Wibu to ask for a reduction in rent so I can buy 'stuff' due to mould damage (sorry, long!)

[extremepie]

I'm fully prepared to accept I may BU, just thought I'd gather some opinions.

I live in a flat that was recently renovated after being left empty for 18 months. When I moved in the landlady told me that because it had been empty for so long and with all the wet weather we had over the winter it was likely we might have a lot of moisture in the walls etc so might expect some damp issues, but that as the weather warmed up and if we were good about keeping windows open, ventilation etc it should be fine.

We've been living here about 4 months now and the damp problem is pretty bad - in my bedroom there will be pools of water on the windowsill and floor from the condensation, which doesn't seem to improve much whether I keep the windows open or not. The only time it does improve is when I have the window open constantly which, being a ground floor flat, I can't really do!

There are areas of the hallway near the bathroom where there is horrible, furry black mould growing on the walls - this also grows on the wall in my bedroom, on the windowsill in the kitchen, the living room and the kids bedrooms. Ds's bedroom has a big built in cupboard thing in his room and it grows in there too. It grows on the wall behind the sofa and on the back of the sofa itself, it grows on my tv unit and the legs of my table and chairs. It has even grown on the underside of Ds's mattress! It is everywhere!

When the flat was being renovated the landlady said I could choose my own paint for the walls, so I did and painted virtually the whole flat myself. She also let me choose the colours of carpet so I could make it feel like my own (she is lovely :) ). However, since this mould is constantly growing on the walls I have had to scrub it and bleach it so many times that every single room I took considerable expense and time to paint has now got damaged paintwork and in some of the rooms the carpets have marks on from the mould which I cant seem to remove :(

I do feel like it may be partially my fault as I have a tumble dryer, but I have no way to vent it, where the cupboard is for the dryer there is no way to access a window to vent it with a tube, the radiators are electric so I cant dry anything on them and I have no outside space at all (garden, balcony etc) to dry things so I have to use a tumble dryer.

Wibu to ask if I could have a reduction in the rent temporarily to buy a condenser for my tumble dryer and buy new paint to repaint the walls? The only room which is pretty much unscathed by the mould is Ds2's room because I indadvertedly painted his room with bathroom paint (I liked the colour :D), which has an anti mould thing in it so despite his bedroom being right next to Ds's, his room has no mould and Ds2's does. Ideally I'd like to replace Ds's mattress too as I really don't want him sleeping on a mouldy mattress!

I know it isn't her fault about the mould but I'm just getting so fed up with it now, I've gone through bottles and bottles of anti mould sprays and cleaners, keep the windows open as much as I can but it still just grows back within a few weeks!

You need a condenser tumble drier as we have.

Agree these are excuses. If you have to catch a bus to dry your washing that's what you do, or you buy a condensor dryer, even if it means borrowing the money.

Your childrens health will be SEVERELY suffering due to this mould, I don't think you realise how dangerous it is! Catching a bus or buying a new dryer is surely worth it to protect your children.

Well lots of people have washing machines and tumble dryers in bathrooms, so it must be a danger worth overcoming. Can it be any worse than creating perfect conditions for asthma or lung disease?

Maybe you could use a laundrette if it really is impossible to adequately dry clothes in your home. Is it maybe time to think of a move? You sound as if you hate the place. In answer to your original question, I don't think the landlord giving you a rent reduction, even if they were willing, would solve your problem, because you will continue to cause a damp problem in this property by using the tumble dryer like this, and it will not make the property any bigger...

Its not just the catching a bus lez, I just don't physically have the time to trek all the way down to the laundrette every time I need to do a wash, between a full time college course and 2 dc's I'm only just about on top of things as it is. I couldn't take ds2 into a laundrette anyways, no way would he happily sit there and wait while I waited for the washing to dry :/

I will look into getting a condenser dryer but I'm really not convinced that there are NO other problems than the TD, especially given the steps I've already taken!

So far neither of the kids have been affected health wise, so I don't think there's any need to be all hysterical but obviously I don't want them to become ill!

OP, you carry on convincing yourself there's nothing more you can do if you want, but if you or or children develop serious medical conditions because of this, I'm pretty sure there will be a few if onlys.

This isn't going to go away until you stop pouring heated, moisture filled air into your home- no one on here is going to give you a miracle answer that includes continuing you use an unvented tumble dryer indoors.

Chelsy, maybe, but maybe those people dont have children with ASD :D I think since I have already forked out quite a bit for the 'stuff' in question I think that question is a bit moot now :)

In all honesty I'm not in love with the place, it has no garden and obviously the mould is an issue so I would prefer somewhere else but I can't afford anything in this area that is big enough bedroom wise - plus no ll's are keen to take HB these days and it took us months to find this place as it is. We are very close to the dc's school so moving further away when I have no transport would be a bit silly.

I don't understand why having a child with ASD makes a difference? I have a child with ASD and my tumble dryer is in my bedroom. It has to be because it's the only place i can vent it properly. This means that the window (which opens fully) has to be open to allow the vent out. My son has form for trying to jump out of windows. I either have to use the dryer when he is at school or make sure i supervise him if he goes upstairs.
I agree you can't expect a child to sit in a laundrette for a long time though.

Maybe there is another issue there though bear other than the TD? Or is is completely impossible that I might have a damp problem AND a tumble dryer, rather than is being 100% my fault?

I'm asking for advice to see if there is anything else I CAN do to help this problem. You keep giving me things I CAN'T do. So if all my available options have been exhausted, what is the next step? As far as I can see, the only thing I can do that I haven't already done is get a condenser dryer, which I will try and do - what if that doesn't magically fix it (as you seem to think it should do)? What do I do then?

I haven't said the TD is the only problem- in fact I've said some houses are just susceptible to damp and need managing.

The TD is, without any shadow of a doubt, making the situation worse.

You are pumping hot, wet air into a property that''s already mouldy- can you not see how much worse that's making things?

You'll struggle to dry the house out now even if you stopped using the dryer tomorrow as the outside temperate has dropped but if you do stop using it and run a dehumidifier pretty much full time I bet you'd see a massive improvement.

I wouldn't mind putting it in my bedroom fair but I have no space for it in my room - I have the smallest room out of all the bedrooms as it has tiles on the floor so not safe for ds, there is only just enough room to put my bed and a wardrobe in there. There would be no room for the TD. I really really don't think it would be safe with ds to have it in the bathroom, he has a fascination with water and loves to play with it, he also has a love of turning switches on and off - a bad combination. He also won't use the toilet unless the door is shut and if I vented the tube through the bathroom you wouldn't be able to shut the door. Is has been such a mission to get him to use the toilet in the first place I don't want to give him any excuse to regress. I'm at college full time so most of the time he is at school I'm out of the house, I tend to use the TD at night when he is in bed as the electric is cheaper and I can open the windows :)

You need to run the dehumidifier all of the waking hours (probably too noisy at night). We run our dehumidifer from 7am until 9pm every day during the autumn and winter and occasionally during the summer if we have had a few rainy days in a row and needed to use the clothes airers to dry the washing.

We too get massive condensation on the windows when it has been a cold night (it isn't unusual to get a lot of condensation when your house is warmer than the outside temperature). We just dry the windows with kitchen towel and switch on the dehumidifier.

You really do need to find a solution to drying the washing as venting the dryer inside isn't a good idea. Putting the washing on a clothes airer in the bedroom (or whichever room) with the dehumidifer next to it will be better than using a tumble dryer which is vented inside. As the moisture evaporates from the clothes the dehumidifer will 'suck it up', it can't do that with a tumble dryer as the moisture releases into the air too quickly.

I took have a DS with ASD and I understand that tracking to a launderette isn't feasible but there are things that you can do to help with this problem.

I do have quite a big one alter, not sure how many litres as I got is second hand but I would estimate at least 3 litre tank.

We get terrible window condensation. A Karcher window vac slurps it all up in seconds.

It won't stop the condensation happening, but it makes the clean up job easy.

Since your son has a disability, you could apply to family fund for a condenser dryer. There might also be a local charity that could help out with the cost.

www.familyfund.org.uk/

You know what fair, thats an excellent idea, had not thought of that! Thank you :)

I survived for 35 years without a tumble drier so it can be done. Growing up we had a clothes airer over the bath and until recently we dried all out clothes on an airer in the bedroom.

Having bought a tumble drier last year I can vouch that they cause crazy amounts of condensation. We have a condensing drier and within a few weeks we had mould growing up our utility room walls- you will still need to be very careful with ventilation.

you havr been chucking water out at a rate faster than it can dry in to an unventilated space for quite a while - it will take a while to dry it out, I would give it a blast before trying to suggest that it is not condensation damp based on the fact that you know you have been creating damp and not ventilating till relatively recently - I don't think that everything you have said indicates that the flat is the problem.

and what you were doing with the tumble dryer is v different to drying slowly in air - the moisture has a chance to disperse - the more humid the more moisture condenses and you actually get water collecting which then sits on surfaces - if it never gets so humid with warm wet air hitting cold windows and walls then you don't have water condensing on walls creating and environment for mould.

and get a squeegee - everytime you bathe dry the walls and windows and if you have it in the morning on windows dry it all off.

how fast does it take to get a full tank?

Quite a long time, over 24hrs I would say?

If the flat really is as damp as you say the dehumidifier tank would fill more than once if switched on for 24 hours. If you have it switched on for 24 hours and the tank only fills once then either the flat isn't nearly as damp as you think or you need a more effective dehumidifier. In really damp conditions a decent dehumidifier will collect 10-20 litres in 24 hours. Mine collects about 4 litres in 14 hours and our house doesn't have an actual damp and mould problem (the tank has a 3litre capacity so needs emptying if switched on for a full day).

Well at the moment it's under half full as the tumble dryer is on and it's been on a couple hours but I have the window open too - if the TD wasn't on I would say it would be full in 24hrs but I don't think I've left it on continuously that long before so it's hard to tell :/

It was second hand so maybe it is a bit tired?

It seems clear to me OP that there is something fundamentally wrong with the place you are renting if, after the summer we have had this year plus the steps you have taken to try to keep everything dry, you are still experiencing damp and mould.

You have spent money, time and effort trying to sort things out: what has your landlady done and does she even know how bad things are?

Seriously, it is now time to speak with the LL and get his looked at as something is very wrong.

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