To think it's a landlords responsibility to ensure a home is insulated?

[Hocusypocus]

We live in London where private landlords charge the earth for the bare minimum but suck it up because we need to live here for at least the next few years.

We have an all in one living/kitchen area as soon as you enter the front door, then a bathroom and two small bedrooms.

Our flat is very small and very cold, it doesn't retain heat at all. Despite having the heating on for several hours at a time it's then cold again as soon as we turn it off. It's not affordable for us to have it on all day, every day but we would happily try to allocate more money to do that it If the flat retained the heat from the electric radiators instead of it escaping through the windows and door in the first place.

Radiators are directly underneath the windows.

Even with heating on there is a constant draught because of the windows and door, this let's cold air and moisture into the rooms and because of the layout of the flat we simply can't sit away from the entrance door or the big bay window.

There is definitely a moisture problem around the windows and door as the insides of them are always wet and freezing cold, DP has had to use mould treatments on the window ledges to clean up the damp and spores that form along the window ledges which quite frankly looked disgusting.

Have brought this to the attention of the landlord who simply suggested the mould spray, nothing whatsoever about the badly insulated windows and doors.

We both work but are on a tight budget, one young child and another due in January and I'm absolutely miserable with how cold it is in here.

I'm currently sat on the sofa with two throws over me and a wooly hat. DS (one year) is layered up and wearing his fluffy dressing gown as well as two pairs of socks!

AIBU to think it's the landlords responsibility to ensure the flat is appropriately insulated, or are we the tenants expected to carry out said repairs?

I'm dreading Christmas in here because it's only going to get colder and

It is. But this might not fall under repairs. It:s worth talking to your local council:s environmental health team for advice. Landlords can sometimes get grants to make houses and flats more heat efficient.

It is, but we all know too many landlords just don't give a shit....

Having lived in many cold houses over the years, have you done any of the following:

Floor length curtain over the front door - a quick start if you haven't already got this.
Floor length curtains over bedroom doors, maybe also bathroom door
Floor length curtains over all windows. Tuck them behind the radiators when the heating is on. Looks rubbish, but it works well.
Open the curtains on the windows to soak up sunlight when it's sunny and shut them the moment the sun fades of an evening.
Draught excluder along bottom of front door
Window insulation film - it's not a panacea or a replacement for proper double glazing but it makes a surprising amount of difference and its not expensive, although it might add up for a bay window.
Large rugs down for extra insulation in all rooms
Electric blanket on your bed. Very cheap to run, as in a penny or two a night per bed!

All my curtains are from Primark or charity shops to keep costs down.

If the windows are aluminium frame then you will get condensation forming and then mold. We do on ours and the roof is full insulated, foil behind all radiators etc etc.
All houses loose heat and get cold when the heating goes off. That’s why it is recommended as more efficient to have the heating on low rather than off.
It’s not an insulation problem but a circulation one?

Thick curtain over front door. Fraught excluders everywhere else. For some reason radiators are almost always under a window. It’s weird.

Big old bay windows are cold and drafty if not well doyble glazed. That's true in owned homes as well as rented.

You rent a property "as seen". You csnt just move in and demand the glazing is changed. Is it an old house? Victorian properties have no cavities in the walls so are extra cold. Did you not get any info about energy consumption as part of the rental?

if its a flat he cant insulate walls - he doesn't own the building presumably - unfortunately - even changing the glazing may be a bit complicated. (same issue) - (leasehold?)

Do you dry washing indoors? That can cause condensation. It's not the worst does causing it, it's just that's where it goes as the coolest surface.

Thick lined curtains are your friends. You could also draft strip the windows cheaply if you got permission.

It’s shit but surely you signed the lease knowing it was an old building and had single glazing?! Those kind of properties, I’ve owned one myself so speak from experience, really need to be heated properly. You also need to open the windows regularly, wipe up any condensation on the windows every morning and avoid drying washing indoors. As others have said thick curtains, foil behind radiators and draught excluders will help. But if it’s a flat your landlord presumably doesn’t own the building so can’t just insulate it, and crap as it is, it’s really not his problem that you can’t afford to have the heating on as much as you need to.

As others have said, thick curtains, tucked behind the radiators. Also, buy a dehumidifier if there's a condensation problem - it will make a huge difference (and the "waste heat" from the condensor will help to warm the room up).

Fraught excluders everywhere else

It's worth the researching the requirements for landlords - they have to provide an EPC nowadays and I believe if the EPC rating is too low there are potential implications.

You might like to consider a dehumidifier. We have the same problems in a cold Victorian flat with single glazed sash windows and an insufficiently heated bathroom. It's not expensive to run and does help get a lot of the moisture out of the atmosphere.

To help prevent mould and condensation in our wardrobes and kitchen cupboards we bought some low watt tubular heaters.

Talk to the landlord and ask if he will at least put in some draught proofing and consider some cheaper secondary glazing. He may get a grant or you may be eligible too. All rental properties should have an energy rating and I would be interested to know what Band yours was assessed at. You may have recompense if it was evaluated at B when it sounds like you have an E rating.

Having said that, there are minimum standards set by the government that landlords must adhere to. Here's a link (although this document is aimed at landlords).

Maybe talk to Shelter and the Environmental Health Officer at your local council (ours was really helpful).

Here's a link to Shelter website . Mould and excessively cold bedrooms are considered to be Category 1 hazards. The council can order the landlord to make good the disrepair.

To be honest, it sounds miserable and if he's not interested in doing anything or you can't be arsed to fight it then I would consider moving. Some landlords are just plain shits.

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Thanks for the replies

It's actually newly refurbished, the flat itself used to be commercial but when swapped to residential was completely overhauled, new windows and doors, brand new kitchen and bathroom - everything.

As time has gone on we've noticed a lot of corners were cut when it was being refurbished, but it wasn't the landlord who did this, he bought it to rent out after it was refurbished and whoever oversaw the refurb didn't do a very good job of it.

Visually it looks nice, but only when you live here for a while do you discover said cut corners.

We moved in during the summer so had no idea we'd have these problems come later in the year, assumed as everything was new it would be fine. Didn't foresee any problems.

Going to invest in some floor length curtains and buy some draught tape whatever it's called, and another rug for the front room.

Appreciate the tips

I forgot to add to my last post that everything is already double glazed which is what lead me to believe perhaps the sealing isn't particularly good, I'd expect this kind of thing from single glazing but not double glazed and new

And we do air dry some washing on a clothes rack indoors, I never thought of that. Will stop doing that from now on.

As previously stated you need to check your epc, if it’s a f or g your LL needs to make improvements they can’t actually let it at that rating

www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-private-rented-property-minimum-standard-landlord-guidance-documents

Check EPC on the register - www.epcregister.com/reportSearchAddressByPostcode.html if F or G it's illegal for it to be rented out

Thank you for the links I've now checked and we are an E

Next time we have a windy evening, go round all windows and doors and check for draughts, also around skirting boards. If nothing else, newspaper or kitchen roll torn into strips and roughly twisted into a sausage makes a reasonable draught-proofer.

The reason radiators are placed below windows is allegedly because windows lose more heat than walls, so you have a "waterfall" of cold air below the window, which feels like a draught. So you place the radiator there to counteract the effect.

If the double glazing is relatively new, then it might still be under waranty, normally 10 years.
Might be worth checking with your landlord if they have the FENSA certificate and seeing if they can contact the glazing company to check it's all been installed properly.

Buy some of this draught excluder tape and put it around the door frame and window frame, and it should create a tighter seal

Get a draught excluder or get old pairs of tights and stuff old t-shirts/similar to make your own for the bottom of the door

Get a heavy floor-length curtain for the door

You can also buy insulating film to stick onto windows, but I don't know how effective it is

It is, but then you also have a choice whether to rent the place in the first instance.

I find the problems a bit contradictory, as a draught suggests there is outside air blowing through the house, which would probably help prevent condensation and mould. Condensation and mould is partly caused by a house being well-insulated, so it traps the moisture generated by the occupants. (I have new extractor fans for my bathrooms that are going to be configured to run on a low setting 24 hours a day, to dehumidify the whole house in winter when I have all the windows closed.)

Since there is double-glazing, it sounds like the problem is just gaps between the door and it's frame, and maybe around the window frames, it should be easy to fix these. It may be a landlord job, but it would be easy and inexpensive for tenant to fix.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive but on advice from @PigletJohn when I first joined MN I throw open my windows for 10 minutes every morning regardless of weather to air my house. This seems to keep on top of any potential condensation problems and has very little impact on heating bills.