction of mould in his. There is none anywhere else in the house. The doors are left open when we are not in and my bed has been moved away from the wall to allow air circulation.

I'm just really worried. Do we have any rights here at all? Anyone else experienced similar?

CLAPTON

are there extrractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom?

Helsieboo

Hi, yes there are, although the one in the kitchen has never worked. We have no mould in either of these rooms and we leave the window open in the kitchen when cooking.

BitterAndTwisted

Along with rights come responsibilities. Your responsibilities as a tenant is to not cause condensation. Drying laundry indoors is most likely the cause of yours and your landlady's problem. If it's not the primary cause, and I'd be most surprised if it is not, then you're not helping matters at all. Trickle-vents should be adequate if you're not drying laundry indoors plus ventilating and heating all of the rooms adequately.

Please bear in mind that moisture in the air can migrate around the property and condense on the nearest cold surfaces, so just because you are not seeing in it in one room does not mean that the cause does not originate there

Your landlady is not entitled to ask you to contribute towards maintenance, repairs or improvements to the property, if the reason for repairs are not of your doing. So you cannot be compelled to pay for whatever it is that she's asking for.

In your place I would STOP drying laundry indoors, heat and ventilate and then ask your landlady to supply a dehumidifier, run it 24/7 and see if that solves the problem.

HappyMJ

If you dry clothes inside then you will have condensation. It will not be limited to the room you dry the clothes in. The humid air will move through the house and affect any room. The bedroom is usually cooler than the lounge so you will see more condensation on the walls in the bedroom. The longer condensation is left then the more mould that you will get.

You might want to consider purchasing a dehumidifier and cleaning and repainting the walls yourself before the end of the tenancy. You do not have to pay for vents if you don't want to.

edit: must type quicker....all as bitterandtwisted says...

Helsieboo

We have no where else to dry the laundry and interestingly, the room we do this in is completely fine. I've been in this flat for over two and a half years and the issue has only come up in the last two/three months. I thought I was doing the right thing in informing in, but I have been made to feel that I've done something really awful. It isn't like we haven't been heating or keeping windows open.

We are going to suggest a dehumidifier, but I think she will ask us to foot the bill. I would compromise on this, but I just don't have the cash.

Edit: Didn't see last post, thanks.

HappyMJ

Could you dry the clothes in the bathroom and leave the extractor fan on and the door closed so any humid air should be drawn straight outside and not migrate around the house?

Helsieboo

That is so blindingly obvious, can't believe we haven't already been doing that. It would help, wouldn't it?

BitterAndTwisted

If your landlady won't agree to buying a dehumidifier and I suspect she may because it would be a whole heap cheaper than this work she's got in mind, then keep a keen eye out for one on Freecycle. If you're within striking-distance of Walthamstow you might want to check out the British Heart Foundation shop there and see if they have one. It only stocks furniture and second-hand electrical appliances. The other good thing about dehumidifiers, apart from reducing condensation is that it will cut your laundry drying-time down to a fraction of what it is now, most especially in a room with the door shut.

rentergirl

Drying laundry is perfectly usual, and flats must take account of it. Agree with the dehumdifiers, but add the coda that they can use up oodles of electricity. The vents must be installed: I have watched a presentation by a senior Environmental; Health Officer who stated that condensation is damp in law. If ther is so much that it's causing mould, it's damp and must be treated at source.

camptownraces

Sorry, rentergirl, it is NOT the case that dehumidifiers use oodles of electricity.

Dehumidifiers operate by cooling the air and condensing out the water vapour, which can then be emptied out periodically. So typically they use about as much electricity as a fridge.

Tumble driers, on the other hand, do use a lot of electricity. ( And extractor fans, conversely, do not use much electricity.)

Ventilation is key to avoiding condensation, but it's drying all that washing that can puts things out of balance in winter. This is especially the case if people are out at work all day when properties are full of wet washing, but are neither heated not ventilated during that time.