Damp around my windows - My fault or letting agents

arbrighton

jj_5 wrote: »

Been meaning to post this for a while but it's been very busy lately!

We rent (myself and OH) and the letting agents visited a few weeks back to inspect the property. I let them know about 1 or 2 problems and showed them the bedroom windows. There's a slight dampness around them at the bottom/sides.

The girl immediately said that we would be "held responsible" for this should it not be cleared up before moving (not that we have any plans to move in the near future). There's no problems with the other windows in the house and we haven't pushed any furniture up against the walls to contribute to this dampness. The house is essentially just as it was when we moved in (around a year ago).

So my question is... who IS responsible for fixing this?.. surely the dampness is caused by their own windows being kak and to pin the problem on us is unfair? I've been opening the windows every day for 15 minutes but as you can appreciate in the dead of winter this is not atall ideal. I've also wiped it down once a week with a cloth but it still aint shifting:T:A

The problem is that the moisture you and OH produce by breathing at night has nowhere to escape to, and the warmth of inside versus cooler outside causes it to condensate on the windows. In our rental house before we moved, this happened a lot (to the extent of pools of water on the windowsills somedays) so we wiped them down on any day where there was condensation and aired the house as much as possible. 15 minutes a day is not going to do much in the way of airing and while it is 'winter' it is hardly cold at the moment, so opening your bedroom window a crack, especially at night when the heating probably isn't on anyway will do more good than harm.
Our house now doesn't seem to have this problem despite being MUCH older. It has DG but that is so poor that it seems to allow ventilation whether we open the windowns or not.

ash28

jj_5 wrote: »

Been meaning to post this for a while but it's been very busy lately!

We rent (myself and OH) and the letting agents visited a few weeks back to inspect the property. I let them know about 1 or 2 problems and showed them the bedroom windows. There's a slight dampness around them at the bottom/sides.

The girl immediately said that we would be "held responsible" for this should it not be cleared up before moving (not that we have any plans to move in the near future). There's no problems with the other windows in the house and we haven't pushed any furniture up against the walls to contribute to this dampness. The house is essentially just as it was when we moved in (around a year ago).

So my question is... who IS responsible for fixing this?.. surely the dampness is caused by their own windows being kak and to pin the problem on us is unfair? I've been opening the windows every day for 15 minutes but as you can appreciate in the dead of winter this is not atall ideal. I've also wiped it down once a week with a cloth but it still aint shifting:T:A

I'm no expert but I would have thought condensation issues are your problem - you cause them just by living in the house. It's caused by warm moist air coming into contact with cold surfaces.

Everything we do in houses causes condensation - you will produce about 2 pints of water vapour while sleeping. Cooking, washing, bathing, drying clothes all produce lots of moisture.

It's not usually an issue if a property is well ventilated - windows need to be open for an absolute minimum of an hour - 15 minutes isn't long enough. When you ventilate your rooms you not only let cool air into the house but you let warm moist air out.

Wiping window sills once a week isn't enough - you need to do them every day and more often if they need it.

lessonlearned

You can buy moisture traps from the likes of B&Q or similar for a a couple of £'s. The crystals draw excess moisture from the air and the water is held in a reservoir which you just need to empty every couple of days. One of these on each window-cill should do the trick.

Meadows

jj_5 wrote: »

We rent (myself and OH) and the letting agents visited a few weeks back to inspect the property. I let them know about 1 or 2 problems and showed them the bedroom windows. There's a slight dampness around them at the bottom/sides.
The girl immediately said that we would be "held responsible" for this should it not be cleared up before moving (not that we have any plans to move in the near future). There's no problems with the other windows in the house and we haven't pushed any furniture up against the walls to contribute to this dampness. The house is essentially just as it was when we moved in (around a year ago).
So my question is... who IS responsible for fixing this?.. surely the dampness is caused by their own windows being kak and to pin the problem on us is unfair? I've been opening the windows every day for 15 minutes but as you can appreciate in the dead of winter this is not at all ideal. I've also wiped it down once a week with a cloth but it still ain't shifting

More likely to be due to poor ventilation 15 minutes is not that long and it also depends on what else is going on in the house (washing, cooking etc to accumulate moisture).
Try to sleep with windows slightly open at night (as your heating should be off) to give you both fresh air and ventilation then close the windows during the day to keep the heat in.

Lokolo

neas wrote: »

a £3 bottle of mould and mildew spray when you leave will bleach all of it away,... I sprayed it on a black patch when we moved in once and didnt even wipe off and it had all dissapeared .

This ^^

The stuff is brilliant. Spray it on, leave it for a couple of minutes, then wipe it away with a damp cloth.

Valeria12

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