Landlady blaming us for mould...

DanceOrDino

Hi everyone,

I hope I'm ok to post this here?

We've just completed on our first ever house and we've been living there for a couple of weeks now.

However, our previous Landlady is now being unreasonable and wanting to withhold our deposit. We rented through an Estate Agents who have said that we 'left rubbish in the flat'. We left a broken hoover in the hallway for our upstairs neighbour to repair as he said he'd like to do it. NOT inside our previous flat and clearly labelled for him. Our LL has moved it back inside the flat and complained that we've left rubbish there and wants us to move it back out.

Anyway, I digress... After moving the hoover again, she has now complained again about mould in the flat. The flat is a large, very high ceiling-ed old building. I mean very very old. It faces the sea and is quite exposed. It's single glazing and cost us a bomb to heat due to the high ceilings and poorly closing balcony doors in the bedroom. We still adored the flat and loved living there though. There had always been a damp/mould problem in the flat, and the neighbours above us suffer too (so surely a structural problem and therefore not our responsibility?) - it's a listed building so I imagine there would be all sorts of hoops to jump through to fix the many flats in there.

Anyway, this damp and mould problem was pointed out to us when we viewed the property. We knew about it, but it was in an ideal location and the views are just stunning, and it's next to the beach. So we went for it!

Now we've moved out our Landlady want's us to pay to clean the mould on the bedroom ceiling. This dumbfounds me as there's black mould crawling all over the walls in the living room, yet she's bothered about mould that hasn't changed on the ceiling in a different room. We've got photo proof it's not changed. We've also got numerous emails to the estate agents complaining about the damp - we were told 'It's an old building so it's just to be expected - open a window'. We've spent money on dehumidifiers and new furniture that's been ruined. We've also got emails complaining that the windows were painted shut last spring so we couldn't open them to vent the property. All this time, we were told no to a tumble dryer when we have no outside space to dry the clothes - just a small balcony, and there are no opening windows or extractor fans in the bathroom.

Long story short, I fail to see how she can expect us to have the ceiling professionally cleaned? Our Estate Agent contact told us to sponge it with soap and water - an easy task if the ceilings were physically reachable.

Any words of advice? Sorry for the long post! Thanks!

fishpond

Did you try, using steps or even a cloth on an extendable pole?

DanceOrDino

We've bought a ladder, but our car is too small to get it there. We have got steps and we have got mops and things we could try and use, but I don't want to make it any worse. Especially as that's the only bit of mould in the entire flat that hasn't worsened. We were advised before not to touch it by the Estate Agents, but now they seem happy for us to sponge it, which I don't think is our issue to deal with.

When we moved in, there were white paint marks around the edge of the ceiling, as if she'd started painted, but hadn't finished. OR she could have wiped the mould already there. Comparing photos it's exactly the same, and no new mould anywhere up there.

Guest101

Just go to the ADR service and request full deposit return, let them deal with it

G_M

Gather your evidence. Get a statement from the neighbour, and dispute the claim.

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

DanceOrDino

Hi Guest101,

That's our next step. Once the Estate Agents have passed on our comments/refusal we'll see what she says.

I forgot to mention she also entered the flat on a couple of occassions without written notice - so in breach of contract. Quite happy to dig it all up to be rid of her!

Pixie5740

The time to deal with her entering the property without notice was during your tenancy. Just focus on the deposit now rather than entering into a bun fight about this, that and the other. Use the deposit scheme it's why they were introduced. When submitting your evidence to the scheme stick to the relevant facts, don't go mud slinging.

DanceOrDino

We attempted to deal with it during the tenancy, but our middle man - the Estate Agents weren't interested. I've not bought up anything I don't need to, I'm just saying we've got plenty in our artillery if she decides to be nasty about it. We've provided her with evidence of the mould from day one, as well as copies of complaints etc etc. So we'll sort it with the deposit scheme if her answer isn't what we want.

FBaby

Evidence that you raised the issue of the mould doesn't mean that it was hers to deal with though. What matters is 1/ whether the mould was there when you moved in, pictures are showing this to be the case, the inventory is referring to it, and check out pictures will not show a significant deterioration, and that 2/ the landlord cannot evidence that it was most likely exacerbated by your lifestyle choices.

Are the painted shut windows in the bedroom? If so, that is definitely going to go in your favour.

DanceOrDino

FBaby, The mould has been there way before we moved in. We took pictures of everything because of the condition, and we've taken pictures on leaving the flat too.

Windows were only painted shut in the living room (4 weeks to get them fixed for us!) - we only have huge balcony doors for windows in the bedroom. We opened them as much as we could but it obviously made the room much colder than just cracking a window! That being said, the balcony was repaired but theres a gaping hole in it that was never fixed, so we couldn't open the doors properly for last 9 months anyway. Something we raised and have proof of.

We've got countless emails of us asking for the damp to be looked at and we've only ever been told to buy a dehumidifier or crack a window. So we've done all we could from our end to alleviate the damp.

I can only assume she knows is structural as whilst doing a leaving inspection said 'I'll redo those walls, the damp has ruined them all'. She didn't mention the bedroom ceiling which now seems to be the only bit shes bothered about! We'll just have to wait and see what she says.

Pixie5740

DanceOrDino wrote: »

We attempted to deal with it during the tenancy, but our middle man - the Estate Agents weren't interested. I've not bought up anything I don't need to, I'm just saying we've got plenty in our artillery if she decides to be nasty about it. We've provided her with evidence of the mould from day one, as well as copies of complaints etc etc. So we'll sort it with the deposit scheme if her answer isn't what we want.

The letting agent was never your middle man. The letting agent works for the landlord, you have no contract with the letting agent.

Disputing deductions is about what can be proved in relation to what the deductions are being made for, not whatever it is you think you have in your artillery that has absolutely nothing to do with the deductions.