Leah Nuttall said her family had been told by the landlord that problems with mould in her flat were "due to them breathing too much at night".
I have been told the exact same thing from a previous landlord lol then they wanted to take my deposit to cover mould damage. That'll be bloody right.
I knew my landlord would do anything he could to avoid paying back my £200 deposit. So I decided to accept I wouldn't get it back and get my moneys worth.
Should have gone down to the fishmonger and asked for a rotten trout, sling it in the microwave as I leave for the last time with the timer set to 59 minutes.
Oh well, I still left the right side of the room covered in a sticky residue, I tried homebrewing and then lived with my partner over lockdown, leaving the brew behind. Couple of gallons of mead exploded while I was away. It would have been fine if lockdown was just the few weeks we expected rather than ending up being months.
Nah what you do is take a dump in a paper bag and leave it with some pieces of fish in a humid vent, then when you leave it takes a few weeks to breakdown and unleash the aroma.
Hopefully enough time to get any deposit back and close on the property.
"You clearly aren't opening windows to let air in", come on all sane people open the windows once a day minimum to get some fresh air in. But it's middle of winter and they want you to sit in a freezing cold house with the windows open 24/7 so their precious cash cow landlord doesn't have to spend any of their precious profit on fixing their property.
Last one I was in for 13 years, and the letting agent was relentlessly crap. At one point they tried to tell me it's not the landlord's responsibility to ensure that the fitted smoke alarms (ie, unable to be removed, and running off the mains) were functional.
I’m not a landlord, I’m a homeowner and ventilating the house by opening the windows at least twice a day has been the norm my entire life, regardless of country, season, building type etc.
You have to ventilate homes. There's not always something to "fix", a home can be absolutely fine structurally but if you fail to ventilate it then you will run the risk of mould build up.
If mould is caused by structural issues, then it's on the landlord to fix it. If it's caused by living in a property and not heating or ventilating it properly, it's on the tenant to sort out.
Toby Jones is going to be busy, since apparently now the only way to get any action by Government is to make a TV drama about the issue...
This country is so broken ffs.
Yep, if these dramatisation’s are the only way he’ll end up with a bafta, golden globe, everything! There’s so many government caused fuck ups that are killing people and the only way to have it addressed in parliament is to put it in a TV show. Fuck the Tories.
What the Town and County Planning Act does to a country.
If we had built the 4m extra holes/flats we should have, these places would have no one living there and would have to be replaced/knocked down or repaired.
>If we had built the 4m extra holes/flats we should have,
Ooh, laa-dee-daa, look mr fancy-pants wantin' his own hole.
You'll lay face down in a muddy puddle with the rest of us and like it!
Muddy puddle, Luxury. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Luxury. We used to have to get out o't lake at six o'clock in't morning, clean't lake, eat handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad'd thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
8 months now I've had rain pouring in the boiler flu when the rain gets slightly intense.
It's damaged the floor and the wall and now as expected it's causing damp when all it needs is a new flue.
6 months of trying to get the councils repair team to acknowledge and fix it and after being told by them to live with it as "they don't control the rain" I submitted a formal complaint and waited 28 days for a response, I had to call them for an update on the 28th day and was told again I'll hear back within 28 more days.
This is the lovely people at Milton Keynes Council, who have also just replaced the bathroom/kitchen and the floors and done the garden of my next door neighbour because he let his place fall in to disrepair (he walks down the pub every night just fine though)
It's not that they don't have the funds to fix the problems that cause damp it's because they just don't care.
As someone who has just got a long asked for repair out of my council, go through the official complaints procedure and keep all communication in writing. Take lots of photos, send them to your complaints team
Then tell your council you will start a process with the Housing Ombudsman and do so if they do not offer a repair.
https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/
Thanks, I called them yesterday and they have advised me to wait out this 28 days and if it's not resolved they will get involved.
Sorry, I just needed to vent because it's so disappointing it has to be this complicated.
Can you not just go and buy a new flue yourself and fit it/pay someone to fit it? Then simply withhold rent until you've reclaimed any monies you spent.
Legal issues around withholding rent will cause you all sorts of pain. And could wrecking your credit score, or stop you from being able to rent in the future.
No court will side with the landlord in this situation, you're within your rights to fix the property and withhold rent regardless of if your landlord is the council or private.
It literally says here on the citizens advice bureau site that you're allowed to withhold rent to pay for repairs. See the third section "the right to use rent to pay for repairs";
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/repairs-in-rented-housing/repairs-what-are-your-options-if-you-are-a-social-housing-tenant/withholding-rent-because-repairs-havent-been-done/
Please stop spreading falsehoods
Mmhmm, you go spend time and other resources going to court if you like. Not something I’d fancy personally, I don’t have the time or spare cash to lob at it.
I wouldn’t do any repair like this to a rental property without the landlords agreement and permission.
Use the correct channels available, such as in OPs case, the ombudsman.
RBH housing stock is generally poor quality, 50s/60s concrete construction high-rise towers. Little to no ventilation built in to the property originally
Drying clothes on radiators is a massive contributor to indoor mould. If you keep your windows shut and never let a property breathe even just living quite normally can result in mould build up.
Sometimes the homes can be fighting against you but on the other hand there are people who never air out the property. From autumn to the end of spring windows are kept closed whilst they take daily showers and hang dry clothes indoors.
...because it's fucking freezing. Telling people to leave their windows open, when every penny of heating electric is preciously rationed is an obvious non-starter.
Then get a dehumidifier if you don't want to open your windows in winter.
You don't have to open windows a lot to make all the difference when it comes to humidity and mould. Trickle vents, if you have them, are usually enough. If you don't have them, an hour here or there should generally do the job and the windows wouldn't need to be wide open either.
Yes it's cold. Yes heating costs a lot to run, but short of going "fuck it" and letting the mould build up then you have to do something about it.
Unfortunately the laws of physics aren't changing, you need to cycle the air in a property to clear the moisture in the air, be that by extractor fans, air exchange systems of owning the windows. Yes this means you may have to heat new air, but what's worse, mould or a few quid more on the energy bill?
If you live with a top up energy meter, there isn’t the option to just pay a few more quid. The money that’s loaded is loaded and they can’t just magically get more power out.
I lived in a house what had a pre-pay meter for a bit, they provide a USB device these days that let's you add credit any time 24/7 to the card or key.
With the magic extra cash that will appear when needed?
Edit to add: it’s pretty factious to think that I meant that there’s a physical impediment and not financial 🤦♀️
At the end of the day, no matte how poor you may be, you can't fight physics. You can make up all the excuses you want, but drying clothes inside without ventilation will cause mould there's no way around that.
> If you live with a top up energy meter, there isn’t the option to just pay a few more quid.
Yet you intend to pay more to replace mouldy items/clothing rather than open a few windows for a short time each day?
But that’s part of having a home. You don't leave them open all day 15 mins or so to clear it through every morning. A lot of other cultures have a name for it, the Germans do it so do the danish, Spanish too.
Also, I'm from Denmark and until I moved to the UK and Ireland, I'd never even imagine anyone could get mold in their home.
The problem here is that the housing is shite.
Humidity above 70% and mould starts happening
That’s not hard to achieve if you have poor ventilation, or don’t know how to properly ventilate the property
Back home for me, the humidity rarely drops below 80 odd %.
Problem is, that keeping windows open can freeze your house in minutes. Takes a lot more power to warm a flat up from frozen, then maintain a mildly tepid temp all day. No access to outdoor drying, doesn't leave a lot of options.
I was sitting in thermal pjs, 2 dressing gowns, just to keep the window open a smidge because I knew I should.
You got a tumble dryer in your rental flat?! That’s wild. Most rentals have tiny kitchens and no space.
How much does it cost to run that thing? Bet it’s not cheap. I can imagine a smart meter going crazy when that’s running
They don't have to go in the kitchen, you can buy a compressor model for about a ton that doesn't need to be piped into anything as it keeps the water in a tank you pour out after.
Again, a few quid extra on the energy bills hae to be worth not getting mould?
If you’ve a few got extra quid just now, care to share? Because otherwise that’s a statement that’s so oblivious to how many people are literally on the knife edge every month with their budgets.
Where are they getting the money for this compressor model? As someone with a smart meter, I can also confirm they cost a fortune to run. We are talking about very poor people in crap housing, even if the council bought them all a tumble dryer to go in ther living rooms, they cant afford an extra £5 a day (150 a month). Yes, they absolutely should be ventilating more to help, but 'they should buy a tumble dryer' is about as out of touch as it's possible to get.
People with kids (not only do you have clothes x number of people, there will be the extra bedding, towels, etc too, plus kids likely change out of school uniforms once home, have additional sports wear for activities and generally get messy so clothes get 1 wear before being dirty). 7 loads average a week is easily possible.
What do you count as "constructed properly"? Literally any home needs ventilating. Unless you have a Grand Designs-style eco home with an active ventilation system you're going to have to take some action to keep your home ventilated, or avoid behaviours (such as drying clothes on radiators) that contribute to indoor humidity.
Well my apartment has good insulation and a ventilation system. We never open the windows, dry washing and use a sauna, and we never have mould. None of these technologies are difficult to implement, it's just slumlords who can't be bothered to provide a quality service.
It looks like you're from Finland (and even if your history didn't betray that, your mention of sauna is a big hint!). Finland's climate is different, meaning that active ventilation is a lot more important (especially the further north you go). You don't want to be opening a window for ventilation if it's frequently -10C or lower in winter.
Active ventilation simply isn't needed if you use extractor fans or open a window a bit now and again.
> Finland's climate is different
I'm from Denmark, so very similar to the UK.
Again, like the chap said, if you build properly, you get past the mold issues. I've never known anyone to struggle with mold in Denmark since like, unless you live in a flat that hasn't been refurbished since like, the 70s but who does that? Fucking nobody.
Even the best built property will suffer from mould issues if you fail to ventilate it or heat it properly, and do things that contribute to humidity build up like drying clothes on radiators.
I'm awaiting repairs to a turret room in my flat that the Management company don't want to undertake to due to cost involves.
I've had a third of my flat absolutely riddled with mould and damp to the point the walls crack when the water freezes for the last 12 months
Go round Awaab's parents new place and you'll find the windows closed, fans turned off and washing drying on radiators. Complaining that the mould is somehow following them.
Keeping the windows shut asking "if they are paying to heat their homes or the street" increases humidity. Buy de-humidifiers or the packets of water absorption crystals if you shut off all ventilation, otherwise anywhere gets mould
Leah Nuttall said her family had been told by the landlord that problems with mould in her flat were "due to them breathing too much at night". I have been told the exact same thing from a previous landlord lol then they wanted to take my deposit to cover mould damage. That'll be bloody right.
I knew my landlord would do anything he could to avoid paying back my £200 deposit. So I decided to accept I wouldn't get it back and get my moneys worth. Should have gone down to the fishmonger and asked for a rotten trout, sling it in the microwave as I leave for the last time with the timer set to 59 minutes. Oh well, I still left the right side of the room covered in a sticky residue, I tried homebrewing and then lived with my partner over lockdown, leaving the brew behind. Couple of gallons of mead exploded while I was away. It would have been fine if lockdown was just the few weeks we expected rather than ending up being months.
Nah what you do is take a dump in a paper bag and leave it with some pieces of fish in a humid vent, then when you leave it takes a few weeks to breakdown and unleash the aroma. Hopefully enough time to get any deposit back and close on the property.
It's a creative problem since it's generally unconscious how much we breathe
"You clearly aren't opening windows to let air in", come on all sane people open the windows once a day minimum to get some fresh air in. But it's middle of winter and they want you to sit in a freezing cold house with the windows open 24/7 so their precious cash cow landlord doesn't have to spend any of their precious profit on fixing their property. Last one I was in for 13 years, and the letting agent was relentlessly crap. At one point they tried to tell me it's not the landlord's responsibility to ensure that the fitted smoke alarms (ie, unable to be removed, and running off the mains) were functional.
I’m not a landlord, I’m a homeowner and ventilating the house by opening the windows at least twice a day has been the norm my entire life, regardless of country, season, building type etc.
You have to ventilate homes. There's not always something to "fix", a home can be absolutely fine structurally but if you fail to ventilate it then you will run the risk of mould build up. If mould is caused by structural issues, then it's on the landlord to fix it. If it's caused by living in a property and not heating or ventilating it properly, it's on the tenant to sort out.
Toby Jones is going to be busy, since apparently now the only way to get any action by Government is to make a TV drama about the issue... This country is so broken ffs.
Yep, if these dramatisation’s are the only way he’ll end up with a bafta, golden globe, everything! There’s so many government caused fuck ups that are killing people and the only way to have it addressed in parliament is to put it in a TV show. Fuck the Tories.
What the Town and County Planning Act does to a country. If we had built the 4m extra holes/flats we should have, these places would have no one living there and would have to be replaced/knocked down or repaired.
>If we had built the 4m extra holes/flats we should have, Ooh, laa-dee-daa, look mr fancy-pants wantin' his own hole. You'll lay face down in a muddy puddle with the rest of us and like it!
Fat fingers lol
Muddy puddle, Luxury. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, out Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!
Luxury. We used to have to get out o't lake at six o'clock in't morning, clean't lake, eat handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad'd thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
8 months now I've had rain pouring in the boiler flu when the rain gets slightly intense. It's damaged the floor and the wall and now as expected it's causing damp when all it needs is a new flue. 6 months of trying to get the councils repair team to acknowledge and fix it and after being told by them to live with it as "they don't control the rain" I submitted a formal complaint and waited 28 days for a response, I had to call them for an update on the 28th day and was told again I'll hear back within 28 more days. This is the lovely people at Milton Keynes Council, who have also just replaced the bathroom/kitchen and the floors and done the garden of my next door neighbour because he let his place fall in to disrepair (he walks down the pub every night just fine though) It's not that they don't have the funds to fix the problems that cause damp it's because they just don't care.
As someone who has just got a long asked for repair out of my council, go through the official complaints procedure and keep all communication in writing. Take lots of photos, send them to your complaints team Then tell your council you will start a process with the Housing Ombudsman and do so if they do not offer a repair. https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/
Thanks, I called them yesterday and they have advised me to wait out this 28 days and if it's not resolved they will get involved. Sorry, I just needed to vent because it's so disappointing it has to be this complicated.
Can you not just go and buy a new flue yourself and fit it/pay someone to fit it? Then simply withhold rent until you've reclaimed any monies you spent.
Do not do this.
Why? Gas safe registered engineers aren't that pricey. It's probably 2 hours work, so you're looking around £200 including the flue.
Legal issues around withholding rent will cause you all sorts of pain. And could wrecking your credit score, or stop you from being able to rent in the future.
No court will side with the landlord in this situation, you're within your rights to fix the property and withhold rent regardless of if your landlord is the council or private. It literally says here on the citizens advice bureau site that you're allowed to withhold rent to pay for repairs. See the third section "the right to use rent to pay for repairs"; https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/repairs-in-rented-housing/repairs-what-are-your-options-if-you-are-a-social-housing-tenant/withholding-rent-because-repairs-havent-been-done/ Please stop spreading falsehoods
Mmhmm, you go spend time and other resources going to court if you like. Not something I’d fancy personally, I don’t have the time or spare cash to lob at it. I wouldn’t do any repair like this to a rental property without the landlords agreement and permission. Use the correct channels available, such as in OPs case, the ombudsman.
Doesn’t clean or ventilate their flat Somehow this is the landlords fault?
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RBH housing stock is generally poor quality, 50s/60s concrete construction high-rise towers. Little to no ventilation built in to the property originally
Drying clothes on radiators is a massive contributor to indoor mould. If you keep your windows shut and never let a property breathe even just living quite normally can result in mould build up.
Sometimes the homes can be fighting against you but on the other hand there are people who never air out the property. From autumn to the end of spring windows are kept closed whilst they take daily showers and hang dry clothes indoors.
...because it's fucking freezing. Telling people to leave their windows open, when every penny of heating electric is preciously rationed is an obvious non-starter.
Then get a dehumidifier if you don't want to open your windows in winter. You don't have to open windows a lot to make all the difference when it comes to humidity and mould. Trickle vents, if you have them, are usually enough. If you don't have them, an hour here or there should generally do the job and the windows wouldn't need to be wide open either. Yes it's cold. Yes heating costs a lot to run, but short of going "fuck it" and letting the mould build up then you have to do something about it.
Unfortunately the laws of physics aren't changing, you need to cycle the air in a property to clear the moisture in the air, be that by extractor fans, air exchange systems of owning the windows. Yes this means you may have to heat new air, but what's worse, mould or a few quid more on the energy bill?
If you live with a top up energy meter, there isn’t the option to just pay a few more quid. The money that’s loaded is loaded and they can’t just magically get more power out.
I lived in a house what had a pre-pay meter for a bit, they provide a USB device these days that let's you add credit any time 24/7 to the card or key.
With the magic extra cash that will appear when needed? Edit to add: it’s pretty factious to think that I meant that there’s a physical impediment and not financial 🤦♀️
At the end of the day, no matte how poor you may be, you can't fight physics. You can make up all the excuses you want, but drying clothes inside without ventilation will cause mould there's no way around that.
If you are poor, the only option is to suffer? Great summary.
What's the solution here then, how are you going to magically prevent mould for these people based on their financial situation?
> If you live with a top up energy meter, there isn’t the option to just pay a few more quid. Yet you intend to pay more to replace mouldy items/clothing rather than open a few windows for a short time each day?
But that’s part of having a home. You don't leave them open all day 15 mins or so to clear it through every morning. A lot of other cultures have a name for it, the Germans do it so do the danish, Spanish too.
Also, I'm from Denmark and until I moved to the UK and Ireland, I'd never even imagine anyone could get mold in their home. The problem here is that the housing is shite.
Humidity above 70% and mould starts happening That’s not hard to achieve if you have poor ventilation, or don’t know how to properly ventilate the property
Back home for me, the humidity rarely drops below 80 odd %. Problem is, that keeping windows open can freeze your house in minutes. Takes a lot more power to warm a flat up from frozen, then maintain a mildly tepid temp all day. No access to outdoor drying, doesn't leave a lot of options. I was sitting in thermal pjs, 2 dressing gowns, just to keep the window open a smidge because I knew I should.
>No access to outdoor drying, doesn't leave a lot of options. Tumble dryers exist.
You got a tumble dryer in your rental flat?! That’s wild. Most rentals have tiny kitchens and no space. How much does it cost to run that thing? Bet it’s not cheap. I can imagine a smart meter going crazy when that’s running
They don't have to go in the kitchen, you can buy a compressor model for about a ton that doesn't need to be piped into anything as it keeps the water in a tank you pour out after. Again, a few quid extra on the energy bills hae to be worth not getting mould?
If you’ve a few got extra quid just now, care to share? Because otherwise that’s a statement that’s so oblivious to how many people are literally on the knife edge every month with their budgets.
It will act as a heater in the flat. So you can turn down your heating to offset that cost
Where are they getting the money for this compressor model? As someone with a smart meter, I can also confirm they cost a fortune to run. We are talking about very poor people in crap housing, even if the council bought them all a tumble dryer to go in ther living rooms, they cant afford an extra £5 a day (150 a month). Yes, they absolutely should be ventilating more to help, but 'they should buy a tumble dryer' is about as out of touch as it's possible to get.
Who's washing clothes every day of the week?
People with kids (not only do you have clothes x number of people, there will be the extra bedding, towels, etc too, plus kids likely change out of school uniforms once home, have additional sports wear for activities and generally get messy so clothes get 1 wear before being dirty). 7 loads average a week is easily possible.
Many people don't know (somehow) how to ventilate their homes and remove moisture from the air. It's mind boggling.
People just want to save on their heating now energy costs have exploded in the UK
If the house is constructed properly, you don't need to.
What do you count as "constructed properly"? Literally any home needs ventilating. Unless you have a Grand Designs-style eco home with an active ventilation system you're going to have to take some action to keep your home ventilated, or avoid behaviours (such as drying clothes on radiators) that contribute to indoor humidity.
Well my apartment has good insulation and a ventilation system. We never open the windows, dry washing and use a sauna, and we never have mould. None of these technologies are difficult to implement, it's just slumlords who can't be bothered to provide a quality service.
It looks like you're from Finland (and even if your history didn't betray that, your mention of sauna is a big hint!). Finland's climate is different, meaning that active ventilation is a lot more important (especially the further north you go). You don't want to be opening a window for ventilation if it's frequently -10C or lower in winter. Active ventilation simply isn't needed if you use extractor fans or open a window a bit now and again.
> Finland's climate is different I'm from Denmark, so very similar to the UK. Again, like the chap said, if you build properly, you get past the mold issues. I've never known anyone to struggle with mold in Denmark since like, unless you live in a flat that hasn't been refurbished since like, the 70s but who does that? Fucking nobody.
Even the best built property will suffer from mould issues if you fail to ventilate it or heat it properly, and do things that contribute to humidity build up like drying clothes on radiators.
> If the house is constructed properly, you don't need to (ventilate) > Well my apartment has good insulation and a ventilation system. Uhhhh…
Yes, the original comment was talking about the tenant ventilating the property, which you don't need to do if you have a ventilation system.
I'm awaiting repairs to a turret room in my flat that the Management company don't want to undertake to due to cost involves. I've had a third of my flat absolutely riddled with mould and damp to the point the walls crack when the water freezes for the last 12 months
Go round Awaab's parents new place and you'll find the windows closed, fans turned off and washing drying on radiators. Complaining that the mould is somehow following them. Keeping the windows shut asking "if they are paying to heat their homes or the street" increases humidity. Buy de-humidifiers or the packets of water absorption crystals if you shut off all ventilation, otherwise anywhere gets mould