Reposting this as I didn’t get any responses in the property forum. (Sorry it’s so long.)
I own and have lived in a freehold 1st floor flat. It’s a 1970s block with cavity wall construction. Over the last two winters I have had terrible mould growth on the exterior lounge and bedroom wall. Last two winters were the first time I had this issue and nothing in terms of daily activity (laundry, showering, cooking etc) had changed. Followed all the usual mould advice and treatment and it’s still coming back, even at this time of year, although not as bad.
I commissioned a report from an independent damp company and they believe the issue to be poor exterior maintenance of the building, there is moss growing on flashing round the edge of the building roughly level with the floor of my and the the render on the building is cracked and chipped. Flat management company disagreed with the report and wanted their own report. Agreed to this and scheduled a surveyor visit last week.
The guy was quite pushy when arranging the visit as he only wanted to do it on days he was in the area (fair enough) but was annoyed when I agreed but said it needed to be after lunch due to work meetings.
The RICS surveyor report has just come back and it’s quite lacking in detail and he has included wide shot pictures of my bedroom, which unfortunately shows the bed and the floor as a bit of a mess as I was sorting and folding clean laundry first thing and hadn’t finished.
(When my original independent report was sent to me, it contained pictures but only close up areas of mould and humidity/temperature/damp readings.)
The RICS surveyor didn’t ask about taking wider pictures of my bedroom. When he arrived he was very monosyllabic (again fair enough when focusing on doing his job) but after when I asked him about the issue and possible fixes and mentioned what I already do he was very dismissive saying “you need to keep a window open” (which I said do keep 2 open constantly) but then he went on to say “but it’s not as simple as that you need to monitor the humidity all the time and open different windows.” He then went on to say I need to have a mechanical kitchen and bathroom vent, again i said I’ve always had these and the kitchen cooker hood is externally vented. He then blamed the wall temperature, and I again asked how to heat the walls up (because of buildings either side they get limited sun) but he just went on about keeping them above dew point, I agreed but asked how… just said keep the heating on 24/7?! He then said the mould was clearly due to my lifestyle in the flat (sink of washing up/ the streaky shower screen and the boxes of stuff in my lounge as our garage is getting a new roof so had to be cleared out and why I had been behind on chores over weekend.) After this I just thanked him for the visit and said I would await the report.
I feel he had a preconceived opinion of me and the issue and took the pictures to support this. The pictures of my whole bedroom don’t really add any value or evidence to the report and the report has gone to several people at the management agency and the directors of the flat owners group.
I feel that the picture was really unnecessary alongside comments of the mould is clearly caused by the inhabitants lifestyle choices, has been used to imply that I’m slovenly and lazy, and it’s really upset me.
I really feel like the surveyor should have asked if pictures were ok. Am I being oversensitive and is this normal for a damp inspection report? Is it worth/do I have any grounds to complain to RICS as a governing body?