Renting- Mould

[Jasmine1002]

I am currently renting a flat with my boyfriend, we got in contact with our landlord last week as we have just found bad mould in our bedroom under our bed.. when I say bad I mean shockingly bad. I have messaged him today and they haven't replied. Anyone know what we can do as all he did was send us a dehumidifier.. help is really appreciated?!

What sort of bed is it? Have you been keeping lots of stuff under there?

Do you leave the window open a bit all the time? If not, you probably need to

But mould killer from DIY shop, along with some gloves and a face mask, and give it a super good scrub then leave the room to ventilate thoroughly til the area is properly dry. Sleep elsewhere if you can

*buy

Mould (as opposed to damp) tends to be a tenant issue. PP has good advice.

It's an ottoman bed, we had some stuff under like shoes, bags, bedding and little bits and Bob's but took that out and had to bin half of it because it got ruined. I have got mould spray and have done the walls it's just our bed and under the bed that's the main issue.
When we spoke to the landlord the first time he admitted he knew it was bad for mould as before we moved in he replastered, painted and put a new carpet down. We have the window open when we can but it's a big window and we are on the ground floor flat

Ottoman beds are worst for being breading ground for mould

I once moved my old bed to find a similar situation, I scrubbed everything clean and disposed of the bed, now have a frame bedstead and ensure I only keep a few storage boxes under with plenty of airflow.

I also make sure the bedrooms get a daily airing.

If you look at your phone under the duvet for just 10 seconds the screen is foggy and you’ll start to feel clammy, that’s how much moisture we create from doing nothing.

It builds up fast if it can’t escape

You need to move furniture fairly regularly, not over fill the space, crack a window as often as possible and not dry washing without a dehumidifier. Those are precautions. If you have been doing none of those things, it's your responsibility not the landlords.

Damp is different from mould, though, as others have said.

I try to have the windows open as much as we can we have it on lock on a night and throughout the day my boyfriend sleeps so can't have it open properly with us been ground floor flat. I wouldn't mind but the bed is almost new and so it the wardrobe we moved in January 2019. When we spoke to the landlord he said he knew about it as the tenants before mentioned it so it was completely replastered and painted, with new carpet

Op l am a LL and l have seen this so many times before.
Put the dehumidifier in the bedroom close to the bed and run it 24/7. Empty daily.
Clear junk so air can circulate under the bed
When you shower, and afterkeep the bathroom door shut, and extractor running for at least an hour after.
Never dry laundry in the bedroom, put it over, or in the bath and run the extractor fan.
Open window when you are home.

Airing a property is your responsibility and your LL has done the right thing giving you a dehumidifier, assuming you also have a bthroom extractor, the onus is now on you.

The bedroom and the shower are at other ends of the flat, the door to the bathroom is always closed, there is no extractor in the bathroom, whenever I cook I have the kitchen window open. We dont put wet washing on the bedroom radiator. We have the windows open when we can

See if your landlord would be happy to instal window locks to just allow the window to open a fraction. When I bought my current house (has been rented out for many years) there was mould in quite a few places where furniture had been. After a good clean and keeping windows in every room open a slit, it has never returned.

My windows have two sets of locks, one at the sash join which would hold them competent shut, the others screw into the frame a couple of inches up the window.

your flat should have a bathroom extractor, and a kitchen extractor as even though it is at the opposite end of the flat the steam will spread and add to the problem, as will cooking steam.

I would get on to your LL and insist on these two fans being installed. Ones with humidistats are best as they sense damp and come on immediately, l have them in every bathroom and kitchen.

We have the bedroom one open on the lock, we have the living room one open when we can and as I said the kitchen one when I cook. I will mention It to the landlord when I hear back from them as we are been ignored at the moment.

We've had mould before, it was actual damp though, we had heating on constantly, running dehumidifiers and windows open as that's what LL wanted. Cost us a fortune.

If it's damp, realistically your LL just isn't going to fix it until they absolutely have to. Just move.

I think it's against the law now though so you can look into that, think new laws came in from beginning of march

I think i have seen something about this new law that has just come in place. If we could just move we would but can't afford to. I'm worrying that because there is mould on the carpet that we aint going to get our deposit back and without that we wouldn't be able to get another place plus we have 3 months left on our lease

This is the new law and it doesn't apply to you at the moment as your tenancy began before 20th March.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018/guide-for-landlords-homes-fitness-for-human-habitation-act-2018

If it is causing serious health problems - you can call Environmental Health and ask them to come and inspect the property under the HHSRS and go from there.

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/health_and_safety_standards_for_rented_homes_hhsrs

Unfortunately some LLs wont like this and may take steps to start eviction proceedings so you need to weigh up how best to proceed.

Mould generally means insufficient ventilation and heating. Either spend the money on heating and ventilate it more or deal with the mould as it grows.

We rented a place years back which had similar issues and ended up bleaching it then sticking a £10 tub of magnolia over the room when we moved out.

Is it definitely mould on not damp though?

Ours was everywhere, and I think it was poor ventilation, but we made sure we went to LL for help, asked their advice, kept them up to date with what we were doing etc. Ask them if there was anything they could do, reported all the issues. We knew they wouldnt do anything but when we came to move out they couldn't really charge us for it then. Plus he's already admitted it was an issue before you.

We stayed where we were, due to circumstances not much choice. It just got worse and it was miserable, to me damp is just horrible, but plenty of people live with it fine all the time.
You can buy those little dehumidifier pots from like b&m too maybe you could shove those behind your bed as well?
Just don't let it start to smell!

I think its damp that's then caused the mould, it's on our walls bed and wardrobe. We have a dehumidifier and I have bought them little tubs, 1 near the wall, 2 under the bed and 2 in the wardrobe. I have tried to speak to landlord however had no reply.