Mould in student house

[jesper1]

Hoping for some advice
My daughter is in a student rental which is not well maintained. Landlord tries to do himself but isn't skilled
As its got colder her room has mould
One other bedroom had it bit my daughters room seems to be the worst
She is opening windows they do have the heating on although her room doesn't get warm
The wall in there which is external is wet and her landlord has suggested drying with a hair dryer!!
He has given her a dehumidifier ( She says it's very old and so far not made much difference)
I have also brought her a small heater
Am worried about her health and the fact that he doesn't seem to be doing anything else

I think the wet wall shows an issue, but he won't investigate

Any ideas what we can do ?

Thanks I will tell her to do this too

That's exactly how I feel he is not addressing it just blaming her when it's clear there could be an issue

I will have a look into the council tomorrow thank you

Use a bleach/ mould-mildew spray on it? It disappears

Done that. It then comes back

Why isn’t your daughter sorting this out herself?

You need a mould killer not just a bleach remover spray. Can get them in B&Q, Ronseal and similar do them. I think white vinegar also works.

Sounds very much like it's a condensation problem rather than a leak. The only way to cure that is much better ventilation and decent heating. If all the others are cooking/drying clothes/having showers the house must be full of moisture.

I had a problem with mould when I owned a student let and telephoned various companies to deal with it.

The biggest and best known (Rentokil) asked me immediately if the mould was black. It was.
They said it was lifestyle. I have since done research and it is right.
Black mould is really common in student houses because the students wont put the heating on because it is too expensive and they wont open the windows because it will be too cold. Even without drying washing etc in the house, the combination of breath, showers, baths etc means the moisture levels in the house rise and if they wont put the heating on or ventilate black mould happens.
Google black mould. Rentokil actually have stuff on their website about it.

We have mould in our bedroom, luckily not our children's room.

We use mould remover but it keeps growing and now has hair 🤮

The heater in our bedroom barely works and the LL has painted over all the ventilation in the flat.

It's got worse since it got colder. They replaced the heater today so hope that will help BUT it won't get rid of the mould for good.

She is a but is asking for advice as I would have done at 18 as well.
She has dealt with the landlord and purchased proper mould cleaner and cleaned
She is just unsure of next steps as its not getting any better

Thank you
I think the rest of the house are against more heating so she now has a separate heater for her room
She is ventilating it too daily so hopefully it will improve after this

Yeah she used a product especially for that but thank you

We have mould. I had a mould specialist round who told me not to take bleach as it doesn’t work. I sprayed white vinegar on neat, left it an hour and scrubbed it off, (wearing a mask, gloves etc) and it hasn’t come back. It’s been a couple of months so far.

Agree, the landlord needs to sort.

Unfortunately it is overwhelmingly likely it is down to lifestyle. You even said the rest of them are against more heating. All she can do is get a heater or dehumidifier in her room. But the rest of them may well kick off about that if they think they are being frugal with the heating and she is heating her room.

A friend of a friend emailed me about this because she know I had rental properties. I told her exactly what I told you and she went off in a huff. You are clearly more level headed and balanced!

I have told her not to tell the others about the heater and any raise in electric can be blamed on the landlords dehumidifier

I know it's def part lifestyle the one external wall that is wet does concern me as well and when I visit I will check out the gutter in case

There may be a leak somewhere. Is the wet patch near a gutter? Or obvious leak? Not conclusive as water travels downwards and any ingress could be some way away. If the whole wall is wet it is probably lifestyle. Mould is usually found on the external wall because that is the coldest and usually least ventilated.

As a general rule there are 3 types of causes of damp.

1. Lifestyle. So condensation and therefore black mould.
2. rising damp. Generally you can see salts around the wet patches.
3. Water ingress. Look for the source.

i always give my tenants leaflets on damp now before it gets to the black mould stage.

Whatever you do do not mix bleach and vinegar. The mixing of alkaline bleach and acidic vinegar will cause the release of chlorine fumes which are highly toxic.

Thanks will warn her of that one in case