Black mould landlords responsible?

sevenhills

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/property/tragic-toddler-death-comes-amid-dramatic-increase-in-cases-of-mould-ombudsman-338898/

Black mould is a problem for many people and sometimes caused by poor ventilation and sometimes by water ingress. Not much detail in the article above. I had a few black mould patches in my bathroom, but it cleared up in the summer.
The death of this young boy will put the responsibility on landlords to sort out the problem. The family probably had no experience in dealing with mould, as they are new to this country.

youth_leader

Such a tragedy, poor little soul. 

theartfullodger

Tragedy:. A wake up call to landlords (all varieties), owner-occupiers, tenants.

Poor lad & family.

simon_or

There's plenty of detail out there, look at the MEN news articles about it if you wish to.

It's essentially a story of helplessness and powerlessness against bureaucracy. The coroner concluded that the HA should have carried out repairs on the property between July-Dec 2020 when it was repeatedly made aware of the problem, both by the parents and the NHS professional dealing with the child.

The coroner also found that the ventilation in the property was not effective and concluded that there was no evidence that the ways of living by the family were in any way excessive.

A number of the HA workers dealing with the case assumed (without evidence) that it was to do with how the family lived, even (again without even asking the family or looking at the evidence) that the family took wet floor baths when they actually showered.

It's tragic, and hopefully the social housing regulation bill going through parliament will bring better standards for housing in the sector.

elsien

Surely the onus is only on the landlord if they are at fault.
While this is a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened, if the cause of the mould is nothing to do with the fabric of the building or maintenance, but due to condensation buildup from the tenants drying washing indoors or running showers for hours, not heating adequately,  or any of the other myriad lifestyle causes, do they not need to take some responsibility for themselves? 

simon_or

elsien said:

Surely the onus is only on the landlord if they are at fault.
While this is a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened, if the cause of the mould is nothing to do with the fabric of the building or maintenance, but due to condensation buildup from the tenants drying washing indoors or running showers for hours, not heating adequately,  or any of the other myriad lifestyle causes, do they not need to take some responsibility for themselves? 

In this case, it was the HA's fault.

Surely if that wasn't the case, the coroner wouldn't have concluded that the HA should have carried out repairs on the property when it knew about the mould?

Or that the most likely cause of damp and moisture in 2020 was more likely than not due to normal daily living activities or leaks from other properties.

Or that there is no evidence that the ways of living by the family were in any way excessive.

And also found 'as a matter of fact' that the ventilation in the bathroom wasn't effective, there was a lack of ventilation in the kitchen and an overall lack of an effective ventilation system in the property.

elsien

I’m fully aware that in this case the landlord/HA was responsible. I was querying the implication in the OP that  it’s always going to be the landlord’s fault.

sevenhills

elsien said:

I’m fully aware that in this case the landlord/HA was responsible. I was querying the implication in the OP that  it’s always going to be the landlord’s fault.

The maybe detail of this case if you look into it closely, but an ordinary reader of the news will come to the conclusion that the landlord is 100% at fault.
We have had a dry summer, did this tragedy happen in the winter?

macman

If this was in a purpose built block of flats, and the mould was as a result of some structural problem, then would it not be the case that every flat in the block would have the same issue to some degree? Do they?
While it's true that failure to ventilate a flat adequately can often be down to the tenant, the extent of the mould visible in those pics indicates something much more serious than just a lack of ventilation. The HA should be held to account, and Gove has already stated that the CEO should not remain in post. 

ProDave

This hides a BIG problem with much of the UK's housing stock being utter outdated rubbish.

Was this the ONLY property of this type suffering mould?  Or was it the tenants lifestyle, lack of using the heating, lack of ventilating the property etc?

I have first had experience of a former tenant of mine having huge problems with damp, it was their lifestyle, no tenant before or after had any issues with that property.

If the landlord is held to blame yet other identical properties don't have an issue, just what is the landlord supposed to do?

sevenhills

ProDave said:

Was this the ONLY property of this type suffering mould?  Or was it the tenants lifestyle, lack of using the heating, lack of ventilating the property etc?

If the landlord is held to blame yet other identical properties don't have an issue, just what is the landlord supposed to do?

A house can get water ingress at anytime, just affecting that one house and not the others.
So it may or may not be a matter for the landlord, but it seems it should be for the landlord to check out the building and educate the tenant if necessary.