[Politics] Whose responsibility should it mainly be to keep a flat clear of mould - landlord or tenant?

[B-right-on]

I used to work for a lettings agency in Portslade and would regularly run into mould issues. Sometimes it is a building issue, but in my experience, it was a lot to do with the tenants.

Especially in flats where there's no outside space to hang washing, they'd stick things on the rads to dry without opening windows and it'd cause a lot of moisture in the air. Mould often happens where there's condensation caused by warm air meeting cold surfaces, causing mould.

Especially in bedrooms where a couple will exhale a pint of water during the night.

One woman refused to open the windows because it was cold, yet had 3 kids with their wet clothes drying on radiators. But constantly complained about the mould, in the end I made a 'passive vent' which fixed it (bloody great 6" hole drilled thru the wall with plastic vents on either side).

 

[Justice]

Nuaire Flatmaster 2000 Heat Positive Input Ventilation System

This heated PIV system provides a whole home ventilation solution for homes without lofts, including basements, cellars and flats.

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A PIV system is the way to go, I recently installed these on a job

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

The answer, like to most things, is common sense. But common sense relies on a grey area, and as with many things these days people don't like to have grey areas, everything has to be black and white.

 

[mikeyjh]

Its both responsibilty. Mould caused by damp or structural issues is the landlords responsibility to sort, but the tennant has a responsibilty to maintain the property by keeping it well aired, reporting problems ASAP.

Some people dont help themselves though, I once had an employee who although always clean and well groomed , had a slight damp mouldy smell. After several chats we figured the problem to the practice he had of doing the washing drying it in the flat, on airers, over radiators etc , no windows open, and putting it away slighty damp.he had a mould problem that was entirley of his making as he never aired the flat out and constantly had wet washing all over the place

Our house doesnt suffer from damp, but does the double glazing is old and as soon as heating is on there is condensation. This can in turn cause mould-which is easily trated with a damp cloth cleaning it off the wall every couple weeks .

It's a minefield! And our agents generally give the tenants loads of advice on how to air the place etc without first making sure that there isn't a more sinister problem. We once had a couple complaining of really bad mould and yes they had all the usual problems, drying clothes on radiators, taping up vents, furniture everywhere but then we also (eventually) found there was a hole in the roof.......

Nuaire Flatmaster 2000 Heat Positive Input Ventilation System

This heated PIV system provides a whole home ventilation solution for homes without lofts, including basements, cellars and flats.

www.permagard.co.uk

A PIV system is the way to go, I recently installed these on a job

They definitely help, we've got them in all of our houses BUT you have to make sure that the tenant cannot turn them off, because they will.

 

[Baldseagull]

Nuaire Flatmaster 2000 Heat Positive Input Ventilation System

This heated PIV system provides a whole home ventilation solution for homes without lofts, including basements, cellars and flats.

www.permagard.co.uk

A PIV system is the way to go, I recently installed these on a job

These are good, been to a couple of flats where these were installed but tenant had switched it off though, they didn't like paying for the electric to run it.

 

[ElectricNaz]

It depends if the cause is structural (rising damp or leaking roof) in which case landlord, or lifestyle (drying washing on radiators with no ventilation, not keeping the place sufficiently heated) in which case tenant.

I disagree with it being "lifestyle" (at least in some cases - a lot of this stuff can absolutely be attributed to the landlord).

1. In the house we rented from 2012-2020, we weren't allowed to hang washing up outside in the front "garden" due to a restriction in the area (35 back to back terraced starter homes but all with sort of "shared" privately managed front garden space. So we had the clothes hanger indoors at all times
2. Didn't have a tumble dryer (fully furnished rental), and no space / ventilation capacity for one even if we wanted to buy one ourselves
3. Windows were single glazed, wooden with no vents. And due to the back to back terracing, windows only on one side of the house so no through flow anyway.
4. We had one storage heater in the house which ran out of stored heat at around 6pm every day in winter, even if windows were closed - so opening the windows for ventilation was absolutely NOT possible during basically late October - mid March.

Couldn't leave windows on a type of latch overnight either, as it was in a busy area and the 'latch' was the old metal hook type latches, (hook that just sits in a sort of holster thingy to stop window flying open in a breeze) easily openable from the outside when the windows open so not safe at all to leave open.

 

[albion534]

Depends what and how much, lots of flats have bad structural issues and need fixing, if a tenant isn’t keeping a window open, drying clothes inside etc, they’ll take part of the blame.
Judging by the article, I’d say it’s more down to the landlord.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Boomer opinion thread this one.

Landlords are already charging tenants an absolute for what are very often poorly insulated houses. Then they turn around and say, "yeh now we'll need you to turn the heating up, which you're paying for and keep the windows open because I don't want to pay for any remedial work"

I'm sure i'm going to get people piling in saying what responsible landlords they are. But I rented in Brighton for years, and my experience was that most couldn't care less about the tenants welfare and just treated them as totally disposable.

 

[stewart12]

i'm unconvinced that there isn't a better solution than keeping the windows open with the heating on whilst never drying your clothes inside in winter

 

[Diablo]

Both Landlord and tenant have responsibilities ! Heating turned up, Windows open is the best treatment. However also v expensive. The lack of windows in Bathrooms doesn`t help. Almost all modern houses have Bathrooms without windows. Hanging washing outside to dry helps. Not much good if you live in a flat with no outside space. So tenants in flat with no outside space and windowless bathrooms, maybe substandard or broken extractor fans, and struggling to pay bills will not open windows much to keep warm. Plastic windows and doors don`t help much as they totally seal. yes old houses get damp through old brick walls and rising damp but most horror stories are modern poorly ventilated buildings. Maybe the builders should be also partly responsible !!

 

[BBassic]

The people charging upwards of £1,000 for a one bedroom flat can probably afford the odd bit of mould treatment.

 

[Justice]

These are good, been to a couple of flats where these were installed but tenant had switched it off though, they didn't like paying for the electric to run it.

There are ways around that for arguments sake connect it to a humidity stat so the tenant has no control over it. Recent job I suggested a landlord sub meter which we did in the end it won’t cost that much to run it’s protecting the property without the tenant worrying about the electric consumption.

These are also excellent fans they drop down a speed for continuous running when the bathroom isn’t in use. One of these solved a horrific mould problem in the bathroom for one of my clients.

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