Hoping to move due to mold and damp

[Leigh2196]

Hello lovely people :)
Just wondering if I could get a doctors note to help move myself my partner and my 19 month old out of a 1 bedroom flat to a bigger place? We have terrible mold and damp and it's causing all 3 of us chest problems, we wake up and have to race to get out of there because we have a sore throat and are bunged up, we also have my step daughter on weekends so all 4 of us sleep in 1 room! Do you think they will take it seriously if I get a doctors note, I've taken loads of pictures of the mold that is on our walls and furniture and intend to show the docs , please give me advance and TIA :)

*advice

Are you talking about the local authority housing register ?

Who are "they"? Council, HA ? You may get rehoused but not necessarily anywhere larger. Can you afford private rental? Have you spoken to Environmental Health, is it actual damp or due to condensation such as internally drying clothes, bathroom etc

I agree that you need to contact Environmental Health in the first instance, you need to know what is causing the damp. If you are overcrowded and on the housing register getting a move will depend on what their policy says, they may not consider weekend access to give more priority.

Report the damp and mold to the landlord and to environmental health get the issue sorted.
At this time of year everyone has colds.
Get environmental health around first

Thank you for all your advice :) we have been to the doctors today and showed them what the mould has done, throughout the 2 years we've been here the housing association have told us for 19 months to put the heating on and open the windows to help treat it but I can't leave the window open all the time as my two year old can climb to the window sill ( we are on the fourth floor) they have also failed to do anything about it, someone from the housing came round once last year and said he would provide some wall paper for the mould, and we never heard anything back despite calling them back monthly, the tenant before us had to move out due to the living conditions here so hopefully with doctors note we will be taken seriously

I am with Irwell Valley housing association apparently a lot of tenants have the same issue

Thing is about this black mould, if it is cause by condensation then it will happen wherever you live.

I lived in my 3 bed large house for 10 years all fine. I rented it out for two years and came back to Black mould round all the windows and up the walls in the living room. They had never opened window I suspect. Once I treated it it and I now live here, again no sign of mould.

If you can't open your windows due to your child climbing out then you need to find a way to do this. You are potentially causing this problem.

Black mould is often caused by inadequate ventilation. If you have an extractor fan then you need to use it. You also need to make sure that you heat the property adequately. If you can open the windows, even on the latch, regularly then that would help. I had mould in one corner of the bathroom, where the soil pipe exited and treated it with anti-mould spray. It went away. I used to work as a housing officer for a local authority and mould on walls was a common complaint. Cooking, drying clothes over radiators, not opening windows will all cause condensation which is the cause of mould.Quite often it is the tenant and the way they use the house which is at fault. You will find excellent advice on line to help you.

I agree a lot of mold can be caused by lack of ventilation, especially if drying laundry etc in the property. We have a flat we rent out and one tenant had problems with black mold that eventually lead to her moving out very unhappily. We stayed in the same property for six years and never had a problem and in the three years since that tenant moved out there has been no more mold (we didn't do anything to address it other than clean it and aks tenants to ventilate). Sounds like a difficult situation worth your windows but wonder if it's worth looking into other options. Could they install extractor fans, dehumidifier or maybe a window screen to allow them to be safely open?

Black mold at anything about ground level is condensation and should be controlled with heating and ventilation. Could you try a dehumidifier?

Get a dehumidifier now to put on high when you out of the flat ans low.whwn tpu there It will improve things a lot.

Also get some netting to put up on window so.you can open it or speak to.housing association about safety bars. There are solutions to the issues.

I have the same problem a doctors note makes no difference they don't want to help and would rather keep us all there like that. It is the Tenants fault apparently according to all housing associations

I think that you need to show that you are trying to alleviate the problem first. I have seen a lot of people who move and take the problem with them, they still have mould because they haven't addressed the lifestyle issues that they have.

We had lots of problem in my boys’ room with black mould. The room has two external walls and high ceilings and the radiator isn’t really sufficient, but as we rent we can’t do anything about that.

We bought a cheap dehumidifier from B&Q, which helped a bit, but not enough.

We now have a 20L/day Trotec dehumidifier in there and make sure we open the windows for at least an hour a day, even if it’s just as far as the lock on the double glazing handle if we are going out.

We barely get any now, unless we too busy and forget to properly ventilate the room.

If you are allowed to paint, you can buy mould resistant paint too, which might be an option for you.

I would look at getting a decent dehumidifier and a secure way to lock the windows open a little way and see if that helps.

Do your windows have trickle vents?