Issues with letting agents/landlord regarding damp/mould

Annabee

dirty_magic wrote: »

It has to be an issue with the house, otherwise everyone would have mould

Exactly! But in landlord/LA land (Lalaland is quite appropriate) it is always the tenant's fault.

fredthefish

Gigervamp wrote: »

OP, where are you getting the mould? I noticed that you said you close the bathroom and kitchen doors after using them.
We have a problem with mould in our bathroom and I've found that if the door is left open (as well as the window) after use, it doesn't get mouldy.

Hope you get it sorted.

We originally had issues with mould in the bathroom so the landlord fitted an extractor fan (we still do... but not quite as bad)

We have a tiny bit of mould around the window in the kitchen - no extractor fan in there yet, not even over the cooker (again, it's tiny so the oven is wedged in - little room for extractor hood)

The point I mentioned about keeping the bathroom and kitchen doors closed (both downstairs) is something I mentioned to the letting agents, the theory being that it contains any excess moisture and prevents it from condensing in the upstairs bedrooms. The mould we are complaning to the landlord about is mould in the upstairs bedrooms - we just found a load of it behind various bits of furniture.

deannatrois wrote: »

However cheap the place is.., its supposed to be habitable. That means not mouldy and damp.

Thanks - that's basically our view, apart from replace "cheap" (it isn't particularly cheap - pretty much a fair rate for this area) with "old". We completely disagree with the estate agent's statement that "it's an old terraced property therefore you can't dry clothes inside". Rubbish, the fact that it's an old terraced house shouldn't mean that it isn't brought up to modern standards in terms of both insulation and ventilation.

FBaby wrote: »

Would OP be much happier if the landlord agreed to get the dehumidifier and then increase the rent by £50 a month? I really think you need to pick your battles.

It hasn't even got to the point where we're arguing over who provides a dehumidifier - it's that he isn't even agreeing that a dehumidifier would mean he is happy with indoor clothes drying. He's saying tumbledrier or nothing. The main problem wit that (as I've explained in previous posts) is simply one of space. The kitchen has zero available space for a tumble drier (unless the landlord starts ripping kitchen cupboards out - which we would really rather he didn't because we are short on storage space as it is!) and it would be similarly impractical to fit a tumble drier into the combined living room/dining room or either of the upstairs bedrooms.

Pete9501 wrote: »

No mention of a chimney which is a shame because a coal fire doesn't an excellent job of removing condensation.

The solution doesn't rest with the LL but the tenant heating and ventilating the property sufficiently to keep the condensation in check. This might include a tumble dryer or de-humidifier as already suggested.

Again we are doing everything we can reasonably do to keep the property well heated and ventilated. Weirdly we do have a wood burning stove which we have used a couple of nights per week all through winter. The issue we have most recently had though has been in the upstairs bedrooms, specifically behind furniture... which we sorely need as the storage space in this house is severely limited. I'm thinking about a re-organisation which would mean we don't have so much of it against an external wall which might help too.

FBaby, I can see where you are coming from and it sounds like there are a lot of parallels with the situation that your mother went through. However what is different here is that we are not against having the windows open when drying clothes indoors. In fact we have given the landlord an extensive list of all the things we are doing in order to try to prevent this. I work from home for christ's sake, do you really think I would be happy sitting in a freezing cold room all day? We have always heated the house to the point where we can comfortably inhabit it in jeans and t-shirts and jumpers, which in our minds is a perfectly reasonable amount, end of story. We certainly aren't going to heat it to the point where we can lounge around in shorts and t-shirts in winter.

The room where we have recently discovered mould behind furniture (the room where we have our heated drying rack which, incidentally, sits right in front of the radiator - so it's not like the proximity of damp clothes to the wall is the issue here) is the room I work from 5 days a week, the spare bedroom, so regardless of the heating in the rest of the house this room will always have a higher ambient temperature than the other rooms because of 1) body heat 2) various computers and screens running all day 3) the heated drying rack definitely raises the temperature by a couple of degrees and 4) it's the room with the boiler in it anyway. Lack of adequate heat can't possibly be the problem in this room. (Even with the mould in the bathroom, we leave the new extractor fan on pretty much all morning and still we find ourselves bleaching down mouldy walls every other week). We don't get mould issues on any internal walls or the side walls (if that makes sense - we're in the middle of a terrace basically). We only get it on the outer walls. It is definitely a case of the outer walls being stone cold to the touch because of - I'm presuming - a lack of adequate insulation, and this causing condensation regardless of our best efforts.

If you have boundless amounts of spare cash then, yes, I am sure ONE solution would be to run the heating constantly, keep everything at a balmy 20 degrees 24/7 even with the windows open, but that is not the ONLY solution, certainly not the most reasonable solution, and definitely shouldn't be the only one the estate agents are willing to entertain. For most young couples like ourselves who are just starting out - one of which is still at university - that level of heating would be frivolous and a luxury, and I think it would be unreasonable for the landlord to expect us to do this. And if all landlords started kicking out or denying housing to poorer tenants then what on earth are we meant to do instead? Totally unfair to push this on the tenant when we are doing everything we can to resolve it and it's purely down to the house being old and poorly insulated.

dirty_magic wrote: »

Fbaby I agree that bad tenants can make the problem worse and some people just aren't willing to help themselves, but at the same time you shouldn't have to constantly have windows open and hang washing out in rubbish weather just so it's not in the house. It has to be an issue with the house, otherwise everyone would have mould!

The only reason I get annoyed is because people always assume it's the tenants fault, even when they're good tenants. We treated our flat like it was our own, and I tried everything to stop it but if the ventilation isn't good enough you're fighting a losing battle.

Agreed.

Pete9501

Run the wood burner every night (we do), it will cost about the same as gas central heating so you may as well. In addition put any washing to dry in front if it, problem solved.

anna42hmr

Have you thought of trying the non electrical dehumidifies, they are not going to be as good as electric ones, however we found a couple of these did the job http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00F1DNYPE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2RFS9UTHWQWVB&coliid=I49L04AY7PLIE

I was sceptical at first but thought for a tenner it was worth a go, and we were glad we did

dirty_magic

Your landlord sounds like a muppet. You can't tumble dry most clothes anyway. If your landlord continues to be useless the only option I can see is to move.

He can't tell you what you can and can't do and I doubt it says don't dry washing indoors in your contract. You could try the dehumidifier but in my experience it doesn't completely solve the problem.

gordano_2

The bottom line is that if you create more moisture than the property can naturally expel then it will stay inside the property risking condensation, etc.


Some properties, often older ones, have good natural ventilation. Many new properties have built in mechanical extraction to help ventilation. But many properties have been 'sealed' with double glazing and draft exclusion, etc, to keep heat in, in effect this reduces ventilation.


As for drying clothes in doors this is going to make condensation worse and it is unreasonable to expect the landlord to address this issue when it is something you can reasonably control. IMO either purchase a condensing tumble dryer or ensure windows are sufficiently vented when drying clothes.


You may also wish to check local council websites for their advice on this issue, many have detailed information on this subject.

dancingfairy

In a lot of cases I believe mould is caused by tenant lifestyle. Clearly not in all of them and there are various steps you can take (Which you've been taking by the sounds of it).
You have various options open to you:
1) ignore it/put up with it.
2) complain to environmental health
3) move out.
4) Generally there are provisions for getting repairs done but the onus would be on you to prove they were essential. Shelter may be able to provide further guidance on this.
I think the easiest/best solution is to move if you can. Clearly your landlord can't/won't fix the problem and the relationship is deteriorating
df