Damp in rented flat - tenant's fault?

Kynthia

I would recommend a dehumidifier, particularly if you're worried about the mould damaging your property and making you ill. I've been told numerous times that they are very cheap to run and can remove lots of water from the air.

Damp air travels round the property so the cause doesn't need to be near the mould and damp patches. As others have said, keep lids on pans when cooking, often open windows to create a through draft, regularly heat the property, dry washing outside or in the bathroom with the extactor on, open any vents in your windows, wipe condensation from windows with a cloth and then squeeze out the water rather than letting it evaporate, etc.

Thrugelmir

SuzieSue wrote: »

I don't think 10 minutes is long enough for a fan to clear a bathroom after a shower. If you don't keep the fan on long enough then you can hardly be surprised that you have mould. Try keeping it on for half an hour after your shower and see if it makes a difference - if it does than you know what the problem is.

Agree that 10 minutes is insufficient. Close the bathroom door as well. To contain the moisture.

jamesd

The rated power for that dehumidifier is a maximum of 190W. So about one unit of electricity for every five hours of operation at full power, at most. If it ran from empty to a full tank once a day it would cost a little under one unit a day because a tank is one fifth of its daily capacity.

Temperatures tend to drop overnight so running it on a timer to start in the living room or kitchen starting an hour or two after bed should cut down on any chance of condensation by removing the water before the temperature falls to the dew point for the coldest surface.

An extractor fan running in the bathroom plus gas heating to replace the lost energy would be cheaper because gas for heating is cheaper than electricity for condensing. Cheapest time to run the extractor fan would be when the place is as cool as it gets, though that may be too late to stop condensation in the bathroom.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Close the bathroom door as well. To contain the moisture.

Just be sure that there's plenty of airflow under or around the door. The extractor needs to get more air into the room somehow to replace the air it's sucking out of the room.

Constant_Gardener

We always dry the shower area after use to reduce water in the air. Used to use a window cleaning blade, now invested in Karcher window vac - it is amazing how much you get off the surfaces that would mostly otherwise evaporate and add to condensation problems in our bathroom.

AlexMac

The answer to the key question ' could they take money out of my deposit for all of the mould?' is in my view, no.
Even though you seem to be a very patient and reasonable tenant in that you qualify this by admitting that you have difficulty ensuring adequate ventilation and also saying that '' massive damp patches around and behind three of our large pieces of furniture,...wasn't ... there when we moved in so I suppose it's our furniture that has caused it...' no reasonable arbiter would blame a tenant for systemic or structural damp, especially if they'd alerted the agent and made reasonable efforts to ventilate.
The causes of damp are straightforward and threefold; either
- rising; groundwater coming up from faulty or absent damp courses or through semi-basement walls if these have been poorly 'tanked' (waterproofed)
- penetrating; leaking from pipes, roofs, gutters , downpipes, etc, or
- condensation; from atmospheric moisture, water-vapour from cooking, showers, tumble-dryers (and humans!) aggravated by poor ventilation or inadequate heating- especially where damp condenses on cold internal surfaces (such as ocurr if you can't afford to leave the heating on all the time - and especially on external walls or in corners,
and in many cases a combination of all three. In fact after a while, wall plaster which has been prone to rising or penetrating water can become hydroscopic (think I spelt that right?) and more prone to damp as salts from groundwater or old brickwork attract airbourne damp- which is why you strip and replace internal plaster even after curing the source or replacing the damp-course in walls.

I suspect you've got two or more of these, so unless the landlord's prepared to fork out for remedy, the best course of action is probably the one you originally suggest - get out- "I'm trying to find somewhere else (I think the mould is making me a bit ill)..." (it can)

You could kill the mould with a bleach wash before the final inspection to make it look a bit better, but if the landlord cuts up rough, argue on the grounds that it was damp when you moved in and you've done all that could be resonably inspected- I assume your deposit's in the TDP scheme so you're protected?

And try to find a sunny upstairs flat next time! Good luck
In the unlikely event the Landlord cuts up rough, you'v