mould issue when renting

gefuller

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any idea where I stand with the issue of mould in a rental property.

We have recently noticed mould on the internal walls of our rented flat, as soon as we noticed this we cotacted our letting agent and informed them and they asked is to take a photo and just clean it.

Should they not have to send someone to deal with the issue which we believe due to insulation issues as we spoke to our neighbours and apparently the previous tenants had the same issue but nothing was done.

Any advice would be most useful.

Thanks

MX5huggy

You need to ventilate and heat more.

But in the end having been in damp houses you just have to cut your losses and move out.

McKneff

Mould is dangerous, get them to deal with it. Full stop.

phill99

Unfortunately, the mould is likely to be caused by the way you occupy the premises.

Condensation (the cause of mould) is a prevalent problem in homes now. It's caused by a high moisture content in the atmosphere typically as a result of bathing, showering, drying if clothes etc while failing to ventilate.

It's imperative that when you use the shower or bath you keep the door shut and open the window. If there is a fan, again use it and if there isn't ask the landlord to install one. Again with cooking, open the window when boiling anything and keep the kitchen door shut. It's likely to be the way you are using the house rather than anything inherently wrong with the house.

macman

Improve your ventilation. Nothing to do with the landlord.

thebaldwindowfitter

I rent out a number of properties in one my tenent wouldnt use the central heating saying it gave her astma she instead used the gas fire downstairs which causes mousture this resulted in mould to windows and walls mainly upstairs and especially in the master bedroom where 2 people were sleeping i checked roof, guttering ,walls and windows with no issues the tenent left the house 2 years ago and after redecoration when they left there have been no other mould issues it was all down to how the property was being heated

tlh858

My job involves visiting 100s of properties a year for various reasons.
Virtually all of those which have mould and damp issues are caused by those living there, rather than any defect with the building.

The usual causes are:
People who never open windows
People who dry wet washing all over the place such as on racks, radiators, hanging on the backs of chairs or over unused exercise equipment etc.
Using towels and then hanging them over the bannisters to dry.
Using tumble dryers that are not vented to the outside.
Boiling up food in pans with no lids
Blocking ventilators in windows and walls because they 'made a draught' or other nonsense.
Taking hour long showers with the bathroom door wide open
Not using bathroom and kitchen extractors because they were 'too noisy', 'too expensive' or for any number of other feeble excuses.

In a few instances there are either no extractors, or they were broken, or the kitchen one is a useless recirculating type - but in all of these the solution is for them to be replaced or changed to proper extracting types, which the landlord would pay for in a rented property.

Very rarely it is due to external causes such as leaking pipes, blocked gutters, roof leaking etc.

Then there was the one where the occupier had purchased a load of ceramic 'humidifier' things which you fill with water and hang on the radiators. Might as well have used a hosepipe to wash down the walls on a weekly basis.

squeekswhenwalking

I'm afraid I agree you need to ventilate more and restrict making water vapour. One thing to add- you might want to clean off mould with bleach solution or other preparitory mould cleaner to prevent spread of pores