Citizens Advice calls for ‘Awaab’s law’ to be extended to PRS

i am am doing my best to support my family manage the handful of buy 2 lets we own. in total we currently have 4 tenants.. i am aware mould in properties is an issue, and before Christmas 2022 there was a small black patch on a wall in my home. Our home has an EPC rating of 'C'.
but to be energy efficient we switched off some radiators, in rooms we were not using, and reduced the room thermostats etc. and i assume that was the reason the mould formed.
so i opened all the air vents on every window in the house and the mould has now gone. yes we did also dry a few cloths on top of 1 radiator.

so what can i do for my fantastic tenants? other than check they do not have a problem, currently. educate my tenants if they do have any signs of mould?. but if a tenant continues to carry- out 'bad practice' landlords surely are not responsible. in fact if a tenant does not do all they can to prevent mould who is responsible for any damage to the property?

i fully understand many tenants and landlords are struggling with getting the balance correct of warmth and ventilation and cash affordability, but looking to blame someone else all the time is surely not the way forwards. Even if all properties had an EPC of 'C' and above that is not going to STOP the growth of mould!, it might help.

SO how do we resolve this health issue? who is going to lead it? ALL Parties have to understand:- 1/. what mould requires to grow,
2/. how to remove it and prevent it returning to their own home.

The only thing this proposal would add is defined timetables for response, investigation and action.

If local authority licencing schemes actually inspected the properties at the commencement of the licence, this would reinforce the condition report provided with check-in inventories. Unfortunately, Southampton are the only authority who provide this, as a result of the scheme they agreed with iHowz and local landlords
https://ihowz.uk/southampton-licensing/

As Mick indicates, some local authorities are providing funding for EPC works, whether fully funded for tenants on benefits or on a matched funding basis, such as this scheme by Westminster
https://ihowz.uk/southampton-licensing/

As many of those who have posted highlight, the most common cause of damp tends to be tenants who either through lack of knowledge or apathy fail to carry out the standard tenancy requirements to keep the property ventilated and heated.

Many landlords provide their tenants with an information pack at move in which in addition to information on meters, stopcocks and appliances will advise their tenants how to avoid mould and damp as well as vermin.

iHowz continue to press the Government to publish their new MEES requirement and EPC standards and in our letter to the Chancellor requested funding to help meet these.
https://ihowz.uk/category/campaigns/

In the meantime, we could monitor the temperature and humidity in our properties with a thermo-hygrometer but most of these depend on wifi as well as tenants not tampering with them.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Cocks at 22/02/2023 - 14:59
A friend has told me about a neighbours house that has been insulated from the outside. They now have black mould in rooms inside and water running down the wall. I assume because the building cannot breathe any more, being an older house. So no I do not think there is much correlation between an EPC and the possibility of mould and damp. It depends a lot on the lifestyle of the people living in the property.

In my local supermarket there are government energy saving leaflets to pick up which actually suggests covering windows in film to eliminate all draughts (and of course nothing about trickle vents / risk of damp).

Here's the link for the Westminster scheme
https://www.westminster.gov.uk/housing/private-sector-housing/landlords/landlord-energy-grant-scheme?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

Even with an A rated property if the people who live there dry their clothes indoors and do not ventilate or heat correctly they will still experience damp. Simples

I hate to say it, but some people seem to attract mould, I have noticed that over nearly 30 years of being a landlord.
eg I can give examples of an hmo rooms which never got any mould with their various occupants over many years then got loads with one person for a tenancy, then never got any again for the next decade once they have moved on.
This was also categorically proven to me when I let 4 rooms in my former large family home. I could have easily let 8 rooms, I just wanted to keep the house nice as it was a short term measure for a year. It should have been the dream shared house. I had lived in it for 14 years with 4 children and it was immaculate. It subsequently sold for a million in 2017, so I reckon it was an ok place. One girl moved into the large front bedroom. She had come to me moaning about her terrible flat that she had no choice but to move from because it had been riddled with damp and mould and the landlord had done nothing. She was so delighted to move into a really clean modern house. I sympathised and assured her that in our home she didn't need to worry about that. Fast forward 3 months and she was making my life hell. She had mould all over her walls, on her clothes and everything. The issue was entirely her and it left with her. I have no idea what on earth she was actually doing though.
I am trying to get out of being a landlord as fast as I can now. I have no desire to be on the hook for people that don't know how to live.

Reply to the comment left by JamesB at 22/02/2023 - 22:53
Ha ha yes JamesB,

As soon as someone rings me asking for a house & says I've got to move cause this house got mould & my Landlord won't do anything about it, I think Hmm Are we sure it's all the Landlords fault. They'll come to me & have mould again.
I've had same as u, same gals move into different new houses that I KNOW don't get mould ie. 1970's mordenish don't even need extractor in a bathroom (but I do on refurb) & the gal causes mould.

I had one woman I actually called Head of Environmental Health (good rapport with him) against me cause I din't know why this woman was getting mould in this modern house. She'd been with me 10+ years, no mould, moved into this house & now mould.
My Env Health mate who I said Imagine u prosecuting me as a Landlord & you looking for something wrong with the house. He established with his 10 years more experience with me, this new house, she'd now got 2 or 3 dogs sleeping upstairs with her on hallway next to bathroom all night emitting all this more moisture.

EPC targets are not specifically linked to mould preventing. They are linked to the Govt signing the Kyoto agreement in which we, as a nation, have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The PRS has become an easy target as it is simple to pass an act forcing a rich landlord to spend on his properties, where they could never enforce it on the general public.

The simple fact that improved insulation "can" reduce mould has been jumped on, and is being used as a stick to beat us with, just because they can.

I think the easy solution for us is to create a "Mould Fact Sheet" for incoming tenants and serve it as a document with all the others. It could even be tailored for individual properties.

This is not about EPC ratings, it's about education.

You could have a property with no heating on at all - that doesn't cause mould.

This is caused by cooking, showering, drying clothes indoors and not ventilating.

When will someone just say it how it is?

Education is only for those prepared to learn and when a high majority of people now will not accept responsibility for anything, it is unlikely that the facts will sink in.