Ongoing battle with landlord (well, estate agent) re washing

[blackswan29]

Looking for a sense check please as I feel like I’m losing my mind!!

We rent a ground floor flat and have been drying our washing outside the front of the property on a clothes horse. We’ve now been told by property management that we MUST not dry washing outside and should instead dry it indoors or “even in the bathroom”.

The issue is.. we already have mould and condensation problems. Before going on holiday recently we wiped everything down and came back to visible mould across multiple areas (and we sent photos to them).
Our bathroom is tiny (no bath, barely floor space for a clothes horse) and the extractor fan is not even working properly. Property management say the landlord thinks it was replaced, but they have no records and are now asking us to confirm.

We have contacted them multiple times about this and their only solutions are:

• Open windows “even only ajar” (in winter, with rising energy bills, on a ground floor flat with fire windows that don’t latch). We’re out all day every day for work so this is completely out of the question.
• Buy multiple small dehumidifiers ourselves and place them around the windows (yes, we have to purchase them ourselves!!)

They’ve also acknowledged that other flats in the same block are drying washing outside — I’ve seen at least three — but say they “won’t discuss other properties” and are only concerned with ours, which feels pretty targeted.

We’re paying high rent, already ventilating as much as realistically possible (trickle vents open 24/7, heating set appropriately), and now being told to dry washing inside despite existing damp and mould. They’re also implying the cost of managing this (dehumidifiers, higher heating bills) should fall to us!!!

Am I being unreasonable in thinking it’s not fair or enforceable to ban drying washing outside purely due to ‘aesthetics’ (they’ve not given us a better reason). And they can’t insist we dry it inside when it’s actively worsening mould
This feels like a landlord/property issue, not the fault of our lifestyle!

Would love thoughts, especially if anyone’s dealt with similar.

It’s probably in the leasehold agreement. If it is, then your landlord needs to be the middleman and come up with a suitable arrangement to deal with the fact that it wasn’t included as a restriction in your lease.

Realistically, your best bet is to buy a dehumidifier. A proper one, not a mini one. For the size flat you describe one should do the whole place. Negotiate a £15 a month reduction with landlord to cover the running costs, given it’s needed to adjust for something they didn’t include in the lease.

youll own it, so it’s yours to use in your place when you buy. Which if it’s vaguely draft proofed you’ll need.

YANBU about the washing
you are being U not to air your home adequately. You really must open windows

Did you read everything you were given when you moved in?

but also black mould is dangerous. They need to fix the bathroom ventilation and get rid of the mould

That is enraging. For your own sake (not them, screw then) I totally wound get a dehumidifier though, OP, it will help the mould a lot.

i wonder if the landlord knows the agents are encouraging you to dry laundry inside, I’d be pretty annoyed if I was a landlord and found out my agents were doing that!

Ask your landlord to pay for a decent dehumidifier. Problem solved.

I said thus another post about a week or so. In some properties it states in the deeds you are not allowed to dry clothes outside, and I was chased by another poster with sad sarcastic comments. My thoughts to her is just because you haven’t heard of it, it does exist never the less.

if you signed your lease in October, you’ve only got eight/nine months to go.

i have my own theories about mould and houses in this country, we live in an old house with open fireplaces, draughty windows and our bathroom is like a wind tunnel - big draughty window with a big open fireplace.

i have lived in a new build with only electric heating and we got mould, the whole estate had mould, leaving windows open with electric storage heaters is not an option.

I have lived in a few Victorian terraces, and the ones with double glazing and blocked up chimneys we had mould, the ones where we had original windows and all the fireplaces open and working no mould!

The house we live in now, we leave our heating on constantly at 16 minimum and sometimes up it during the day to 18 or 19 and our gas bill was £501 for the year. I rarely close curtains, only in our bedroom because of condensation which then in turn makes the curtains mouldy.

We do have a dehumidifier, but since I’ve stopped closing curtains it switches itself off and takes about a week for the tank to fill, This one is a 200wstt 12litre one but when it’s working full time - two years ago it was costing £15per week in electricity.

i like where live now, but with mould issues that we’ve had, I really do love a well ventilated house, and in eight months time I hope you will be moving into your well ventilated property xx

1. Email (not WhatsApp) the landlord and ask them to remedy the mould (it's their responsibility to provide safe housing) ask them to clarify how you are supposed to dry your laundry becuase you are unwilling to

Dry it indoors because it is obviously going to make your flat even more damp. Give them a deadline to reply. 14 days I would suggest

2 if the above doesn't remedy the situation, email environmental health at your local council

Not weird at all, it's very standard.

I would buy some of those dehumidifier bags that are all over SM, they’re not expensive and don’t use electricity. You put them in the microwave to reset them.
and a heated clothes horse.

If you've notified your landlord in writing about the mould and they haven't done anything about it, next step is to report to environmental health.
I would continue drying washing outside and just ignore the management company.

This. I used to live in a ground floor flat prone to mildew. I also had the clothes horse next to a dehumidifier. It worked really well to dry clothes and dealt with the mould too. We owned the flat and there was a weird clause in the lease regarding not drying washing outside. I doubt anyone would have cared though.

This says you cannot hang laundry except in designated areas- which in your case seems to be by the back door. Are you sure there isn’t a laundry yard? That’s a communal fenced area with washing lines within it.

A large dehumidifier costs peanuts to run, warms the house nicely as well, and will sort out the mold. It’s a bargain really. We run one in the room we dry our washing in. Speeds it up so much.

Quite. Or opening windows / leaving on the latch for air circulation. Baffling.

I use heated covered airer with humidifier unit in the room.

This may work if combined with a dehumidifier

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/53427/lakeland-bathtub-clothes-airer

Is it a new build? They usually have pretentious rules like that. It makes no sense because people living in very expensive older properties with massive gardens all dry their washing outside.

This says you cannot hang dry clothes inside or outside the property.

So it is a tumble dryer or laundrette.

Obviously. But should be provided by the landlord!

Why?

That’s just not realistic when the mould is caused by condensation.
If it’s mould caused by poor construction, pipe leaks or water intrusion, that’s a different story.

Every tenant is usually responsible to manage the ventilation of the water vapor they produce by breathing, cooking, and so on. The OP says that is the cause of the mould.

Even when it’s the Landlords responsibility, they frequently do nothing. They’re not the ones living with the mould. When we rented we just sucked it up and got a dehumidifier, a condensing tumble dryer, used anti mould sprays, and ventilated the property religiously. We pretty much had 1 window ajar 24/7 and did daily 10 minute full air outs, we also dusted like mad because dust is food for mould.

No.Because the statement says AS this can cause damage blah blah. Drying them outside will not cause damage.

The agent is telling her to do something that WILL cause damage.

@blackswan29 it makes no bloody sense does it.

Do the agents manage the other properties that dry their clothes outside?

Does the LL own those other properties?

i would write to the Agent & tell them you will be taking this to the council if the mould situation is not resolved within a month & you will NOT be drying laundry inside the flat which already has damp issues UNLESS they provide decent, cost effective dehumidifiers.

Because it's their property.

I'm no longer a LL, but would have provided dehumidifiers in this situation. You cannot expect GF tenants to leave their windows ajar
or dry their washing inside an already damp flat.

Exactly!!

It’s obvious the second sentence is explaining why the first sentence prohibits drying clothes in the property.

It makes perfect sense.