mould in student property

[studentwithmould]

Hi all, not really an AIBU but more of a WWYD? Be gentle please

I'm a masters student renting a student property with my girlfriend, and having issues with mould in our bathroom. Basically in the bathroom there is no other heating or fan provision than an ancient pull cord heater type thing on the wall which can't be left on all the time because it's noisy, makes the wall rattle, and I'm worried it'll overheat.

I put it on after showering and keep the window open during and after. Getting a humidifier isn't an option as we can't really afford to run it & there's no sockets in the bathroom. The window is always on latch or open. anyway, the ceiling is black with mould and realistically we can't do any more. We think this happened in the previous tenancy as the ceiling looks a bit scraggly probably from being scrubbed before we moved in.

The problem is this: we're wary about cleaning the ceiling ourselves in case we damage it further, but also neither of us know how to do it safely as we've never cleaned this much mould before and dont want to be spraying chemicals onto the ceiling above our heads iyswim.

To provide a bit of backstory, we've had other issues with the estate agents including fleas when we moved in, and it descended into nastiness on their end and a lot of stress and upset on our end until we dropped it after a few months.

We can't really live with mould on our ceiling and i'm not certain it's fully our fault, though i'm sure the estate agents wont agree! I'm worried about effects on our health, but equally can't face being treated the way we have been by the estate agents.

so... WWYD? Any advice on mould treatments that wont damage the ceiling further or where we might stand with asking the estate agents to sort it?

It's probably a bit of both - an unforgiving bathroom + you're creating lots of moisture that you're not drying sufficiently.

Mould is a pain in the ass.

Get in touch with your agent, send them pictures, and ask them what you should do.

Even if the worst happened and the plaster is damaged, the mould still needs to be removed, it's not good for your health.

It's not a big job to re-skim a ceiling and re-paint, so don't worry about that.

Give the agents a call/email and go from there!

The landlord needs to install a decent extractor fan. Otherwise, however many times you bleach the mould or treat with fungicide, it will just recur.
Mould spores are a health hazard, and if the landlord won’t do anything about it I think you should speak to the Environmental Health people at your local council.

When you say the ceiling is black with mould, how big of an area do you mean? If it’s just a small-ish patch in one corner (and since you’ve experienced some nastiness from the agents in the past) it might be worth just cleaning it yourselves with mould remover and trying to keep on top of it. If you mean a bigger area then I think you would need to contact the agents, despite their previous unpleasantness.

Sounds like standard student digs to me. Crap though. If the landlord won’t treat it properly get environmental health in. They will have to sort it then.

Move. A bad landlord is not worth keeping, and mould is terrible for your health.
We ended up going to the local paper when ours wanted to charge us to break the tenancy early. They soon wanted us out after, and moved some other poor sucker in.
Don't forget to keep all correspondence to the agents and take lots of photos when you leave so that they can't claim you never told them or caused the problem.
Environmental Health is a nice idea in theory but unless you have children they don't give a damn.