My tenant in my ground floor flat has been renting from me for 6 years. Before 6 years ago I use to live in property as my main residence as it was my home.
Since owning the property over 15 years ago, the second bedroom has always had a bit of a mould issue in the bottom corner which is an outside wall. The issue was easily managed by cleaning the mold off the wall every month or two.
Since her tenancy started in 2018 the mould has remained, but has gotten worse over the last couple of years. Again, something which until recently has been easily managed.
The tenant in the last 6 months has said that the mould is becoming worse to the point where the room is now uninhabitableā¦ (over exaggerated in my opinion), And that itās now affecting the living conditions in the property and her sons Health āapparentlyā ā¦. (The second bedroom is her teenage sonās bedroom.
I must stress that the said mould is only up to knee level in the bedroom and not any higher and only the last couple of months The mould has spread across the base of one wall. So it is getting slowly worse
I am now in the process of looking into this more seriously Through various means and Iāve come up with a couple of solutions Which hopefully will deal with the issueā¦
My question today is the tenant has now asked for a 25% decrease in rent until the issue is solved and wants to backdate it from October 4 months ago Since the issue became a serious matter.
From my understanding, this is a breach of contract? And she cannot reduce the rent at her convenience Despite the concerns raised. ?
Has anyone had issues with mould and tenants and what have you done about this and can they reduce the rent if they have a good reason to do so?
I would pay Rentokil or similar to do a damp / mould survey. They will report. It may be the tenants fault (ie not heating / ventilating enough), and a professional report stating that will cover you in case her complaints develop.
If they pick up structural issues, at least you know what you need to do to resolve.
They cannot withhold or reduce rent as long as you are shown to be receptive and active in fixing the problem.
And mold is always a sign of a underlying structural issue of the property. What has been checked? It could be water ingress, pointing problem, cracked or wrong render, lack of adequate vents installed? Is it lime mortar?
It is a concern that you expect them to clean the mold off. It needs to be professionally removed and then the external or internal problems fixed.
Mold is serious and does cause health problems. Perform a deep professional investigation and be shown to be implementing a proper fix then they canāt do anything.
WRONG ! Mould spores are everywhere in the air, and they require the right conditions to grow. These conditions could be found in cool damp places, ie in a property where humidity is high, ventilation low, and the property not consistently heated.
High Humidity need not be caused by structural issues, but could be caused by a tenant taking long showers, hang drying clothing, condensation from cooking etc.
Ventilation need not be a structural issues, but could be caused by tenant not opening a window, blocking vents, closing UPVC vents etc
Heating is certainly not a structural issues, unless the heating system is faulty, but can easily be solved by the property being heated consistently over 18 degrees.
A mould / damp expert needs to carry out an assessment.
Thanks for your answers to my post so far on the matter.
Unfortunately I am not the owner of the building as its a ground floor flat. My freeholder (Landlord) is sending someone out to survey the property and address any issues. So right now it is in their hands however this could take some time. So in the meantime I will book a mould cleaner to at least clean the room professionally which will be a temporary fix until there is a solution (if any) with the property foundations.
The main concern today is the fact that the tenant has requested a 25% reduction in rent. As stated above, they can not do this if I am so far dealing with the issue however long the lead time takes in order to find and solve it?
Thank you
I donāt wish to argue. Life is too short, and this is a friendly forum.
I prefer to stand by my initial advice that the cause of mould might be structural or non-structural, and its best to seek the opinion of an expert, which I understand the Landlord is hoping the Freeholder will now do.
I too have no mould in my properties ā¦.currently
I used to have loads of it in every property
I would say itās structural and lifestyle
Iāve had to invest a lot to eliminate my responsibilities and circumvent tenant lifestyle issues
Where there was mould a year ago it was because the tenant tampered with the PiV and humidity sensor fan ( sellotape to stop it from working )
Last year it was because the motor in the fan failed ( manufacturing fault )
Sometimes one of my modern flat properties develop mould, eg. in winter, 3 months after new tenant, used to a warm climate, moves in. My strategy is to clean the mould away in front of tenant, explain all the coldest walls, and leave them the means to repeat it, gloves, cloths, photo of suggested black mould killer and where to buy it, explain that boiling pans with no lids, drying washing without using the tumble dryer due to cost nor opening windows is main cause. I then provide a dehumidifyer and explain Martin Lewis says it costs 5p an hour, and must use when washing drying. Explain less heating is needed if humidity lower, and opening 2 windows for 5 minutes usually changes the humid air into cleaner lower hunidity air from outside.
Usually this solves the problem. If not, I do not renew the contract or I put the rent up as much as I can and friendly suggest they could be happier with a house with a garden, even show them one on rightmove! Be friendly and helpful.
Continous mould is a no no. Needs resolving for everyones benefit. Damp course injection or replacing a downpipe and gutter is cheap compared to damp damage.
I suspect @aduda400 meant that in a test group of properties WITH MOULD, 460 were caused by structural issues, rather than a test group of 500 properties in general.
That said, that would be an interesting read, so hopefully they post the source. It might be that this is an American source, given that @aduda400 has used the American spelling of Mould.
Iāve started using the calcium chloride blocks you can get in screwfix and leave them in high risk areas
You can buy them in b and m too fir much less but they donāt last as long and there is a lot more plastic wastage
Mould grows on either damp or condensation. Damp is generally a structural issue as there is some deficiency in either the damp course to prevent rising damp, or in some other aspect of drainage around the house leading to water ingress like leaking pipes, gutters, etc. Condensation is when humid air cools rapidly onto the nearest, coldest surface, usually a window but e.g. north facing walls getting no sunlight also possible. The mould doesnāt care, it will grow on both.
To be fair, it doesnāt sound like you are taking the mould issue overly seriously, and you are taking your time to deal with it. The fact that you wrote that āmould is only up to knee level in the bedroomā and that it āapparentlyā affects their health tells a lot.
Now, for as long as it was your home it could be your personal choice. But you cannot impose the view that the mould isnāt a big deal onto your tenants. You have to deal with it, as quickly as practically possible. You do seem to have started to take the issue more seriously lately by requesting the survey from the freeholder.
Back to your question about the discount - yes, I think it is reasonable to backdate it due to the fact that once reported to you, you didnāt take any actions to solve the problem.
In the meantime, It would help to provide them with a FULL-SIZED dehumidifier to at least somewhat reduce the mould growth.
Did you read the part the landlord admitted the room always had mold even before the tenant moved in?
Landlords like you never take responsibility they always find a way to pin things on their tenants. Tell me why someone paying rent is required to clean mold every 2 months?
A survey was done and the vast majority of mould was found to be caused by tenants themselves. Heat Ventilation Dehumidifier, bleach all solves most mould. Itās quite shameful the mother does not use all these remedies to protect her sonās health. As this is ongoing I would look at S21. Iāve had to get rid of tenants who caused over 7k of severe mould damage, gave them multiple warnings in writing. Never had mould before or after in this property.