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

For the door, there are various DIY self-adhesive products you can use to seal any gaps. If there are actual cracks around the window-frames that air is coming through you can seal those permanently with some sort of filler.

I've recently been looking at honeycomb/cellular blinds, to reduce heat transfer through windows. In my case it's because I want to cool the room in summer rather than heat it in winter, but I'd guess that if anything they would work better for keeping heat in that keeping it out.

if the land lord has recently purchased the property he maybe able to claim against the developer or fensa if the windows are faulty actually alarm bells rang when you said it was previously a commercial property. It was probably built without quality insulation between floors or poorer quality building materials in general & the developer has done retro fitting which will never be as efficient as a house/flat purposely built. Unfortunately the landlord as a leaseholder may not be responsible for the structural issues including the windows - it could be worse - you might have purchased the property yourself as a first time buyer!

Radiators are under windows to hep prevent condensation and mould growth and keeps the house warmer. It seems contradictory but isn't, honest!

www.first-utility.com/the-utility-room/energy-uncovered/radiators-under-windows

If a chat with the LL isn't helpful - as you said, he may not know the issues then all you can do is look for somewhere else to live once your contract is up. Band E is legal to rent (at the moment) but I can well imagine how cold that feels!

If you move out, will he be able to rent it again given that the standards for energy efficiency for rental properties have recently been uplifted? Does it have an energy efficiency rating?

It has been cold. If we’ve been in the house the heating has had to be on...it would be hard to complain to the landlord that your place is cold if the heating is off TBH. Radiators under windows aren’t a problem: the mouldiest room in my house is the only one that has a radiator against a wall. I have never lived in a house that doesn’t get mould somewhere, whether rented or owned by myself, with damp proofing work done, the lot...it is true, that in winter you just have to keep on top of it with the spray and ventilation.

I’ve just bought a dehumidifier, it makes the place feel warmer even though it isn’t, just because the air is drier. If things are damp they just feel colder. I think they are really worth the outlay.

Sounds like you might be better suited to renting a new build property. Mid floor so you get hearing from below and above.

When I lived in a draughty flat I used to make draught excluders from old tights - use one leg of a reasonably thick pair and then stuff it with any spare fabric going (other tights that got too laddered to wear always a favourite) or even newspaper. Doesn't look especially elegant but made a big difference for little cash.

Radiators are supposed to be under windows. I like it that there are some bits of air into my house as it means you are less likely to get damp. I have my heating on all day at present.
Sounds like it may be best you change flats when the lease comes up next year and just take the hit on having the heating on all day.

If you kill all the draughts you are likely to get mould.
If it is too cold and the heating not on enough you may get mould.

Draft excluders, thick lined curtains and a good dehumidifier!

Thermal lined curtains are brilliant for reducing heat loss around windows. We've got them in the bedroom and it's the warmest room in the house, by miles. Closing curtains as soon as the sun starts to go down will help keep residual heat in.

Draught excluder strips round doors and a "snake" draught excluder along the bottom should make quite a difference. If it's an old property with open fireplaces, you can get a "balloon" thingy that stops draught from the chimney (don't forget to remove them if you ever light a fire though!).

An easy way to work out where draughts are coming from is to light a candle and see at which spots in the house the flame moves around the most. The source is the draught isn't always where you feel it most, iyswim.

This arrived in my e.mails today, in case anyone is interested

www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/energy-saving-myths/

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.

In my experience this will mean that the flat is well-insulated. Building control are shit hot on insulation being put in walls/ceilings/under the floor as part of a conversion project. When we converted our loft the inspector came round to check they were using the right thickness of insulation board.

As others have said, unless he's the freeholder he might have limited freedom in replacing windows and doors. It could be as much a heating and ventilation issue as it is an insulation issue.