Mould in homes - if it's THAT bad, sort it yourself?

[Anonynamo]

NC for this.

I want to start by offering my deepest condolences to those who have suffered losses and health implications as a result of mould in their homes. No one should have to suffer in such terrible conditions in their own homes.

My question though is this - AIBU to think that if mould is that bad in a rented property then rather than just waiting for a landlord to sort, you can do things yourself to help?

OBVIOUSLY I know its a land Lords responsibility but to let it get to such a point that you are ill or God forbid someone dies, why won't you just get rid of it yourself?

People who own their own homes regularly de-mould. Why can't relatives or parents etc in rented properties do the same?

I'm not in anyway saying a landlord shouldnt be responsible - they 100% are. They're doing a shit job as we all know. I just can't shake the idea that people are digging their feet in hoping, sometimes fruitlessly that some one else will fix it, whilst their relatives or others are suffering! It baffles me.

I don't mean people who have no one to help or who cant because of already ill health. I mean those who are fully capable of putting on a pair of marigolds and a mask once a month.

Yes, daily, twice if needed. You don’t have to open windows long. Just enough time to change the air without cooling down the room. Open all the openers in the windows, let air flow. 10 mins later, shut them… will take longer for smaller windows. The air will quickly reheat as the walls retain the heat.

Of course you need to open windows sometimes. It gets humid inside. You don't sit at cold, efficient enough ventilation is all windows for up to 10 min. That's it.
It's really normal thing to do in many other colder places and some have it even in contracts that you do have to ventilate properly and heat to certain temps.

Again, will not help with structural issues really

Wow thats not where I was going with this. You shouldn't be a land lord if that's your attitude imo.

What a load of twaddle.

OP
Opening windows etc prevents it yes. But once you have it it is very hard to get rid of. Landlords are reluctant to diagnose damp as an issue because it is costly to repair - sometimes tenants have to move out to get the works done and if it is social housing it means finding them another property carrying out the works and moving them back.

I have known LL just do cosmetic works, so it comes back As all they have done is washed the mould and painting over or putting furniture there so new tenants don't suspect until they have tried to manage it for years not realising it was probably the reason the previous tenant moved out.

Your OP is just a lack of awareness for the living conditions that some find themselves in. Add o top of it overcrowding / poverty or poor mental health exacerbated by the living conditions

If you have time look at www.instagram.com/reel/CmgeiBVBHRF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Not necessarily Instagram there are lots of news articles on Kwadjo and the work he does his highlighting the conditions of some properties and the battles tenants have with housing organisations- honestly have you ever dealt with a repairs team from social housing- it can become a full time job?.

In answer to those who say do it yourself. Tenants pay rent and a proportion of that is to repairs - it is not the repairs are NOT free and the landlords taking the money should carry out the repairs as agreed in the tenancy.

We have mould. I do everything I can to get rid of it. It's structural. A person in the house has lung disease.

However, I was "lucky" and got a 95% 35 year mortgage, and so there's no landlord to blame. Just scrubbing, and removing, and working at it.

Mould is part of life. I agree with you, OP. Letting it get to the levels in some of the papers is ridiculous. We live in a damp country. The real issue here is energy prices, and old housing stock.

It's just not that easy. What exactly should they do?

In one room in our house the window is open even in - temps, furniture is moved away from the walls, clothes aren't dried in it, condensation is removed each day from the windows, anti-mould remover scrubbed on the walls, dehumidifier is run, aero 360 moisture absorbers are in use etc and we STiLL get mould!

I lived in a rented terraced house with mould years ago. It was particularly bad in the bathroom and a built in wardrobe, to the point where my housemate who used the wardrobe got mould growing on her shoes in there. We’d scrub at it with bleach and strong mould killers, keep windows open in the dead of winter and kept the wardrobe door open too. Housemate would rotate clothes and shoes in the wardrobe so nothing was pressed against the walls and causing moisture pockets. Didn’t make a lick of difference as it would just come back. Heating didn’t help as the house was so poorly insulated most of it seemed to disappear.

Landlord would pop by and claim we weren’t doing enough. She bought one dehumidifier about as helpful as a chocolate teapot. Had no interest in putting her hand in her pocket and investing in any improvements. We arranged to leave and move out, and warned any potential new tenants about the situation during viewings.

I’m sure there are some people who don’t do much to keep it at bay but I would bet good money on the majority doing what they can. People don’t enjoy living in mould filled houses potentially making them ill. I think anyone who believes otherwise is naive at best.

I agree. Some renters (not all) seem to think that they don’t have to do anything to look after the property.

Am also a landlord and also voted yabu.

I only have modern, well maintained properties. In over 20 years, I’ve had very minor mould issues twice in 2 properties. I had a maintenance guy to look at both. The first, he cleaned it off, painted over with anti mould paint and the tenant advised to ventilate for short periods of time daily and this resolved. The second, I think he added a vent in the roof and it resolved.

We own rented properties, we are very good landlords, but one property has some mould spots in a known problem area along that whole row of (old ex Council) houses. The tenants do not attempt to clean it, they do not attempt to ventilate the room, they simply wait for it to grow and then send us photos. It's very frustrating. We live over an hour from the property. We literally have to just scrub it will bleach a couple of times during the colder months and then it's fine in Summer. It is not a fixable problem but is most definitely manageable for them. Why don't they manage it? I have no idea... We also have a problem window in our own son's bedroom, same principle applies, in the colder months I bleach it every couple of weeks. No idea why some tenants let perfectly maintenanable mould patches grow around their children just so they can take photos to send to the landlord. It's also frustrating to see lots of people tarring everyone with the same "landlords are shit" brush because, in fact, some of us are very fair and very accommodating :(

Some landlords think it is ok to pocket the rent to buy more houses and not meet their obligations of the tenancy and maintain what they already have (obviously not all landlords)

I think often small mould issue that are from living are left and then get worse and worse.

Again as someone else said it always seems to be tenant houses not owned. Even owners on their bare bones skint still at least clean off and spray the mould. Where as a lot of tenants just leave it to sit there and fester as a not my problem.

Of course all houses need ventilation doesn’t matter if you got one million or one pound in the bank. The house still needs to be aired regularly. It’s people often wanting their houses sat at 22/23 but to never open a window/block over vents, dry washing on radiators etc that then have huge issues.

Obviously sometimes it’s also terrible terrible structural issues but that doesn’t excuse not wiping down a wall once a day so just help yourself.

Have you had a builder look at it? You may need some kind of ventilation as I did in the roof of one of my properties. They should ventilate. However, if it is a known problem, which doesn’t requires more than just ventilation, this is your responsibility. As I say, I’m a landlord.

We used to rent out our basement. When we first bought the house there signs of damp down there 250yrs old, not too surprising!) so we had a damp course put in, checked the pointing (OK) and we've never had a damp problem down there in nearly 20 years now. We're no longer renting it out now anyway.

There is NO reason at all why landlord's shouldn't have to deal with the root cause of damp but laziness or greed. If you want to know, full survey before you buy the place and deal with it straight away, before you move people in.

Where are all these people without gardens and tumble dryers (and let’s not start on energy costs) meant to be drying their clothes if not indoors?

Oh and bleaching doesn’t work. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7085559/Why-NEVER-clean-mould-bleach.html

I rent from a HA. My profession is also housing for a different HA. .

From the first winter, we started to experience issues with mould and as it was a new build , I let them know. The response and lifestyle. I laughed in the repair guys face and insisted the assets surveyor visited. Told him straight you have a defect here. Lots of investigations but none that actually got to the issue. MEK treatment done but guess what it came back. PIV unit installed. Still problem persisted.

Now in our 5th winter and it’s back again as bad as ever. Finally a “professional” company were contractor. I asked them to explain what they were planning on doing. They said they’d looked up the instructions and it says to do x y and z. I smiled and thought well at least they’ve researched it but I had to add a few things in.

The mould will come back. They’ve not thermal imaged to check if thermal bridge is compromised.

Hopefully we will move soon for other complex reasons which the HA are responsible for.

My neighbours have the same mould but not reported it. However knowing my issues the HA should be checking them. They haven’t.

If this is their response to me who knows exactly what should be happening then there is no hope for your average tenant.

As a housing professional it is very very frustrating.

There's a bit of mould that can be kept at bay with a wipe down once a month or so due to winter, damp weather etc. Verses mould that's caused by structural issues and grows quickly (which previous posters have described ) and is really difficult to keep on top of.

Totally agree with you OP! I live in a basement flat, and if I didn’t go round with mould spray every fortnight, and have a dehumidifier on permenantly, my ceilings and walls would be just as bad as those in the pics.

I dry indoor during winter. In the hallway which gets the best ventilation with the draft during shock airing. Never had mould

And is that a way to live? - basements are more likely to have damp agreed but what you are doing seems excessive. Your electric bill must be through the roof.
So are you a tenant.Paying rent for repairs and on top of it additional costs to run a dehumidifier permanently and weekly mould cleaning?.

If it's your property and that's the most cost effective way for you to manage then that's up to you. but a paying tenant shouldn't have to live like that!

Again as someone else said it always seems to be tenant houses not owned. Even owners on their bare bones skint still at least clean off and spray the mould. Where as a lot of tenants just leave it to sit there and fester as a not my problem.

How would you know? If you own it's all on you, no matter the cause. If you rent you're probably more likely to be complaining because it is someone elses responsibility.

And if it's true tenants are more likely to have mould problems it could be that on average they're poorer than homeowners and/or in poorer quality housing.

I am not a tenant, no. The house is Georgian, and half the rooms are in vaults, with no widows whatsoever. It’s lovely. And mouldy.

I dry indoors all the time, rarely open the windows (most of them swell closed in winter anyway and it's not safe to have the big ones open due to children falling out) don't have heating on much. (Boiler's buggered) and don't have a bad mould problem. (A bit on the windows if I haven't cleaned them often enough due to relapse in disabilities)

I do have air bricks that let in gale force winds though. (Planning to get closing ones for windy days/overnight frosty weather/smoke ingress, will see if that causes more mould)

May be it's the built in ventilation or maybe it's because the building is well insulated, with a damp.proof layer?

Ex's old house had damp walls you could feel the wet. Extremely mouldy.