DD's friend, worried about family's living conditions

[tanyaek]

Not in my house, but the family of my DD's best friend from school.
Went to collect my DD from having tea at said house on Friday evening.
The little girl's parents seemed embarrassed when I went inside and saw all the damp, mold all over the living room. I didn't say anything but my face must have told a story. The mum then said follow me, showed me around the whole house, said they've been struggling with the landlord for a couple of years, but nothing being done.
The little girl (4 years old) and her older brothers (teenagers) suffer with asthma, as do the parents.
The landlord sounds a total rogue from what mum told me on Friday. Turns up to take payment every month but makes constant excuses not treat the mold and damp. Says it will cost too much, therefore decides not to bother.
The bathroom and parent's bedroom looked like those shown on ITV news a couple of months back. Completely black with mold.
When showing me round the house (I'd never been before as don't really know the family well, DS and the little girl have only been friends for a few weeks since we moved to the area), the mum seemed scared to report the landlord, says he's intimidating. TBH, didn't even sound like a properly -registered one, if he turns up to collect cash payments each month.
I think social services are aware of the situation as it was highlighted following a recent medical episode. The SS have told the family the house isn't fit to live in. But nothing seems to be happening... Why aren't SS getting on the landlord's case and forcing some action?
The couple seemed worried about the rent being increased to reflect repair costs, and don't seem keen to kick up a fuss.
I felt so helpless when seeing the conditions on Friday, how can the landlord get away with this?

Have they not contacted environmental health?

Can they contact tenancy support, even if they privately rent? Mould will have a very serious effect on their, particularly children health. Very serious.
Tenancy support can exert a lot of pressure on tenants. It may just be a Scottish thing.

Absolutely disgusting. My OH and I were landlords for years. We had a rule that we never rented out a property we wouldn’t be happy to live in ourselves. Mould is an absolute no no in any home.
Registration of landlords varies from area to area. It’s very unusual to collect rent in person and weekly/ fortnightly, I believe from memory it’s a different sort of tenancy agreement.
The tenants should check they were given everything on the list landlords have to give. This is a bit longwinded but has everything. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942503/6.6642_MHCLG_How_to_Rent_v5.pdf
Photos of the damp, mould are essential as are dates Landlord has been contacted and his responses.
It’s totally unacceptable that in 2022 a landlord is saying it could be too expensive to put right when he is taking rent.
All above plus anything that’s missing from the tenants checklist can be reported to the local council housing department and environmental health.

Where I live (and increasing opening new groups around the country) is a renters union called Acorn. They help tenants partition landlords, campaign and shame them into action. They can help with legal advice and generally advocate for tenants. I would advise them to have a chat with their local branch www.acorntheunion.org.uk/

This is so awful. I wouldn't let my child visit that house. It's an absolute health hazard.

Its such a difficult situation, the parents are probably right, in that if they kick up too much fuss the landlord can just evict them, there are so few rights in this area for the landlord to keep the property in good order, especially if they are paying "peppercorn" rent.

They could try talking through their options with shelter, there can be alot of causes of damp some within the occupiers control like heating and ventilation and some outside like house structure, if they can work out which it mightt help them long term to make a decision if they want to stay.

How do you know she’s not on mumsnet?

No one knows I’m on mumsnet. I could be your friend?

If you live in a city begging with N in the NE of England then you could be.

As a landlord, I cannot get my head around why landlords do this (and I know they do). The property is an investment and as an investment, it needs looking after.

I guess the answer to how they get away with it is that the tenants are too scared to challenge the landlord. I'm assuming they want to stay there because the rent is cheap?

There's some good information here: england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/damp_and_mould_in_rented_homes

Thanks for the replies so far. Yes, they want to stay for for the time being as it's a good location convenience-wise. Across the road from the sons' school and amenities nearby.
Rent is cheap in this part of the city too.

Never assume you know the full story or have been told the truth.

Just keep your children away from that house

She needs to clean it with mould spray (they are brilliant!) and then adequately heat and ventilate the place. Our house is an older house and gets terrible with mould if we don't do these things. She can't dry clothes indoors or boil stuff on the hob if she doesn't have the window open and preferably when it's colder the heating on, and she needs to make sure she doesn't shut the doors up when she is sleeping. I had mould at a place years ago and had environmental health round, all they said was you need to heat and ventilate it properly. So unless there isn't heating (in which case she obviously can't heat it!) or there aren't windows to ventilate then I doubt Environmental health will do much.

Had this problem years ago. Contacted the councils housing department, they sent someone round to inspect within days. Subsequently they sent a report to the landlord, gave him a set time period to rectify all the issues or face a substantial fine as property was in such a state. Within a month all repairs were carried out, and council person reinspected then agreed it was up to standard.

You need to tread carefully as the family won't thank you for getting them evicted. It sounds like they already have agencies involved helping them.

You could encourage them to sign up for Council Housing and Housing Association registration and they could try to get some priority for their poor living conditions.

If there were a reasonable amount of properties to rent and social housing then no one would be living in places like this but the family are finding no alternative at the moment.

I am surprised you allow your 4 year old to go to play dates with strangers in a strange house. Playdates as that age I stayed/ invited parent and child.

Why aren't SS getting on the landlord's case and forcing some action?

Because they can't. Social Services have no powers over the housing department, landlord, environmental health or any other body. Social Services can advise the family of the actions to take (such as reporting to right council department) but cannot do that themselves. Should the family fail to take the recommended action this could be considered placing the children at risk.

The family need to contact the council, some councils have a private tenancy department set up for this sort of thing. Alternatively they could look for a new rental (challenging at the moment), register with the councils housing department for a housing association or council house (unlikely unless they also report the current property and are assessed as being inappropriately housed.

Landlords like this should be reported and enforcement action should be taken. The councils I have worked with have been pretty good at that but lots aren't and even more landlords get away with it because tenants are afraid they'll be evicted, usually because they don't know their rights.

Unfortunately as rental start becoming rarer these landlords are only going to get away with it more.

Yes this is why I don’t report many repairs. Our house needs a lot of repairs but he already wants me to pay more rent ! He said he could get more rent but he’d have to spend thousands doing it up. It’s embarrassing now as the front of the house needs painting and doing up . It’s the worst house on the street 😳

Landlords like this should go to prison.

It’s really unlikely that if there is damp and mould in every room that it would be a building defect unless at a push there are faulty extractors. It sounds like poor ventilation. I would seriously doubt environmental health would do anything past telling them to clean it and keep the house ventilated.

Yes I agree. Usually mould that is widespread like that is due to how the tenants are living (drying clothes inside, not heating house, not ventilating house). They need to clean mould with bleach and dry it off.

One patch on a wall or ceiling might be a building issue but widespread mould like that is because of how they are living.

Because of the dire lack of tenants' rights, people are often afraid to report repairs for fear of pissing off their landlords and getting a notice to quit. With rents going up and up, their chances of finding somewhere affordable could be very low, and a pissed-off LL would be unlikely to give them a decent reference.

And while social services might be concerned about the conditions the children are living in, they don't have the power to do anything about it. Housing disrepair is a matter for environmental health.

The wait for a visit from an EHO is currently 12-16 weeks here. The landlord could issue an NTQ and it would expire before the EHO came round.

The housing system in this country is broken, and tenants suffer because of it.

Honestly, keep out of it.

If anyone kicks up a fuss on their behalf then the landlord can simply evict the family, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. A section 21 eviction notice can be given for any reason or none whatsoever and would (in England) give them only 2 months before court action commences. They would then end up having to find a new place to move to (difficult, the rental market is currently very overheated), and magic up money for a deposit.

I very much doubt they are staying there despite having better options.

There's some incredibly patronising advice about condensation on this thread. It's highly likely that there are some structural defects (e.g. cracked render causing penetrating damp). As for not drying clothes indoors - where exactly are you meant to dry them in the winter months if the landlord hasn't provided a tumble dryer? Plus tumble dryers are incredibly expensive to run.

This

Speak to the mum about things she could do to sort it herself. A landlord can't help with cleaning, the tenant needs to do that themselves.

However if its a genuine damp problem I.e coming from the outside in and needs real damp proof repairs then YANBU. Or rather she is not being unreasonable. However inaction is achieving absolutely nothing so for the sake of her children she needs to sort this shit out. It's shameful she hasn't done something sooner TBH.

@tanyaek if they follow the correct reporting procedure they can be protected from revenge evictions. More details here england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/revenge_eviction_if_you_ask_for_repairs

@truhamboys I’m sure cracked render is the cause of widespread damp, particularly concentrated in the bathroom.

I live in a rented house and bought my own tumble dryer, surely people need to take personal responsibility for themselves.