HELP! 8 Months pregnant and rental has damp/mould

[MargotChateau]

Moved into a ground floor apartment building three weeks ago.

When we moved in, the fresh paint fumes were so bad I had to sleep somewhere else for a few nights. When the smell went and I stayed, I noticed a few things;

*the freshly painted ceiling had bubbling wallpaper over the area near the windows on the bedroom/nursery
*The windows in all rooms especially the two bedrooms are wet with condensation everyday, pooling on the window sills
*yesterday I noticed the plaster on the corners of one bedroom window are wet with tiny patches of mould
*bedding feels damp
*books curling from damp
*salt lamps weeping pools of water

How I've managed this with no results,

*have heating on (even though the weather is still mild and I wouldn't have put heat on at my old house)
*bought a mini dehumidifier which is fulling up very quickly but not making a dent in the damp
*We both work full time, but have the windows ajar when home (ground floor so can't leave anything open when home)
*Notified the letting agent but they said that we needed to contact landlord, and that the house was shut up for some time after painting.

I looked on Shelter, which gave advice to notify landlord, but I'm worried how to do this, as I suspect they will blame us, though I think they have just painted over damp/mould. I also worry they will just get rid of us than deal with it.

Any advice for writing the letter? I can attach images for those needing to see.

There’s some info on here
www.permagard.co.uk/advice/damp-rental-properties-what-to-do

At the very least it is rented and not owned. What's the tenancy and how soon can you get out?

We have a six month break clause, so we could break tenancy but it would mean that from newborn till 4 months our baby would be in a damp mouldy house.

Is there one room better than other - assuming two bed? If so have you and baby in there and get out at 4 months. Not much help with the damp but you don't need that problem with everything else.

Thank you, this information is helpful, we have done all we can as tenants to sort the problem, but I'll use the wording/language from your link to describe what we have done to combat it, and the issues we are experiencing.

@geraniumsandsunshine the sitting room is the best room, the rooms that are the worst effected are the bedrooms that have two walls that are exterior walls. The rooms that adjoin to the flat next door have less issues.

Not ideal, but could you rent an industrial size dehumidifier for a few days - if you can get the worst of the damp out of the air it might be easier to keep on top of via ventilation in the long run.

First of all, get a set of the small digital thermometers / hygrometers (measuring humidity) - that will give you an idea of just how humid those two bedrooms are. Never let the humidity get over 70%, the closer to 60 the better. I got a set of 3 from Amazon for less than 20 quid.

Don‘t keep the window ajar all day - open it wide a few times a day for 5 minutes or so, at a point when the radiator is off so you’re not wasting heat. I get you‘re on the ground floor, but standing close by for 5 minutes must be doable. Far more effective than having it ajar (and less wasteful of heat).

Get a larger and more effective de-humidifier, and put it on for an hour each morning in the room you‘ve been sleeping in, and whenever you go over 70%.
Get into the habit of wiping down the windows every morning - apparently there’s a device that sucks up the water for you, but surely it’s easier to just get a cloth over it.

If you still have mould after doing all those things, it’s likely to be structural. Move if you can!

Dehumidifiers take a while to work their magic if it's really damp - took me 2 weeks to notice a difference, amount of water decreased etc.

Airing the rooms helps, don't push furniture right to the wall if you can help it and wip windowsills daily

Can you break a tenancy agreement based on damp/mould issues? Thanks for the advice re hygrometers I'm going to buy some off Amazon today to keep an eye on the issue and record the daily humidity so we have it should the landlord not attempt to resolve the issue.

Start getting stuff in writing and become a flea in your landlords ear. It is not your responsibility to start buying kit to dehumidify the place, it's his/hers to get it sorted and maintain their property so it is habitable. They presumably are fully aware or your letting agent is if they've just painted over it.
After yesterdays horrendous news about the child in Rochdale I would start making a very loud fuss promptly. They'll either let you go with your deposit to shut you up or get it sorted properly

Thank you @TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams , I have the thought of that baby in my mind and feel sick I'm pregnant in an unsafe house, without recourse to break the lease until the six month mark. We haven't even told them I'm pregnant yet. I'm battling through a new job on probation, severe morning sickness throughout the pregnancy and SPD so bad I'm on crutches, when it rains it pours. )-:

What sort of building is it and how old is it?
I’d say break the tenancy as soon as possible, and in the meantime keep on top of the mould with regular/daily cleaning. It won’t become any hazard to your baby if you bleach it out.
Fucking landlords!

As well as dealing with the situation as per thread suggestions in the long tune, in the short run you need a much more powerful dehumidifier.

I have one that I bough from an office company. It filters as well as dehumidifies. It is quiet - this is important - and dries the laundry a treat too. It cost £200, well worth it. I should have been running it this autumn sooner, instead of letting the place get damp due to not having the heating on enough, but I had it in storage.

Whereever your baby sleeps, use the dehumidifier in that room most of the time and move it round the house from time to time and then back to there again.

You might also need to do some remedial sanding & painting yourselves in the same colour with proper mould-repelling paint or undercoat. Well not you, your husband or a professional. And not while you are in the building, stay somewhere else for a bit while it is done. Technically you wouldn't be meant to as it's rented, but if you document what you did and why at every stage, when you move out, the landlord would be extremely unlikely to want to withhold the deposit and have this come out into the open. And they would almost certainly lose their case.

without recourse to break the lease

You could try arguing that they are in breach of the contract due to concealing a damp problem especially when they could see that you are pregnant, and also not remediating it effectively. Ergo, no lease to break.

If you take your chance they probably won't chase you for the money, they'll just try to get someone else in ASAP. They probably wouldn't win. It depends how bad it is, your health now and your baby's is important. Be careful with using strong chemicals in the house when you are pregnant or with a small baby too.

Get legal advice on this ASAP. Still get the proper dehumidifer though, today or tomorrow if possible.

Definitely get a dehumidifier for the short term. The good ones make a huge difference. Our bedroom in north facing and when it is wet we used to have a mould problem. Since we got the dehumidifier (we got a meaco) we have had no issues at all. We had to run it for a few days to dry out the room. And I cleaned all the mould with bleach. now we turn it on every morning for about an hour, let it get down to 58 (humidity level) and we haven't had any mould or smell of damp since.

Start by cross ventilating properly to dry out paint. Try 30min/1 hour with all windows open and heating off, try and create as much draft as possible. With the amount condensation you describe, there must be something inside the flat that creates water vapour. Do you close the bathroom door when showering? Do you have working extractor fans in your bathroom and kitchen? Are they working properly (hold up toilet paper in front of it and see if it gets sucked towards it) After every shower/cooking I would switch on the extractor fans and open the window wide for 5 min while turning heating off. Is the boiler possibly leaking? That can create massive amounts of vapour. HG mould spray is amazing should any black spots develop. But wiping windows dry should help prevent it. Some condensation is inevitable, albeit it sounds excessive in your place.

We just bought a Meaco dehumidifer. The instruction booklet said it takes up to 4 weeks to get the humidity down when you first start using it and will need to empty it a lot. then after that you’ll empty it less frequently. My friend had theirs on constantly for 2 weeks in a 1 bed flat. Humidity was in the 70s and now mostly stays around the low 50s and they use the dehumidifer less/ only in problematic rooms. But they had it on 24/7 for 2 weeks.

You could also tell the agent/landlord to get a rental big humidifier delivered by next weekend at their cost and a rent discount for the electric it will cost to run it.
This is the landlords issue, not the OPs.

Thank you so much to the recent posters, I’ve sent a polite but firm email detailing the issues, asking if it is a historic issue with the house (I’m sure it is) and requesting they come in person to inspect the issue.

My local council states that they have 14 days to respond and instigate an investigation/solution, so I’ll see what they come back with and if I’m not happy with the response I’ll report them to the local council.

Thanks so much for the advice and hand hold, this pregnancy is a precious IVF one after two losses, so I’m understandably very anxious and upset, as usual mumsnet comes to the rescue.

Any other mumsnetters, landlords or tenants with experience with damp/mould and their resolutions, I’m a giant ear for your advice 🥲😅

Definitely ask your landlord to supply you with a powerful dehumidifier or more than one if necessary as a matter or urgency and to cover the extra electricity costs to run it. Follow the good advice you have been given above and in a month either the problem is under control or you think about leaving. We rent out a flat and when our tenants needed a dehumidifier (it wasn't a structural problem, more to do with lifestyle) we made sure they had one right away.

@maskersanonymous thank you, I will definitely ask for a more powerful dehumidifier and to cover the costs of running it.

May I ask what the lifestyle issues were that caused the damp in your situation in case their is something I’ve not thought of?

I’ve never had this issue before in ten years of renting, but I suspect in my situation it is a historic issue as there warning signs of damp when we moved in.

I think the tenants really liked lots of long showers and baths and did an awful lot of cooking! I suspect they weren't using the fans or opening the windows much either as we never had the same issue with other tenants before or after. In any case the dehumidifier worked brilliantly (and I now use it to dry my washing in my own house).

@maskersanonymous ah that’s interesting, and a relief as it’s not our lifestyle then.

I can only manage short showers with my pregnancy spd and we eat an awful lot of takeout or cold meals, thanks to my severe ‘morning sickness’ (all day sickness really!) causing me to be sick at the smell of food cooking. Also those two rooms are the least effected rooms. Phew! Glad it’s not me, I’ve never had these issues before.