Stingy landlord?

What, poo caused the blockage?

Do you eat only cement?

I don't doubt that there was a blockage of poo, but I do doubt that the poo caused it, poo is meant to go down toilets!

As for the hair, that shouldn't be there, you should clean the trap often BUT.. can you clean the trap. I once lived in a property where they'd made it impossible to get at. You had to lift the cover over the shower drain and someone had sealed/glued it on... As proven when the plumber rather condescendly tried to show me how to take it off (in all the ways I had already tried) and ended up breaking it off with a screwdriver, revealing the gluey mess of old sealant inside...

Anyway, the landlord hired the plumber, landlord thus pays the plumber. Landlord needs to provide actual proof you caused the damage, not simply 'plumber says poo caused the blockage'... however he can also evict you if he follows the proper procedure... and if you don't pay, probably will... so I'd start looking for somewhere less awful to live.

And report him to the local authority for the mould and lack of proper heating whilst you're at it.

OP have you recently started to live independently? The shower and toilet ate common sense to be honest, it will start to cost you a significant amount if you don't learn basic maintenance within a home such as cleaning properly.

The mold you will be making worse with washing up liquid. Mold isn't what people think it to be, it's alive, it spreads through air and disturbing it but not killing it will move it to new areas. The way to kill it is via either vinegar or a proprietary mold remover rproduct. Vinegar really works, use plenty of it over all of tbe mold. Leave it on and then redo it a few times I would. Then once its dead you can clean it all away. Get rid of anything you have wiped it with. Once the wall looks clean 100% I would resoak it in vinegar again. And then done. Make sure you treat anywhere that it is found, even if a small amount.

You do need proper heat though.

Another authoritative emoji. They get better.
And another post not reading legislation correctly.
contact rentokil and shelter.
And with that I am out.

You can’t “start on that post” because you know it is correct.

OP, contacting Shelter is not bad advice but they are overwhelmed at the moment so it is unlikely they will be able to help you as they are prioritising people facing homelessness. It is worth reading their advice on mould and damp, heating etc, which reflects what I and other PPs have told you. Don’t waste your money on Rentokil 🙄

Ask the environmental health team to asses the property. If you only have 1 storage heater to heat the entire property and a bathroom with no window or heating, it is likely the landlord isn’t fulfilling the legal requirements for heating and likely that the lack of appropriate ventilation in the bathroom is contributing to the mould issues. It’s free and if the mould is purely down to lifestyle (ie your fault), they will give you advice, if it is down to the property not having adequate heating or ventilation, they will make the landlord do the work. Ditto if the landlord is in breach of laws about providing adequate heating (even if it isn’t a contributing factor to the mould).

There you go again. An emoji. Instant authority.
I would not want to start on that post.
OP. Seek advice. Rentokil. Shelter. Seek advice.

I'm sure if they'd only been there a few weeks this would be mentioned. But she says they've always opened the window etc. This implies they've been there a while.

Not irrelevant at all. If she moved in two weeks ago and the shower has been blocked and slow draining the whole time then it is probably a pre-existing issue. Ideally the LL should have checked that sort of thing before taking new tenants. But if she's lived there for 2 years and there has only been an issue on the last couple of weeks then the hair/poo/loo roll or whatever else is causing a blockage is the OP's.

No, not really. If there is a blockage rather than a leak then it will be pretty obvious because the water won't be draining away quickly enough from the shower tray. The water will be spilling over the edge, pooling on the bathroom floor and eventually over time will be finding cracks in the flooring and making the joists and the ceiling below it damp.

Whereas a leak in the pipework will not be under the shower tray and not evident from the surface at all.

The landlord has a legal responsibility to provide adequate heating and maintain the structure of the building. If a property doesn’t have the legally required appropriate heating so the tenant can adequately heat the property to prevent mould, the mould is the landlord’s responsibility. If there are structural issues contributing to high levels of humidity in the house causing mould, that is also the landlord’s responsibility eg no damp course, leaky pipes or drainpipes, no trickle vents, bathrooms or kitchens without opening windows, vents or extractor fans.

OP has said there is only 1 storage heater and the bathroom has no window or heating. It is likely the landlord would be held responsible for the mould. You can’t hold a tenant responsible for not heating or ventilating a property adequately if the property doesn’t have the facilities to do that!

Comnents like “if there is black mould in a property it is lifestyle. NO EXCEPTIONS.” make you look silly, not me 🙄

OP just get environmental health to inspect the property. They will tell the landlord what needs to be done to prevent the mould issues and provide adequate heating. If the landlord won’t make the improvements, the council will do the work and charge the landlord.

I can thoroughly recommend the Luigi's Toilet plunger from Amazon by the way. It's absolutely brilliant for those times when the loo just won't flush properly and keeps filling up the bowl with water every time you try. Really clean, unmessy and easy to use, and extremely efficient. I wish I'd discovered it years ago.

It certainly beats fiddling around with an old school rubber plunger or an unravelled metal coat hanger. (boak)

It's a myth about airing the house especially on a chilly day. I spoke to mold specialist who said the air condenses on the walls and that causes condensation which turns to mold.

The solution is to keep the windows closed and keep the temperature inside the house constant and around 16-20 degrees.

So relieved somebody suggested a plunger. But not until page 4! You need one of these OP. And get a couple of Mr Muscle drain unblockers for the cupboard.

My own toilet's only ever blocked once, after a man took a big shit in it and just closed the lid and left it there and hoped I wouldn't notice I've never blocked a toilet as an adult because I flush a big poo away by itself, toilet paper gets its own flush.

I would contact the council about the mould. They'll send environmental health, who will tell you the cause of the mould and what responsibility your landlord has towards rectifying it.

I don't think you have quite grasped that you will only get rid of mould if you actually heat the house.

Breathing, cooking, showering, boiling kettles, drying washing all generate water, which will condense on your cold walls and cause mould.

You need a dehumidifier in each room, and you also need to heat the rooms. I don't know the law, but I can't quite believe a house rented out with no heating is okay in 2024.

Your landlord should provide central heating or enough electric heaters to do a proper job of heating the whole house. If he won't, then buy the oil filled radiators mentioned, and take then with you when you move.

Mould needs more than washing up liquid to kill it, get a mould cleaner.
And heat the house properly, and we are due a cold snap, so get to an electrical shop tomorrow for the radiator and dehumidifier

I don’t think the LL is BU in asking you to pay. You’ve not been cleaning the shower AND let it overflow to the point it caused damage downstairs, and you blocked the toilet. Being a tenant does not absolve you of the responsibility to do basic cleaning and care.

Whilst other posters have quoted some legislation they have not quoted legislation in their entirety and therefore incompletely.
I would suggest that anyone who is in any doubt should look at the causes of black mould and act accordingly.
To clarify. There could be a leak in the property (landlord’s responsibility) but if there is black mould- even on that damp patch - it is the tenants responsibility.
fyi. Placing a laughter emoji in your answer does not make it any more accurate. It simply makes you look silly.

Other PPs have already quoted the law to you. Damp and mould can be caused by both structural and lifestyle issues.

No one can know what the issue is for sure without inspecting the property. On the balance of probabilities, based on what OP has told us, 1 storage heater for the entire property is unlikely to meet the legal requirement for the landlord to provide an adequate heat source for each room. The bathroom has no window and no heating. If the bathroom doesn’t have adequate ventilation for the tenant to be able to ventilate it (eg a powerful enough extraction fan) and no heating, that is the landlord’s responsibility.

OP I suggest you ask environmental health to inspect the property.

Hi OP.

None of those things would have helped, you needed to plunge the toilet to dislodge the blockage. If the toilet flush is poor , fill a mop bucket to flush daily, the force of the water will
ensure the waste is flushed away.

Also for your drains including your shower drain, buy some drain drain in locker leave over night once a month, I use a bottle for every drain we have, the shower drain I have a hair wire brush that I unclog weekly with.

Personally the property sounds more of a hindrance, I’d be looking to move asap.

our last rental had two storage heaters that didn’t work, the landlord just left convector heaters for every room.

massive trip hazards and £300 a month in heating (would be £600-800 now I’d imagine).

That’s not accurate . Legally a landlord needs to provide heating for every habitatal room, but this doesn’t mean the heat source needs to be in the room. Simply the heat sources in the property must be capable of heating the habitual rooms. Itrelvant of where they are located. The tenant also has a legal obligation to heat the property and not let it fall below certain temperatures.

the storage heater is in the living room so likely something is required for the bedrooms.

however I’m not sure the op would use them if provided, due to cost. Leaving windows open can reduce mould but as the property is not heated it likely will make it worse as it will get damp and colder.

op, it must be miserable in there, I can’t imagine how awful it must be in a unheated property with the windows open in this weather. If the property remains unheated the mould will continue to get worse. And it is very bad for your health to be breathing that in.

the mould isn’t going to go, no matter how much you clean it, because the damp is there causing it. The property needs to be dried out and heated.

Your feeding the mould this way not getting rid of it. Mould likes damp all you are doing is spreading spores further.

Buy a mould spray and treat it properly.

You are talking nonsense and should not be giving “advice”. The op needs to speak to Shelter or a damp specialist.

When did you last empty the shower drain of hair for it to be so bad that it blocked and flooded?
This is your issue not the landlord's
Will the building insurance even cover the damage if it's down to your negligence? I'm not sure.

If your pop and your hair caused the blockage, it’s fair for you to pay. Expecting that is not the landlord being stingy.

The mould is the landlord’s responsibility if it’s coming from outside.

Washing up liquid won't have any effect. Use white vinegar or proper mould removal

So you blocked both therefore you pay