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.

Good job you can afford to run a dehumidifier constantly.

It’s not expensive

It is when you can barely afford food

Same can go for owner occupied houses. All their free money on the mortgage and bills. Only difference being they actually care about the house is they own it compared to tenants.

I say this as a tenant who’s has shit landlords and good ones.

I’m fed up of hearing that it’s the tenant’s fault when greedy landlords are too tight to maintain their properties sufficiently.
I have recently moved from a rental with a serious mould issue. I tried everything to get rid of the mould but nothing worked. Not a sign of mould in my new house despite the same people living here… funny that… 🙄

Some people can't afford food, so is it still not expensive?

Yay for first world country where issues are living in mould because can't afford remedy/better because can't even afford food.

Bet you I know who will win next GE still

You have to let it get bad so that your landlord/housing association will do something about it. If you clean it all off then they do an inspection, see no mould and that's that. Then you can't get hold of them again for another million years.

I think sometimes mould is too bad for tenants to actually do something about it. But if generally house is OK and requires a bit of maintenance like running dehumidifier, opening windows 2x a day, putting heating on, generally things you do in your own house, I think tenants should be obliged to do these things. I do them for my own comfort and I don't expect my landlord to buy me dehumidifier or reimburse me for gas.

Any landlord who collects rent should provide a decent maintenance repairs service which includes professional tests to check if it is mould. Even If it is cleaned they can test. Tenants send photos And videos so can still clean - but this is not the answer to the problem. A 2 minute glance at the area is not a professional inspection. That is something I could do. They often don't want to pay for an inspection or any work identified.

Thankfully I have never had this issue of damp and hope I never will but after seeing some horrendous conditions people live in I am totally on the side of tenants who have to live in substandard accommodation and put up with shoddy greedy landlords private or social sector. There are few cases of tenant neglect and that is often related to Mh, but this is really a minority of cases used to blame all tenants.

Mould caused by structural issues is 100% down to the landlord to fix (and sharpish!)

Mould caused by other issues is not always within the landlord's control however. We own a flat and rent it out and the latest tenants contacted us to complain of mould on the walls and window sills. We got a surveyor in straightaway whose report stated clearly that it was 100% caused by conditions within the flat. They ran the shower and cooked without opening any windows, they dried their washing on the radiators and never ever (according to the tenants themselves) opened a window. They said they liked it to be warm.

We bought them a powerful dehumidifier and cleaned their walls (and told them the survey results and how to avoid it going forward). Three months later we pop by and the mould's back (and like a sweat lodge indoors). There's not much we can do except but a hugely expensive PIV system, which we are loathe to do when the problem is solved by opening a window for half an hour. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I have to admit, I would evict in this case.

I'm sure it's not always an easy fix but since I started opening all windows every morning year round, and running a dehumidifier when drying clothes inside, we haven't had any problems with condensation or mould, and it used to be really bad.

I am a director of the freehold company for our 1930s block of flats. condensation and mould is a well know issue in our block as it is a solid wall construction with a metal frame.

When it was built there were open fires in the living room (so dry heat), communla heating, single glazed windows and also people's lifestyles did not create as much water vapour.

We frequently get complaints of mould, usually from tenanted flats or flats that have been recently bought. 99% of the time our surveryor finds it is down to condensation - basically the external walls get very cold, especially around the metal beams - lifestyle created water vapour condenses on the cold walls and if not mitigated, mould forms.

Whislt ultimately it is caused by occupant lifestyle - not opening windows, drying washing on radiators, inadequet heating etc.. Often landlords can be to blame.

Things we always advise landlords to do but they often don't - :

1. supply teants with a tumble dryer
2. install a extractor fan in the bathroom
3. Install trickle vents in the windows
4. Ensure the tenants understand how to mitigate and prevent condensation.
5. Don't over crowd the flat

Many flat owners have also found that internal wall insulation helps almost eliminate damp and mould issues but many landlords do not want that expense or disruption.

Finally home owners get to know the quirks and behaviour of their homes as they live there for a while. After 6 years I know exactly where the cold spots ar n my flat and what I need to do to prevent damp and mould (there is a small spot in our main bedroom that is a suspected thermal bridge, if not carefully watched on very cold days can literally run with condensation).

People living short term ina property that is not theirs often have no time to develop that knowledge, and also as tenants why should they? The landlord should understand the property they are letting out and if there are issues ensure they are mitigated as well as possible or at least the tenant is warned and gven informaiton on how to prevent it.

Mould can appear surprisingly quickly and spread like crazy.

When I rented a place with a black mould problem, we couldn't even see the mould. Do you know why? Because it was INSIDE the walls. We had a window that came away from the wall, so there was ventilation 100% of the time (!). That was actually a major part of the problem - when it rained, rain would get inside the house around the window frame.

Turned out to be major subsidence and a massive crack appeared in one of the walls near the window - the house was falling apart and that was why the window had come away from the frame and was loose.

There was no way any one of us as students could fix anything to do with that!

Environmental health eventually got involved, we got some compensation (but not enough to cover the damage to our stuff), and the landlord wasn't allowed to rent out the house anymore. I think it's been demolished now!

Precisely.

Wtf? I lived in a property once with no central heating, and damp coming in through the walls (cracks in the rendering). I had a heater, but couldn't use it too much because of the electricity cost (prepay meter). I bleached, aired, tried everything I could. The mould just kept on coming back. It would grow on EVERYTHING - I would find it on my shoes, bags, just everywhere. I ended up having a serious allergic reaction to it, and left the property pretty quickly. I was lucky in that I did have somewhere else I could go, plenty of people don't. So, no, you can't always fix it yourself. People are not watching their children die, just because they can't be bothered to put "on a pair of marigolds and a mask once a month".

You think that all landlords maintain a property to high (or even reasonable) standards do you?

It's the landlord's responsibility to sort this. I sent round 2 lots of specialists and both said it was down to the tenants not ever opening windows and hanging washing on the radiators. It's tricky because I don't want them having to leave open windows when it isn't warm enough and there just isn't room for a dryer.

In some cases, you'd need to remove the plaster and re-plaster after treating the issue.

As an aside and only for very minor areas, I used Cillit Bang black mould product on a patch in my bathroom and it is miraculous.

Agreed, and it's not fair to expect tenants to do these things. I own my home and it's mould free but I have been in homes where you can't keep it at bay easily.

OP sounds like a privileged know it all.

A lot of rented homes have been retrofitted (wrongly) with cavity wall insulation The contractors get paid for it, the housing associations get funding and all are safe in the knowledge that with the attitudes towards social housing tenants in the UK they can successfully be blamed for any mould issues that will ensue.

I had a nightmare with mould in a rented house in my early twenties. It was everywhere. It was making my asthma flare up, all my belongings turned mouldy. If I cleaned it it would only come back after a few days. The landlord and letting agency were not interested. They blamed us, said we weren’t ventilating the property enough. Told us to leave the windows open all day (in a ground floor flat of a house in a dodgy area, we didn’t leave them open when we were at work but did when we were at home) it was awful and we ended up losing our whole deposit when we moved out as the landlord blamed us for the mould. It was clearly a problem with the house, I’ve not had a single problem with mould before or since. When it’s that bad there’s nothing you can do as tenants. It’s not a cleaning issue it’s a damp proofing issue.

I think it is a bit of both and I can see where you are coming from.

I have a new build home (less than 5 years old) and I noticed a 50p sized patch of black mould in the bathroom last month. Turns out the extractor fan wasn't working properly so I ordered a load of mould products, repaired the fan and also got the disposable dehumidifier. It won't be a problem any longer because I dealt with it straight away. I do think there seems to be a culture amongst tenants to expect landlords to deal with every tiny problem.

However, if it was in a property where it was caused by water leak for example there would be no managing it without fixing the problem. This is definitely landlords responsibility. Also where someone is disabled, elderly and so on may make it harder to identify or manage - this happened with my grandfather in a council property and the bedroom became unliveable.

Again as someone else said it always seems to be tenant houses not owned

Because home owners arent forced into being some contractors income stream by being forced to have unsuitable cavity wall insulation into their homes so others can make ££££ See my previous post

Exhibit A

www.carmarthenshirenewsonline.com/nationalnews/residents-open-up-about-years-of-horrific-living-conditions-in-caerau/

Residents have opened up about the impact years of horrific damp and mold has had on their families after a home insulation scandal involving poor workmanship wrecked a number of homes in a deprived area of Wales.

But money is being made for the companies doing this so all good eh. 🙄