Good morning. Our tenants are reporting spreading mould throughout our flat in London (NW). This is actually unprecedented in the 12 and a half years of having the flat. However, we do need to get a specialist in but they are all saying it will be at least December before they can survey. The situation is urgent as they have a very young baby. Can anyone advise what I can do? I am quite anxious about the situation now.
Thanks in advance.
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What floor is the flat on?
To avoid any problems you should think about how you would control mould if you were living there. The reason “mould” grows is either (i) it isn’t mould, its rising damp, and that’s why I ask which floor you are on (it would normally only affect ground and basement) and (ii) if it is mould then ventilation and humidity are the problem. This is made worse by bills being so high now that everyone is drying washing indoors which leads to a huge amount of water being absorbed into the air and so high indoor humidity which is what mould requires. So assuming it is (ii) then you need to consider if you were living there, what steps would you have to take to control humidity, i.e. opening windows daily for ventilation, if drying clothes then opening windows, etc. Are the windows ventilated, or does tenant tape them up to keep warm? Do you need a dehumidifier? Do you need extractor fans with humidistats to turn on when sensing humidity? When you have thought through what is reasonable you need to go and get tenant committment to follow some basic rules as most likely it is their behaviour causing the problem. Basically avoiding mould means either (i) spending more on bills, or (ii) opening windows to change the air. Most tenants don’t want to do either.
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Until the survey is done, I would suggest you go over there with the right gear, (fungicidal wash, mould remover, gloves, mask etc) and show them how to remove it. Whilst you’re there you may get a sense of why its happening, eg structural issue, failure to ventilate, drying clothes over radiators etc. It may come back, but would need to be managed until a more permanent solution can be considered.
Thank so much for your detailed response. The flat is on the ground floor, and yes, there is an exterior wall that is definitely damp, but we are taking steps to remedy this. However, the other rooms where the mould is spreading (on ceiling corners and around windows) are not damp at all, so we know this isn’t the cause there. We have given them a dehumidifier and told them several times that they must open the windows. My husband visited the property and said it felt like a sauna in there. As you can imagine I am somewhat frustrated and anxious due to the age of their baby (only weeks old). They definitely do not accept that they may be contributing. We have agreed to get in a specialist and a happy to get everything remedied, but the timeframes at the moment and lengthy.
Thank you, David, we have done all of this and given them some compensation for running a dehumidifier and because they had agreed to use the mould remover etc. It is coming back each day and quickly, apparently.
This is the wrong response. They are causing this problem from their own behaviour. If they smashed one of your windows, would you pay for the damage? Its the same thing (probably). You need to first cover yourself off by making sure that there is no systemic reason why mould would appear, and it may be that certain parts of the house where the mould is more severe need to have extra ventilation. You might want to change the set up so there are extractor fans permanently connected to the mains (never let tenant control these, they will always switch them off as they are “noisy”) and then draw up a simple “guide to ventilation and humidity control” to sit down and have a firm discussion with the tenant. On the one hand, with the cost of bills, you can’t expect people NOT to dry clothes indoors and keep all windows closed to maintain temperature, on the other hand the tenant needs to understand that is the cause of the mould and they are responsible for mould damage. You cannot just roll over and do everything for them.
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