Mould and landlord responsibility

[1charlie1]

Further to my previous thread 'Mould in dry bedroom', once again there is water entering via the external wall, and once again the landlord, via the agent, is showing no interest in rectifying the situation. Needless to say, we're moving out in a month. Sadly for the new tenants, they are moving straight in.
We've always kept bed linen under the bed, with no problems. However, we've just retrieved our extra duvet and it and my lovely linen bag are covered in mould. The bag was under the back of the bed, reasonably close to (but nowhere near touching) the wet patches and mould on the wall. There is other linen under the bed, which is further away from the problem wall and is fortunately fine.

Can we ask the landlord for compensation? We've sent photos, emails etc, about this ongoing problem, and never even get a courtesy, 'We have recieved your email and forwarded it to the landlord' response from the agent.

the landlord is not responsible for damage to your possessions. That will be covered by your tenant's insurance.

good you are moving out.

Thank you for your reply, specialsubject. I'm so glad we don't have to put up with the condition of the flat much longer! But I just checked our policy - damage caused by damp and mould is not mentioned in the schedule of covered events. And regardless, we have to pay a £100 pound excess for any claim. As the replacement value of the duvet and linen bag is £80, I guess we'll just have to 'suck it up'.

Call me petty and vindictive, but I really, really hope that the next set of tenants are the worst tenants ever visited upon a landlord...

ah.

the damp/mould exclusion (if it is - doesn't hurt to ask) is because all too many tenants don't heat/ventilate properly and places fill with condensation. But sounds like you have damp, i.e. a building fault.

one thing though - are you sure your landlord is getting the reports? There are rogue agents out there, and rogue landlords of course. All tenants are entitled to the contact details of the landlord.

I rented out a property where a flat roof failed, causing damp in a room. Agents didn't do contracted inspections, tenants didn't use room (!) and didn't notice. Only found out when neighbours emailed me to advise a roof garden due to all the water. Then I got it fixed, because only then did I know about it!

If the mould is from structural problems then you can tell the council and they can force them to repair the property! Mould is extremely damaging to health and this is legally enforceable!

Thanks for your posts, special and cherries. Yes, it's worth a call to our insurance to see if we can get any joy.

I'm unsure if the ll is being informed of this latest recurrence of this issue, but what has been the overriding narrative of our tenancy is: we contact agent with an issue, agent emails back 'we have forwarded your email to the ll', nothing happens for months, apart from us regularly emailing/ calling the agent, begging for updates, ll eventually acts. I'm not talking minor things like a dripping tap (which would be our responsibility anyway).

The original water ingress, where water from outside was literally running down the walls, took nearly 8 months from initial contact until the ll sent someone to look at it. We've had a problem with mould ever since. Now that the water entry is recurring, we're out of here in three weeks, so I suspect both ll and agent are stonewalling, until the next tenants arrive and the cycle can begin again...

Fortunately, all this is documented via email. Very frustrating for us though. Adding insult to injury, the agent is making noises about us needing to get the flat and carpets professionally cleaned (wasn't done when we moved in!) They have more front than John Lewis...

I do hope you will brief the new tenants.

I have an idea that one of the qualifications for a home being fit for human habitation used to be that it is substantially free from damp.

I don't know the current rules.

It would be entertaining to have the council housing officer condemn it as unfit.

seconded. As you are moving out it is probably not worth the hassle of getting the landlord's details, but I think reporting this IS worth the effort. Bad landlords bring down the rest of us.

Not much hassle making a formal written demand for the name and address of the landlord.

You are legally entitled to it, and the agent has no right to withhold it.

I'm really not trying to minimise the damage, and I would be furious if a LL refused to do anything to repair something that was causing this amount of damp, but can't the duvet and the other bedding be washed?

Thanks for more posts, people! DH emailed the agent (again...) after we discovered the bedding, and said if we don't have a response by 1pm Monday, he will come into the office to speak about it. The frustrating thing is just being continually put off - well, not even put off, just ignored. I'm sure nothing will be done, but after paying thousands of pounds to live in rather poor conditions, we would just like the courtesy of being responded to when we inform them of serious structural issues to do with the property. As a tenant, a ll who doesn't care for his own buildings (mystifying!) is a very bad person with whom to do business.

lalalonglegs, I had a thread in Chat yesterday about how to salvage the duvet (and my lovely linen bag...), and the consensus was that if the mould is black, it is very difficult to get rid of and therefore to throw the duvet away. As it is a duvet, and as such going to get warm (even a little damp) on our bodies at night, I think it is risky to have it in continual close proximity, because even after washing, the spores will probably still be in the fabric. Black mould is hard to get rid of once it has infested. An added complication is that I'm pregnant, and want to co-sleep. I would not be happy having a previously mouldy duvet near an infant, because of the link between SIDs and mould. But even if not for the baby, having a once mouldy duvet in close proximity to me and DH is not something I feel comfortable with, because the spores are bad for us too...

I had a similar situation to you when I rented a few years ago - a paste of lemon juice and (I think) bicarb got rid of all the marks on the sheets stored in a mouldy cupboard. Dry cleaning the duvet should kill all the spores so you'll be able to keep it as a spare.

HTH

I am really glad you are moving out. I lived in a flat for 3 years that was single glazed and had no heating. It also had damp problems. Despite repeated complaints to the landlords, nothing was done. Shortly after I moved out, I began to suffer from asthma for the first time at the age of 27, and now have problems breathing. I can't help thinking the damp was a factor.

That's awful, struggling. DH has been coughing in the night for about 6 months, he sleeps closest to the dodgy bit of the wall, and we are counting the days! We're off to hotter climes for the Winter, so hope that that helps too. I hope you're enjoying much better housing now.