Mould - who's problem is it?

[KateyCakes]

We moved into our home at the end of June. We're renting from a landlord through an estate agent. Everything was great until it started getting colder outside. Firstly condensation was appearing on all the windows and doors, then no matter how much I cleaned them, sometimes twice a day, mould grew on the windows and now it's growing on the ceilings and walls including in my daughters bedroom!

We're rang the estate agent, who told us it was our problem and we needed to ventilate the rooms more. So we scrubbed the mould off and aired the rooms as much as we could but it's grown back!

The estate agent is being snotty with me and saying it's my problem but there's nothing else I could do. FIL said the house should have either vents in the windows or walls but it has neither.

I've looked closely and can see where the previous tenant had painted over the mould in the window so it's obviously been a problem before and they've not sorted it.

I can't let my 7 month old daughter live in a mould ridden house
Is this my problem like they've said? Or is it their problem?

 

[AnnabelsMummy]

https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/pdf/Mould.pdf

it's the landlords responsibility if you can proove it's to do with something being wrong with the building.. whether it be a leak or condensation.. if their's no ventalation, it's their fault..

unless you've taken on repair liability.. then automatically your responsibility..

however
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8624932.stm (question 4)

it can be your resposibility in some cases.. however.. i would get on to your landlord and make him sort it...

it appears quite a grey area.. and they're trying to fob you off.. get onto them and harass and harass, call round environmental services..
sounds liek this is a reoccurances - meaning it's the landlords fault and the property should have never been reneted to you - if you can get this confirmed by enviromental health.. it's completely his duty to sort out!

 

[Zipp]

Unfortunately it's going to be pretty difficult to get your landlord to do anything about it. I do believe it's not your fault, theres maybe a leak somewhere letting water in and therefore mould.

We have a house we let out, we lived in it for about 4 years before letting it. The second lot of tenants complained about mould in the bathroom. we had never had any mould at all in the full time we lived there. When we rented it out within a short time all the walls, shower etc were covered in disgusting black mould. It was definitely down to the bathroom not being heated and ventilated enough.

It does sound as though you are doing all the right things but because landlords unfortunately have tenants who don't this can lead them to being unhelpful at times.

As the above poster said it will be up to you to prove that you have taken all steps possible and the mould is still there. As they said maybe try contacting environmental services to see if they will inspect the house?

The only other thing I can suggest is maybe try running a dehumidifyer for a short while each day.

 

[harveydog]

Take a look at the nhbc website - type in google 'nhbc condensation' and you'll see a link to 'guidance Notes- NHBC Home' it gives some really good advice and you may be able to solve the problem yourself, if not be able to then prove you must have a leak or damp issue if you carry out all their advice even if you don't have a new build home like me the advice is great!

When wiping mould off, ensure you put a stain block on and then emulsion over, cos if you don't stain block the stain you will see the stain spread even though there is no leak remaining

I worked for a new build and we had to deal with people claiming they had mould due to damp etc and most of the time it was little things like I.e. Drying their clothes on the rads, doing ironing for 1-2 hours with no windows open, not closing the kitchen door/windows when cooking, and like the other lady said the bathroom wasn't being ventilated by the extractor fan or window.
I wish you well but if it's not down to something you may not realise you are doing, shout from the roof tops, threaten media, environmental health etc as you don't want your child breathing in mould/damp spores especially near winter!

 

[Jemma_x]

If you can prove its not your fault and the landlord wont do anything, you can ring enviromental health and they will give the landlord a thing saying they have to do sort it in so many days and if they dont the council will sort it and charge the landlord. Its a health risk.

We had to do it in our old house and landlords got it sorted as soon as enviromental health got involved

 

[Abz1982]

We have mould in our bathrrom. It was only refitted 2 years ago, and has a fan. We use the fan AND have the window open when we use the shower. Yet the walls still get wet. Even if you have a shower that is just warm enough, there is steam that causes the wet. Its even painted with bathroom paint!

We think it is that the fan is not powerful enough - that and the fact that it is 1/3 the way down the bathroom window, which is in the middle of the wall...so there is like 3ft between fan and ceiling - where the steam goes!

I've been cleaning it off with just water - been told that even bleach can make it come back. But its stained the paint.

When they redid the bathroom they just painted the plasterboard with 2 coats normal white emulsion. and we never decorated for about 8 months as assumed it was bathroom paint. OH wants to get on to the council as we are doing all we can, bar getting on a stool and drying the walls after a shower - which I will NOT be doing! We leave the fan on after a shower for at least 2 hours and have it heated when the heating is on - which is rarely.

My parents bathroom has no fan. Is minimally heated, and has a wee window yet it never steams up or is mouldy - and its an OLD house.

I do think that maybe our water pressure has a part to play as we are in a high pressure area, so our normal shower is like a power shower, and we cant turn it down as then its either boiling or freezing as its from the boiler.

This is also why we have a tumble in the shed, as we cannot dry anything on the radiators or a rack as it makes the place damp and smell like the cats pee from the previous tennants cat.

I am going to see about that stain block stuff Harveydog has mentioned, as just painting over it after you clean it does NOT make it go away

 

[Beaney192]

I have the same problem in my house and the landord has just agreed after we kept pestering him to get vents put into the walls. At first he tried to fob us of with we need to keep windows open at all times which is impossible with a baby when it is freezing outside! For the short term we have been using dehumidifying crystals which have soked up a bit of the water but not enough! hope it gets sorted out for you as its not nice having something in your house that you can do nothing about

 

[KateyCakes]

Thank you ladies! You've been a great help. Beaney, sounds exactly like my problem!

I've pestered them so much now that I don't want to live her because I feel like I'm paying for something that isn't fit for my LO to live in. We're looking for other places to live. DH keeps having chest infections and I'm sure this mould has something to do with it.

 

[laurajo24]

My house is exactly the same. Luckily my landlords are lovely (privately rented from a couple) and they came and fitted extractor fans in bathroom and kitchen. Still having issues though.
Drying clothes indoors can make the problem worse, like on radiators.

Hope you can get it sorted x

 

[summer rain]

We have to dry our clothing indoors as our housing assoc won't allow clothes on the balcony, can't blame them really as some people were really taking the mick setting up several washing lines as well as sticking a couple of airers on the balcony; and making the place look really awful. We do have vents in the windows but they don't do much and the kitchen extractor fan is pretty weak but we just have 1-2 windows open all year round and that has sorted it-our place is quite well insultated and sheltered from the wind etc so theres not a problem with getting too cold. I found undiluted tea tree oil the best for cleaning off mould and keeping it gone, but it does really smell strongly xx

 

[huggybear]

We have the same problem here but only in certain rooms. I moaned to our landlord who had vents fitted to three rooms which helped alot but in order to have no mould grow at all we have to make sure that the windows are open all day to dry the condensation, also no furniture to be push right back touching the walls as the air cannot circulate and it stays damp behind, its a ruddy pain and I pay soo much to live here too, riles me, I also use HP Mould spray from Lakeland which keeps it away, I have a demould every month or so to keep it away during the winter months, stinks like swimming pools (but I love a good old bleach blitz anyway). I hope you get it sorted chuck. x

 

[xolily]

we have the same problem but our windows have like a "vent" setting where you open them and they lock in just leaving a tiny vent for air to come in.. since we've figured that and been opening them the damp has gone. make sure you open the bathroom window and shut the door when you're running the bath. also open kitchen window when cooking. xx

 

[xolily]

oh i also use the croc dehumidifying crystal things too.. cheap as chips in b&m if you have one xx

 

[summer rain]

we have the same problem but our windows have like a "vent" setting where you open them and they lock in just leaving a tiny vent for air to come in.. since we've figured that and been opening them the damp has gone. make sure you open the bathroom window and shut the door when you're running the bath. also open kitchen window when cooking. xx

We have those vents also and they are almost brand new windows as this is a new build and they do absolutely nada, they are all wide open-tried closing them once and it made no difference to the damp problem.xx