Black mould in a rental - what are my right?

dimbo61

If you can get this as far as court you would need to prove that the fault and cause of the damp/mould lies with the guttering and roof of the building and not your lifestyle.
Why did you not move last year after the first 12 months ? 
Why sign another 12 months tenancy agreement ?
Why not spend your energies looking for a new home rather than trying to get compensation for your old clothes and time spent away from the property.
If you reported the damp and mould to the council as soon as this first happened you might have a better case.

ProDave

lookstraightahead said:

I would move and then work backwards for any compensation etc. You shouldn't have to live this way and a thoroughly wet wall and ceiling (?) will not be down to drying a few items of clothing.

Why people say that goodness only knows. A little damp yes if you don't air, but not complete whole walls, unless you have 270 sets of clothes to dry.

We used to own a flat that we let.  We had it for about 7 yeas and never had any trouble with damp or mould.

Until one tenant moved in and complained the first winter that the walls were running with water.  Upon inspection they were. BUT also the bathroom fan had been turned off and sealed up (that's when I learned in a rental not to have a fan isolator switch) all the heating was off and the place was cold and in every room wet washing was hanging on various clothes horses.

The tenant left soon after and after drying and re decorating the flat, no other tenant after had any problems with damp or mould.

HarryGray

dimbo61 said:

If you can get this as far as court you would need to prove that the fault and cause of the damp/mould lies with the guttering and roof of the building and not your lifestyle.
Why did you not move last year after the first 12 months ? 
Why sign another 12 months tenancy agreement ?
Why not spend your energies looking for a new home rather than trying to get compensation for your old clothes and time spent away from the property.
If you reported the damp and mould to the council as soon as this first happened you might have a better case.

Thanks for this. The agent came round and said its a draining problem on the roof, but we've been trying to get a damp specialist around the house for 3 months now and they haven't organised it. It was a two year contract. If we break the contract its more money down the drain. You might as well not offer advice because its pretty terrible 

HarryGray

Really appreciate the replies on this however i would really like some advice other than the above poster offering no advice apart from ‘move out’... 

We tried organising a damp specialist through our agent for 3 months and they were unresponsive. They told us on 12th March that the damp specialist attended the property. Now they are saying they haven’t attended. The damp is no longer an issue but compensation is quite an issue. 

Would really appreciate some actual advice or would other people just leave it? How can you prove something isn’t your fault when the agent has refused to get someone to look at the flat, and lied to us saying they had attended?

[Deleted User]

Mickey666 said:

OK, let's recap.  You say the damp is no longer an issue, why is that?  Did someone find the alleged roof problem and actually fix it?  If you want to pursue compensation then the first step must be to get the facts straight and verifiable, eg by written confirmation from the agent or whoever investigated and fixed the problem . . . if there actually was a problem.  Without that I can't see how you could sensibly start a compensation claim.

I think it's dead in the water because he also has to establish that the particular problem was linked to his detriment. There has been no professional assessment as to whether the property was unfit for habitation. How do we assess the monetary loss regarding the clothes with perhaps no receipts and the items discarded. The three weeks away from the property _ what evidence that this was necessary?
Harry - take legal advice. 10 minutes on the phone should probably clarify matters.

[Deleted User]

@HarryGray Looking through your posting history shows that this is not the first time you have encountered repairing issues with rental properties and numerous times in the past you were directed towards G_M's Repairing Obligations thread but for some reason seem interested in is compensation rather than following the correct procedure to get a repair carried out.  Step 1 write to the landlord at the address for the serving of notices given in your tenancy agreement and then escalate to EH if the landlord fails to fix the issue.  Instead you seem to have farted around for 18 months and then asked for a damp specialist to come out.  

If you think you have a case against your landlord send your landlord a letter before action and if your landlord disagrees that he owed you any money simply submit a money claim online.
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Next time you encounter a repair issue with a rental property please, please follow the correct procedure.

HarryGray

Thanks for the advice again. I did follow the procedures I was told to follow. My point is, my LL and agent are aware of the problem, they organised a damp specialist to see the house and now they are telling me they didn’t see the house. The procedures I was told to follow didn’t resolve a thing.

How am I meant to handle a lying estate agent? Is there a formal process for that lol?

The damp has resolved itself because it’s hot again, it only comes about in cold weather because of roofing problems, however, we CANNOT PROVE IT BECAUSE THE AGENT LIED ABOUT GETTING A DAMP SPECIALIST OVER AND NOW HAS DELAYED IT UNTIL SPRING SO THE WORST OF THE MOULD WOULD GO AWAY DUE TO WEATHER.

Very frustrating to keep being told on this thread that this is somehow my fault. ‘Farted’ around for 18 months lol, I followed the advice given and it’s ended up getting me nowhere apart from losing money. And now I’m being told just leave it, great!

[Deleted User]

HarryGray said:

Thanks for the advice again. I did follow the procedures I was told to follow. My point is, my LL and agent are aware of the problem, they organised a damp specialist to see the house and now they are telling me they didn’t see the house. The procedures I was told to follow didn’t resolve a thing.

How am I meant to handle a lying estate agent? Is there a formal process for that lol?

The damp has resolved itself because it’s hot again, it only comes about in cold weather because of roofing problems, however, we CANNOT PROVE IT BECAUSE THE AGENT LIED ABOUT GETTING A DAMP SPECIALIST OVER AND NOW HAS DELAYED IT UNTIL SPRING SO THE WORST OF THE MOULD WOULD GO AWAY DUE TO WEATHER.

Very frustrating to keep being told on this thread that this is somehow my fault. ‘Farted’ around for 18 months lol, I followed the advice given and it’s ended up getting me nowhere apart from losing money. And now I’m being told just leave it, great!

So the advice you have been given is to provide evidence to support your case. You appear to admit that you don't have proof. There is not another way to win at court. It's kinder to tell you that it's a dead duck.

[Deleted User]

HarryGray said:

Thanks for the advice again. I did follow the procedures I was told to follow. My point is, my LL and agent are aware of the problem, they organised a damp specialist to see the house and now they are telling me they didn’t see the house. The procedures I was told to follow didn’t resolve a thing.

How am I meant to handle a lying estate agent? Is there a formal process for that lol?

The damp has resolved itself because it’s hot again, it only comes about in cold weather because of roofing problems, however, we CANNOT PROVE IT BECAUSE THE AGENT LIED ABOUT GETTING A DAMP SPECIALIST OVER AND NOW HAS DELAYED IT UNTIL SPRING SO THE WORST OF THE MOULD WOULD GO AWAY DUE TO WEATHER.

Very frustrating to keep being told on this thread that this is somehow my fault. ‘Farted’ around for 18 months lol, I followed the advice given and it’s ended up getting me nowhere apart from losing money. And now I’m being told just leave it, great!

The formal process, as per your other threads from back in 2018, involves escalating the matter to EH when the landlord fails to respond with a reasonable timescale.  Instead you waited 18 months to involve EH, not that they can do much during the lockdown, and signed a new fixed term contract. Lol.

I don't quite understand why the roofing issue only causes problems in cold weather.  I don't know which part of the UK you're in but I know where I used to live it still rained quite a lot during the warmer months too.  Hopefully EH will help get to the bottom of it once they are able to come out and investigate.

HarryGray

brett19852010 said:

HarryGray said:

Thanks for the advice again. I did follow the procedures I was told to follow. My point is, my LL and agent are aware of the problem, they organised a damp specialist to see the house and now they are telling me they didn’t see the house. The procedures I was told to follow didn’t resolve a thing.

How am I meant to handle a lying estate agent? Is there a formal process for that lol?

The damp has resolved itself because it’s hot again, it only comes about in cold weather because of roofing problems, however, we CANNOT PROVE IT BECAUSE THE AGENT LIED ABOUT GETTING A DAMP SPECIALIST OVER AND NOW HAS DELAYED IT UNTIL SPRING SO THE WORST OF THE MOULD WOULD GO AWAY DUE TO WEATHER.

Very frustrating to keep being told on this thread that this is somehow my fault. ‘Farted’ around for 18 months lol, I followed the advice given and it’s ended up getting me nowhere apart from losing money. And now I’m being told just leave it, great!

So the advice you have been given is to provide evidence to support your case. You appear to admit that you don't have proof. There is not another way to win at court. It's kinder to tell you that it's a dead duck.

Yea you've missed my point again. Thx anyway