rental shouldn't be this grotty/ legal advice please!

[JaneS]

My partner and I moved into a new flat a couple of months ago. It looked fine when we moved it but soon became clear there was a mould/mildew problem in the shower room. To be honest we weren't too upset, and we told the agent but didn't really expect him to do anything.

He came to inspect the place a couple of days ago and said he'd see if we could get a better ventilation system put in, but he explained that the flat was old and the landlord wouldn't want to do masses of work because they'd only have to increase the rental price (I'm assuming he means the rental price for subsequent tenants, obviously!). We understood that.

But, yesterday I pulled my jacket out of the cupboard (haven't worn it in a while), and found the sleeve was covered in mildew! Which was horrible. Having pulled everything out of the cupboard, I found there was mould growing at the back. This cupboard is basically a closed-off alcove in the wall, but it's not the wall that faces the same way as the shower room. This bit of wall actually faces the corridor outside the flat, which has an open door at the bottom but is basically roofed over and dry!

What should the agent be doing? This surely can't be a ventilation issue. Does the law compel him to do some work? It is really, really disgusting to have mould growing and I can't keep my clothes there any more.

What legal position are we in?

Read your tenancy agreement, is it an assured shorthold tenancy? these are usually for a minimum of 6 months duration. Then they cannot make you leave without giving you 2 months notice.

The rent cannot increase during the duration of the agreement.

Landlords have a legal duty to maintain property in a liveable condition. If I were you I would take lots of photos of the damp/mildew you describe and the damage to your clothes, then email them to the agent, requesting compensation and for the landlord to take action.

FWIW, I think your council should be interested as Shelter were confident thatit could be sorted but at that point I had given up, for me it was easier to move out that throw the book at people. I just didn't want to live somewhere with such a shitty landlord.

Try this link.

Eek! Ghouls, that's quite bad, but also slightly funny - I can imagine she didn't get much more work from that decorator!

My old landlady banned overnight visitors and a lovely loud Irish lass I was living with at the time got a sign for her door saying 'please don't disturb, day-time bonking'.

Thanks for the link, that's great.

What can help is having a dehumidifier - we run one in the bathroom all the time and in the winter have a second one going upstairs. My parents have a flat they rent out and supply it with a dehumidifier set up in the bathroom and ask that it is used at least whenever anyone has had a bath/shower as it minimises steam and resultant condensation. You can pick them up fairly cheaply now.

Would definitely be looking to the landlord to compensate for the ruined clothes... Photos, receipts, that sort of thing all help I would have thought. And would also scare him into doing something about it maybe?

mistlethrush, I really don't see how a dehumidifier could do anything about mould in the back of the built-in wardrobe? I can't put the thing in there and run it!

Incidentally, the air in this place is so dry (gas heating) that people always ask for water when they come in. So I am pretty sure the damp is in the walls, not condensation-based.

argh, posted too quickly.

Could you ask if you could get compensation for the clothes from the landlord's insurance?

And do you have legal cover on your insurance - they can be quite useful in providing free advice on stuff like this. You just ring them up and they can talk you through different options.

Finally - do you have any way of contacting the previous tennants of the property? Would be useful to know if they experienced the same problems (if this is why they left even!) - would show the landlord has cynically not bothered to do anything about a problem he already knew existed and didn't bother to let you know about it. I'm guessing it would probably have affected your decision on whether or not to have rented that particular property! Or maybe do your neighbours know why the previous people left?

Very weird - have just been cleaning mould off my bathroom wall! It's was refitted and replastered a year ago.

Wipe the worst off, then spray with Dettol Mould and Mildew remover. Leave for about 5 mins and then wipe off. It has bleach in so be careful.

I live in a 30's built property which is solid wall - rather cavity wall - and the outside walls are prone to damp. The fitted wardrobe in my daughters bedroom was disgusting. We ripped it out and replastered and no longer have a problem in that spot so I think ventilation is also part of the problem.

We did have some problems with the gutters (the rain was running down off the roof and down the walls rather than into the gutters). Once this was sorted some of the damp areas are better but not fixed.

Look outside to see if there are any obvious causes. Maybe the gutters are full? If not - it may be just the way it is. It was a bit of a shock as our last place was 60's built and very cosy!

LRD - the damp, even if in the walls, is clearly coming through - if the air is as dry as you say, it would be drying up on coming through the wall and you wouldn't have mould growing.

We have gas central heating, but still use a dehumidifier.

But an alternative is to make sure you air the place - we normally sleep with the window open - and could could leave the cupboard door open every time you go out or something to make sure that the dry air in the rest of your flat is getting in there too - that would help.

I am in private accomadation as well to date we have

1- a soaking wet carpet in my bedroom because everytime it rains it pisses through the wall and floor

2- DS1's bedroom carpet is wet from the shower - which we now cannot use.

3- when we bath it floods the cellar

4- the shower door (this is why we cannot use the shower) fell off of the runner and smashed in loads of pieces, what makes it worse is DS1 was getting in and it fell on top of him.

5- there is mould on the walls and carpets

6 - the walls are literally fallling down in the ensuite and part of the wall in DS1s bedroom.

7 - the landlord refuses to do anything but has again increased the rent taking it up to £1400 pcm

that is to name but a few of the problems. I have asked him many times to rectify thes issues but alas nothing has been done yet. Oh sorry tell a lie he bought me a dehumidifier to dry the carpet out in my room. The damp has now begun to smell and really badly, in fact we are shortly going to attemt to turn the furniture round AGAIN to try and not be sleeping with our heads above the mouldy carpet.

In my experience the landlords are shite and not worth anything.
Sorry no advice but will watch with interest!!

both DS1 and I are asthmatic

No, they cannot raise the rent. They cannot make you move outside the notice period. In fact the landlord can do very little, especially when he/she has put himself/herself in the wrong. Take it from me!

You need a little bit of legal advice that you can be confident with and then you need to stand your ground.

How much deposit does your landlord have? I hope it's in a scheme. You need photos and a clear record of all contacts made with legal advice, the agent, the landlord, the council. If you have all these you are in a strong position.

Have you called Environmental Health? They can help put pressure on the landlord, they were a great help to us with our leaky roof.

theladyeveningstar You should try them too.

I am really annoyed on your behalf.

I have been in my rental flat for 5 months. It was a 6 month tenancy with option to extend. The flat seemed fine when we moved in but soon became clear it was in a state of disrepair. We had:

5 plumber visits
2 leaks in hallway
1 leak in bedroom
2 sets of patio doors warped and don't close properly (so you can imagine our gas bill).
washing machine broken on our move in
Oven fell out from under work surface almost onto our DS head.

Every time a workman came to visit, we asked the agent for the landlords number so we could chat informally about what was happening. He refused to give his number.

We paid our rent on time, every month. Not a day late.

3 weeks ago we received a Section 21 notice to vacate the premises. Basically the twat evicted us because we clearly cost him a shedload of money. Rather than addressing the problems, he "patched them up".

I should mention I am 30 weeks pregnant, which is also common knowledge, so we weren't exactly in a position to move (but would have done when our new baby was a few months old).

My advice to you is, give your notice to your agent tomorrow and get somewhere better. Please!

P.S. I should mention I am a landlord myself, rent a flat out to a lovely couple and if they wanted to talk to me about anything (ie repairs) i'd be only too willing to help.

Kaloki, I have been in touch with them befor but because i am afraid of the landlord- harassing calls and texts at 4am, turning up screaming at me etc, i have just taken advice from them and asked them not to contact him, because he has made threats to me.

That's awful! Have you told the police? You can't live like that sweetheart!

Wow, just got back. I have read everything but won't reply individually as there's a lot of posts - but thanks all, so much. I will take up suggestions and will try to get it sorted. Unfortunately, I have just dropped in to the letting agent's and my agent wasn't there, but his colleague said she'd pass on the message to him.

ladyevenstar, what's happening with you sounds horrible! But if your tenancy is up in a month, is he evicting you really? Or just not renewing? Because if it's the former, there's not a lot the police can do (other than think he's a twat for behaving that way to a pregnant lady!) - it wouldn't be a legal issue, if you see what I mean? But he sounds like such a cock, I would be furious.

mistlethrust, just wanted to ask: how do you manage with the window open? Do you mean open in the room where you sleep?

I would love to get rid of the mildew but there is only one heater in the place and our bedroom is always pretty cold - I don't know how to keep the window open and actually sleep.

mistlethrush. Sorry

Dragon its me thats lost our flat, evenstar has bigger problems with nasty landlords... .

To answer yr question, the agents asked us if we wanted to renew this month as our 6 months were up, so we said "er yes, obviously (see massive bump)" and we thought everything was a-ok and then we got a letter from the landlord's solicitor saying he was seeking possession of the flat! A solicitor! As if we were in rent arrears.

The agency say they don't know why (but we suspect they got sick of us needing the repairs done too). It was all very fishy. We have a great place to move into, suffice to say the ceiling could fall in this time and we WILL NOT be making any requests for repairs/help.

Nor will we be putting any pictures up for 6 months .

REALLY hope you sort the mildew.

So sorry Adelaide, Evenstar. It is ridiculous that any of this is legal. I feel pretty guilty now. It's not a big problem for me.

No way! What everyone has said about the health risks/legal responsibility must be right....I just think its dreadful that some landlords are really untrustworthy; if anyone had said to us 6 months ago that we should be careful how much we complain about (but a leaking roof!?) then i'd have laughed. Now I don't have much confidence that they are not all the same and will be very wary of our new landlord when we move in next week .

Oh i should also have mentioned that we were HOPING it was a case of him wanting to move in himself/doing the place up/putting the rent up but no, we started getting people coming to view the property a few days later, so it was definately a personal issue between him and us.

LRD - yes, 10 months of the year (or more) we normally have the window open a crack (or more) in the bedroom.

But we find that running the dehumidifier in the bathroom really helps - we actually dry our washing in there too - the by-product of the dehumidifying process is warmer air being blown out of the dehumidifier than that going in - our bathroom is almost always nicely warm without having the heating on any more than the rest of the house.

What a tremendous relief to read this. I rent a flat privately in a converted 30's hotel, the downstairs is offices (local council, ironically), and the top floor is just a very few flats. I completely love where I live, but since moving in 3 years ago, have had a perpetual cough. Never put two and two together until this winter has seen mould and damp in every room (previously just a manageable bit here and there). The letting agent has been round and put the worst of it down to structural faults (your guess is as good as mine). The landlord (which is technically the council, even though it's not a council property) has been round and said the same. Now I have chunks falling off my lounge walls, the paint in the bathroom is disappearing thanks to the gallons of Dettol M&M we get through, I have books, pictures and cds all ruined by the damp (the walls seep a weird resin from the concrete that drips and sticks). So how many phone calls and emails have I had a response to? NONE!!! (why am I even surprised?), so where do we stand on witholding rent? We've been perfect tenants until now, but as I have to kick the front door to get it open and closed (damp, again) I am increasingly hacked off , it's a cheap place to live, but surely we shouldn't have to put up with this?

Thanks mistle. I guess I'm being daft, I just feel cross that we didn't budget for running something extra and the agent doesn't seem to realize it all costs money. There isn't heating in the bedroom (there's only the one heater and it's in the kitchen/living room) so it's pretty parky in there. I have to admit some warm air would be rather nice - it's just annoying that we should need it! Will give it a go though ...