When I once moved into a flat like that, I bleached the walls down, aired the place out and ensured it then had adequate ventilation by simply opening the windows from time to time. Result? Mould free. Why do some people expect others to do *everything* for them. Bloody cheek. If you can't be arsed to clean the property you've been generously given, then you can always f*ck off back to Africa, mate.
People today are not taught how to actually do those things. It was a council flat I think and there you must let the council do it.
Here (Scotland). The councils responsibility ends at "wind and water tight" it is down to the tenant as regards cleaning, decoration, rodents etc
>Cursitor Doom snipped-for-privacy@notformail.com posted
You know what, I had a shit last Friday and I'm still waiting for the council to come and flush it away.
I've dealt with this in some friends' rented properties. There are several causes and you really need to identify which it is before assigning blame.
1) There may be faults in the building fabric resulting in moisture penetrating from outside. 2) There may be areas of missing insulation, resulting in cold walls, ceilings, etc which are going to spend time below the dew point temperature. 3) The heating may not be able maintain all internal surfaces above the dew point. 4) Positioning of furniture against externals walls can generate cold spots behind which drop below the dew point. 5) The heating may be turned down too low or off, resulting in internal surfaces dropping below the dew point. 6) The occupier may be generating excessive moisture, such as boiling pans generating excessive steam, drying lots of clothes, etc. 7) The occupier may have restricted ventilation to save heating, or there may be a lack of suitable ventilation (such as an extracting cooker hood). 1,2,3 are clearly the landlord's responsibility. 4 is the responsibility of whoever positions furniture. 5,6 is the occupier's responsibility.A significant issue is that few people understand the physics behind damp, and therefore not realise they are causing it. This is particularly true of many who occupy social/rented housing, but few landlords will know much about it either. Many tradesmen brought in to fix a problem are clueless too.
It certainly isn't always the case that the landlord is to blame.
I haven't heard any technical details of the damp in the Rochdale case, so no idea what the cause is. However, the fact it was raised so many times by various support workers and nothing was done to even investigate (just told tenants to pain over it) is inexcusable.
the only thing worse than a council tenant is one that has bought and still thinks they should get everything for nothing ....
condensation
Some photos of this news story show mould in unexpected places. For example there's mould on the wall above a radiator:
While the whole building seems to have a reputation for damp problems, surely these examples show occupier action. Perhaps the parents lacked familiarity with how to avoid high humidity inside a house because they were brought up in a hot and sunny climate.
Drying laundry on it, perhaps?
What's wrong with council tenants?
Persons who feel entitled yes I can see but why council tenants?
It does not always work like that though, it depends where the spores are actually coming from in thefirst place. Brian
It would be helpful for a third party to offer a 'mould audit', who could look at the problem and recommend action to both landlord and tenant.
For example, once had a problem with fungus growing in a newly (cheaply) installed shower extension. Turned out the problem wasn't rising damp, but a flimsy shower curtain was causing shower water to splash out of the shower tray and soak into the plaster. The curtain was replaced by a screen and the problem went away.
+1 Simply having somebody investigate the problem and offering recommendations (written, so they can be translated if needed) would have helped. It's hard to know what happened in this case without the details, and whether 'just paint over it' was response 1 or response 42 in the process, but seems like a catalogue of failings whichever way.(I read that after 3 years the tenant instructed lawyers, which caused the housing association to cease doing any remedial work. That's not a good look on the HA's part)
Theo
Obviously you are a dyed in the wool remoaner and labour supporter
Because we've spent decades creating a culture of need and zero responsibility.
We had 'damp' in our bedroom, as you say I cleaned it off, moved furniture away from the cooler outside facing walls and we crack the window open while we are out at work all day.
I'm sick of reading the sob stories of tenants in our local online rag, "the landlord won't do anything", about what? Condensation? FFS.
If the occupants had moved from a mud hut they might not have seen mould on walls before and not know what to do about it.
One would have thought with all those costly lawyers and translators and whatnot that at least one of them would have explained there are some basic elementary things the tenant is expected to carry out for themselves.
How do you know that the tenants didn’t try the usual remedies? Doesn’t suit your racist standpoint perhaps?
Tim
like how to gain compensation
Almost certainly ambulance-chasing lawyers who had their eyes on a big payout from the HA.
Was this a house or block of flats (with no outside safe space where laundry could be dried) ?
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