to think it's perfectly normal that tenants would need to dry their clothes somehow, either indoors or outdoors?

[Owllady]

I have realised on 're reading my new lease that there is a clause that says I am not allowed to hang a line outside to dry my clothes. I am not allowed to use a clothes airer and drying clothes on the radiators is not permitted.
So
Without a tumble dryer, what are you supposed to do? No laundrette within 13 miles

Fwiw, I have put up a line anyway, years ago without complaint and I also use a clothes airer and I hang stuff to warm through on the radiators if necessary ffs

Get a heated rail off ebay.Best 35 quid Ive ever spent.

YANBU at all. Our flat is insanely damp, mould everywhere - on the ceilings, walls etc. The landlord said it was because we dry our washing inside. Given we have no tumble drier or garden, where on earth did he think we were going to dry them?

I had a damp problem in my flat which I could see was from the chimney as it originated in a quarter of the chimney breast (4 storey house conversion). I asked the landlord to check the chimney, after all there had been storms. He printed out a pile of a4 all about the bad and naughty things tenants do that cause damp, which included clothes drying. It listed, I am not kidding, it listed breathing as an illegal and bad cause of damp. Tenants really shouldn't breathe indoors, it's very inconsiderate to the landlord, we're not paying to have somewhere to breathe!

Anyway, it was the chimney. One of the vacant basement flats had a foot of water in it because the chimney was broken at the top and it was seeping up. Not that he either apologised or paid for a replacement sofa after it got completely infested with mould even though I alternated open windows and a dehumidifier.

YANBU at all, if landlords don't think a property is suitable for living in - and drying clothes is part of living - they shouldn't be renting it out. Absolutely ridiculous to say you can't have a line. Even providing a tumble dryer and forcing you to use it would be unreasonable.

ladyvetinari, I'll answer the question about the mat - it is in the corridor but we are at the back of the building on the top floor so no one ever walks past it, iyswim. It's not a hazard to anyone (except possibly dp coming home pissed...), it's just another bloody stupid rule.

I have considered complaining about the manky old Xmas tree that gets dragged out every year into the lobby; am sure it could squash a small child or a miserable elderly resident...or cause a small electrical fire...

I think yadbu. I think you have forgotten that you are not a person with the right to live your life the way yoy choose. You are an animated part of the workforce, you need to work 13hrs a day, pay your taxes to the state, buy lots of things you dont really need (like tumble dryers as an example) and then go into your box with windows until you are next needed.
Sheesh, fancy thinking that renting space means you can use it to live in.

I understand a LL could get arsey if you dont stick to 'the rules' but those who own their property and have these covenents...so who is going to enforce them ?

I mean the police would love it if No 10 got arsey and reported you for the heinous crime of drying your drawers ?

I have nothing saying that I can't dry clothes indoors.

Treated like an adult, I act like one, and dry clothes indoors as little as possible, have adequete heating, ventilate a lot, don't dry in rooms where it creates the most condensation problem, and have a de humidifier.

I still have some black mould ( not to mention rising damp),but so do many people I know who are home owners.

None of us want to live with black mould -and it's the tenants who take the health risks, so I think it's up to the LL to put all the reasonable measures in place that they can to offer a means of wadhing and drying clothes without damage to the tenants health, or their property.

I got a letter from letting agents saying that I was not allowed to use a clothes horse that can be seen from outside the flat....ignored

Oldraver - I put an airer outside in a glorious day and got a phone call from my management company within an hour. Damn neighbours

Is it a block of flats? In which case it's probably not an unreasonable clause, to stop the block becoming festooned in washing which I guess might make it less attractive for sales and lettings. But any sensible landlord or letting agent would have told you this when they were showing you the flat, and made you aware that you would need to budget on buying a tumble dryer.

I manage 19 flats and houses and it is a nightmare when tenants dry all their washing inside, it ruins the house and then they accuse me of letting them a damp house! So, far better to stick a line up outside if you don't have a tumble dryer. As others have said, there are all sorts of irrelevant clauses in standard leases, designed to cover every eventuality in every sort of property. If no one's complained, you're fine.

Mine is a ground floor with garden, block of 3 so not sort of likely to be festooned in washing! Nowhere for a tumble dryer
I now use a heated airer and sneak the other one outside when the neighbours are out

YANBU at all. Me and DH once rented a flat in a very posh area where there was a rule that you couldn't dry washing outside because it made the area look less posh.
We were allowed to dry it indoors though and our LL was lovely, it was some stupid rule of the entire area and people actually gave a shit when someone dared hang their washing out.

It's a house with a garden
And you will all stone me now...
I do have a tumble dryer but that really isn't the point!
If you cannot afford a tumble dryer (or afford to run one) what are you supposed to do?

The humble dryer has to sit on top of the washing machine in an enclosed cupboard btw. The Ritz it is not

if it's a house with a garden then it's just silly! ignore.

I agree with toots. I am fairly confident that no-one would be that bothered by hanging washing that they would go as far as complaining about it or try to get a tenant evicted for such an offence, that if I was that tenant, I would hang my washing out as I saw fit.

And if someone tried to evict me, I would have my day in court and argue that preventing a normal household task was unreasonable and unfair, using the Unfair Terms and Conditions Regulations as my legal basis.

The thing is OP if you had a non-vented, non-condensor tumble dryer it would still put dampness into the air, so your LL would be better off allowing you to dry outside

Also what about the stuff that can't be tumble dried?

I hang it on the line or clothes airer then either dry through on the radiators or pop in the tumble dryer for a bit
Which is a condenser so I leave the door open to the mouldy cupboard with the leaking roof and it heats up the hall

I just want to tell them to do one tbh, but I don't have that luxury so I have moaned here :)

Blooming heck, I'd be worried about damp and also respiratory infections if I was regularly running a non-vented, non-condensing tumble dryer! At the very least I'd get a dehumidifier for use on tumble-drying days if I were in your position.

In general, though, I don't disagree with you. I think all rental properties should come with a user-operated extractor fan and a ceiling-mounted drying rack in the kitchen (which is generally a humidity-resistant room), or in the bathroom if there's only a kitchenette. I also think that landlords should have to provide a line if there's outdoor space, and an energy efficient spin-dryer or washer-dryer if the property is furnished/part-furnished. It would be good for tenants, and it would spare landlords from dealing with damp.

Just saw your update - a condensing dryer is fine! That's what I have and the minor increase in electricity costs is far outweighed by the improvement in air quality and living space.

I have that in my contract too. Weird, as there is a very handy clothes line in the garden.

According to my contract, I also can't sing, play a radio, watch a television, or invite visitors round, in my own home.

Nor am I allowed to keep pigeons.

I have ignored all of these, except the pigeons :lol:

:Jack Duckworth: :)

I live in a development of houses and flats and was a director of the management company. The entire area was leasehold and the document stated that no washing should be visible from outside the property. But this only applied to flats. Houses apparently could dry the washing as they wished. We had a few years when one harridan would patrol the gardens searching for visible washing, which in some flats could basically mean pretty much any washing anywhere if the curtains were open.

The maipn issue we had was that landlords would not communicate to tenants what the rules actually were, which was very frustrating.

In theory we had the power to take people to court for breaking rules like this and they could be forced to forfeit their lease. We didn't do it for washing, but we put the process in motion over another issue, but the landlord did a runner to Spain and the mortgage company repossessed it first.

All the traditional tenement flats in my area have drying greens with lines. All the new builds have grassy areas but no lines

Given the impact of drying clothes indoors, plus rising energy costs, I think it should be mandatory for new developments to have available outside drying space where possible.