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.

Well, if we look at it REALLY objectively, the housebuilders in UK are essentially to blame. I mean like I grew up in 100+ year old house on mainland and it was not anywhere close to quality of uk build from that and upcoming times. It was vastly superior with wall thikness, size of rooms etc.

While landlords and tenants fight, developers keep quietly building even shitier houses with bedrooms you can't fit a bed into, rooms that you can hear fart from downstairs bathroom all the way to the attic "master".

My family from mainlaand was absolutely shocked we can hear neigbhours in our 1940s end of terrace. Like we can hear tv and cough....

"Let them fight amonsgt each other why we allow shittier and shittier builds decade by decade." Eveey politician ever

I work in housing. A lot of it is structural, there is no keeping it at bay. And no, it's not a 'lifestyle' choice. Housing associations often treat flat by flat and not the whole block so it can never be really fixed.

Repairs are in a terrible state and often not taking place unless you have the personal capacity to make a bloody nuisance of yourself/get an mp involved. So fuck anyone who doesn't know how to play that game, doesn't have enough English, has mental health issues.

I supported a family recently to get out of temporary accommodation that they had to go into because the flat they moved into with the housing association had mushrooms growing inside the house and was unfit for habitation. It was in this state when they moved in. It was in such bad disrepair that it's being sold rather than fixed. They were then in temporary accommodation for 6 months rather than the one month they were initially told.

Plus a personal bugbear of not allowing people to dry clothes on balconies.

CIVALLI
@CIVALLISupport
·
Feb 25
Replying to

@marianna_jano
A massive factor is retrofit insulation. It blocks off ventilation, changes the design of the building and results in mould growth. The little lad who tragically died lived in an EPC B building. This needs calling out. Interestingly lifestyle is often blamed when it’s retrofit

There was article few days ago on how epcs are inaccurate

I’ll probably get slaughtered- I’m a landlord.

lived in the property myself, had family there and rented it a further 6 years. A total of 14 years without any mold.

Then the new tenants moved it, there was mold very fast all over the place. I was horrified, checked the gutters and everything with professionals. It became apparent it was due to water in the air and ventilation.

I was reasonable. As well as checking into everything I had the walls cleaned and treated for the mildew and I installed a number of extractor fans.

I then went round for a boiler emergency (they’d tried to raise the pressure and over filled it…) and it was like the tropical plant houses at Kew. There was a rice cooker on, a tumble drier running, clothes on the radiators. There was literally water running down the windows, my glasses steamed up, you felt it on your chest. I spoke about opening windows etc. cleaned

Its got black mold again. It’s around the window edges, particularly at the bottom where it pools. Around the door to the room with the tumble drier, above the shower and above the rice cooker. I’ve re done the extractor fans so they can’t be turned off.

The flat is so so easy to look after, efficient boiler, many windows and vents. You really have to work at it to make it get mildew.

The but that gets me- you can wipe it off. I have showed them, it comes off with a cloth. The worst bits a little bleach. It literally wipes off easily- but they leave it. My house occasionally needs a wipe down in autumn, I think nothing of it.

They won’t have it

Last year I bought a rented property from a landlord. We’re doing it up.

It’s in a pretty diabolical state, so we got a good price for it. And it’ll be a great house when we have some renovation work done. But never a day goes by when I can’t believe that someone was charged money to live in this place and that the landlord was happy to let their tenants live in a house in this condition.

Among the many issues with it is that there are no extractor fans in the bathrooms or in the kitchen. No amount of ‘lifestyle’ adjustments will fix that. Not only that but until recently when we had them replaced, more than half the windows didn’t open.

Yep I know exactly what you mean - LLs making out it's the tenants fault rather than accepting responsibility and sorting their houses out to make them liveable. Always someone else's fault.

This is a fucking disgusting post. It is 100% on landlords to sort out their property and make it habitable and safe, and if they can’t do that then they should be classed as too stupid and incompetent to do it and should be prevented, by law.

Some people are very vulnerable. Everyone should be entitled to a safe home. I absolutely fucking despair at the uk in 2023.

Wow. People saying just keep it a bay. Blaming renters & their sub standard ways of living , drying clothing indoors, not opening windows. Are you for real?? This kind of narrative just maintains the problem & victim blaming & allows councils to continue to ignore the problem & landlords to carry on. Do you really think that’s the type of mould you get if you don’t do those things?? Ridiculous.

It’s not really that straightforward. I lived in private rentals from aged 18 to 41 some in notoriously damp areas/environments, there was only ever one property I was unable to keep the mould under control mainly due to the inability to ventilate. However I was in a lucky position to be able to afford better than many others who had far less options than me.

The difference with owning your own property and keeping damp under control and a rental is that most owners can afford to do what’s needed, it’s their property they have the incentive to keep it well maintained. Rental properties are regularly neglected, tenants can’t afford to complete the maintenance needed and why should they pay for something they don’t own.

When I first moved in to my current rental, no work was done between the last tennants moving out and me moving in - there was awful mould all over the bathroom, which I reported and cleaned up as best I could with anti mould spray. The walls (which were damaged from the mould and excessive moisture) got looked at by a maintenance guy from them, who said it probably needed replastering at the least and not just painting over but he was only given a day to complete the work (I don't know why) so that's all he could do for me.

Fast forward a few years later and no surprises, the mould keeps reoccurring (and yes I do open the windows wide for hours afterwards and there is an extractor fan that goes on automatically when you switch the light on but it doesn't seem that great) and I have to treat it every few months. Last time I had it repainted I was told that this "just happens" and that I should just frequently repaint it myself.

I'm not causing it and money is tight as it is - why should I have to fork out for something that is not in any way my fault? It could have been properly sorted but they chose not to. I've sort of given up at this point of it ever being resolved, to be honest, but I will keep on top of it as best I can. I imagine many other people find themselves feeling the same way.

Many landlords seem reluctant to spend money to make properties easier to maintain. There are thiings they can do to make it easier to prevent mould and damp.

Our bathroom is small and doesn't have an extractor fan (it would have been too much expense and hassle to install one.) When we rennovated it we tiled all the walls and painted the ceiling with bathroom paint. No mould issues.