Mould in rented flat
 

My wife stayed for a couple of days with our daughter in London this weekend who rents a flat with two other girls in Tooting. Flat is quite pleasant apart from some pretty horrendous mould over much of bathroom. Now the girls get on reasonably well with landlord but he seems immune to requests to get the mould sorted. I suspect it would need some work over and above a lick of anti-mould paint. Anyway that is landlord's problem.

My question is whether the landlord has any legal responsibility to get it fixed? It's probably a bit strong to say it's a health hazard but my daughter certainly gets more than her fair share of coughs and colds - probably late nights though :)

Flat is rented through an agency and I don't have tenancy agreement to hand to look at small print. My daughter is in final year of post grad course so doesn't have the time to look for somewhere else. I am just looking for background ammunition to quote to rental agency.

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Incidentally they went to see "We Will Rock You" now in its 9th year. Really enjoyed it (wife is a Queen fan) and guess who popped up to play the Bohemian finale - Brian May. Made her weekend :thumb:

Thanks, David

I would say he *must* get it seen to, though that is just my opinion rather than actual fact. I was thinking along the lines that it's a health hazard, at least potentially. Our last (rented) house had a damp problem in my lad's room and he was awfully chesty. Moved him to a different room and right as rain .....

Dave

Not sure on the legals but mold can be lethal, literally it can kill you. Need to get some bleach out and clean it off and then get it painted with anti-mold paint. There must be ventilation in the bathroom - is there? If not then that is the avenue to take with the rental agent.
I know nothing has been proved but do a search on google for "Mold Brittany Murphy"

When I was a student I lived in a house with mushrooms and slugs everywhere.

It is a legal responsibility for the landlord to sort it out he must provide a clean and safe enviroment for his tennants, if he choose's not to then legal action can be taken. First you will need to test for 'Toxic' mould, if the landlord doesnt want to pay for this test then you can purchase self testing kits, if it turns out to be toxic and is airborn then you have him by the balls, you can claim compensation for illness etc....! this is a long and expensive route to go down and it needs to be very bad before getting lawyers involed, however just the suggestion of illness/testing to the landlords agent will be enough for him to pull his arse in gear and get it sorted, trust me i have been there.!!

hope this helps!!

:D +1

Rentals need to have an extractor IIRC ? although some people seem incapable of opening a window, steamy steamy ! condensation damp is common in rentals from experience and more often than not its old houses that were supposed to breathe and have been insulated and carpeted etc. Also new builds that have 10 tonne of insulation and again tenant's that never open a window ! :)

I'd write a letter or phone the Agency, these things are normally sorted ok if approached professionally. Take pics and log growth worsening. :)

Ah so that's what did it :) (I just had cockroaches in the States!)

But thanks for comments above. There is a window and rad in bathroom but no extractor so pretty basic. I wish I hadn't Googled Brittany Murphy, poor kid :mad:

But I think there is certainly enough to say the girls have concern at possible health risks, at the very least. David

We never had a high opinion of our fellow students either ..... :D

Dave

Interesting read :)

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

Was going to direct you to the same thing from 53WRX. There is an element of tenent responsiblity for condesation mould versus mould caused by something structural. Essentially, open a window in the bathroom, make sure the heating goes on etc etc. Somewhere in the contract it will say the tenant has to keep the place 'fired and aired' so they might see any painting costs come from their deposit.

5t.

fivetide is totally correct, my pervious post can only be true if the tennant has followed all the steps within the contract. If so then its still the landlords responsibiliy to sort it!! trust me!!

Thanks for further info chaps, seems to be a science in its own right.

I don't think they have the time or budget to go down the toxicology route, at this stage anyway.

Now flat is on ground floor in Tooting so I can understand why three girls might be reluctant to open the bathroom window much :)

I'll think I'll mail my daughter and tell her to get some photos and write a polite request to agency requesting, again, that it is sorted promptly with an emphasis on the health aspects. Installation of an extractor and perhaps a wall heater might be a start.

Advice is appreciated :) David

David, something we used in a rental flat which proved to be the best thing we ever bought was a cheap B&Q de-humidifier. They cost about £60 and are cheap to run, if the house is shut up all day then the 'lifestyle' factors of mould build up can be reduced by running on of these. :) cured our excess humidity living in a 2 bed with cooking bathroom sleeping etc in an enclosed space then shut all day when we are at work. Obviously yours needs sorting but one of these will reduce the likelihood of it returning short term :)

Good tip :thumb: But this couldn't go directly into bathroom (may be it could with proper electrics?) where main problem is although I guess any overall humidity reduction would be good.

Might suggest this to the landlord via agency. He did get them a brand new fridge freezer recently so he's not all bad!

David

3 girls sharing a flat you say...I'll come and remove the mould for free
















Gathers up hidden cameras:D

You realise you would have to hang around for a while to make sure it did not come back!

Les ;)

We had it in the Hall way, it's a 3-4 bedroom capacity/draw dehumidifier :) on our one you can have it drip to tank or drip via a hose connection to an outdoor drain, yard etc...