The Generation Rent group of activists is promoting a petition calling for private landlords to pay damages to tenants in some cases of damp and mould.
The petition - on the 38degrees site - is from an individual but is being promoted on social media by Generation Rent, which also has its name on the petition site.
The petition is aimed at Justice Secretary and deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, currently embroiled in controversy about alleged bullying.
It says:
I have lived with mould in my flat since I moved in. It seeped through the roof into my bedroom meaning I’ve not been able to use the top of my wardrobe for fear of my clothes getting damp and ruined. I managed to speak to the previous tenant and he had experienced the same problem.
The landlord and letting agents consistently denied the mould was because of a fault to the property. The source of the mould was condensation from the roof tiles caused by a lack of proper, basic insulation.
Since the tragic death of Awaab Ishak was confirmed to be due to prolonged exposure to mould a few months ago renters like me have felt more anxious than ever about the potential consequences of mould harming our health.
11% of private rented homes have some form of damp (including mould) in them according to the 2022 English Housing Survey.
Thousands of renters have to live with the threat of mould ruining their home but also ruining their lives. According to a Survation poll, 37% of private renters experienced damp and mould in the previous 5 years.
Many things cause mould, including leaks, rising damp and poor insulation, but too often landlords dismiss complaints and blame tenants.
Renters shouldn’t have to pay for the negligence of landlords and the Housing Secretary Michael Gove wants to change the system.
It’s currently not possible to get legal aid for compensation for disrepair: whether for the inconvenience of living in those conditions or if your health has been damaged by your landlord’s actions.
And when tenants can get legal support, proposed changes this year to cap legal fees that negligent landlords have to pay will discourage lawyers from taking on complicated housing cases – as problems with mould usually are.
It is only right that renters be able to sue their landlords for damaging their health when they have failed to repair the homes they are making money from.
By extending legal aid to cover damages claims and exempting housing cases from the new legal fee rules, the government would make it easier for renters to take action.
If failure to keep homes in good condition is more likely to result in legal action, then landlords will respond more quickly to complaints and make sure their properties are safe to live in in the first place.
So please sign this petition today so that we can tell the Justice Secretary that renters deserve to live in homes that don’t threaten their health and that landlords have to be held accountable.
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"The source of the mould was condensation from the roof tiles caused by a lack of proper, basic insulation."
Condensation from the roof tiles? Eh?
You mean condensation from your breath.
"I have lived with mould in my flat since I moved in. It seeped through the roof into my bedroom.."
They literally have no clue.
I sympathise if there is a lack of insulation making the ceiling cold but it doesn't absolve someone of the responsibility to wipe down their own condensation to keep any surface mould free.
Another reason to leave!
So if we could show that its the tenants that caused the problem / damage, we could sue them ??
You know it only works one way, right?
Only people who benefit from all this are the lawyers
best avoided in my experience , charge an awful lot for very little ; remind me of the council :)
They are one of the group of 'Professionals' - people who charge an extortionate amount & do very little, often very slowly!
I've had to defend a mould case on a no win no fee basis. Cost me £600. The scammers (that's the tenants and their lawyers) didn't respond to my Pre-Action Protocol defence. Why? Because they were going to have to start paying out money and didn't have the certainty of a win. Usually it's the tenants' fault. If this goes through the legal aid parasites will be taking up 'every case' knowing they will earn out of it win or lose. The landlord's own lawyers will be happy as they will have a new 'tennis' partner and will rack up bills on the landlord's behalf whilst we will all pick up the legal aid bill in our taxes.
Typically according to my lawyer the claim's company send a one of their own **** s around the property to do some sort of 'survey' and add anything else they can. For me that added amongst other things unreported broken window handles (3nr) a newly reported leaking roof which had been fixed earlier during their tenancy and a new leak had just started. They said it had leaked non stop for 2 years. I had records it had previously been fixed so was a proven lie.
Also whilst I didn't get any response my lawyer kept chasing them. He mentioned he burned up all of the initial payment I sent. He needed more money. He wanted more money on top for court fees to make them submit their response. Honestly I don't want their ******* response do I????? No response is what I wanted.
This stupid proposal is another reason to get out.
Don't Generation Rant realise that it's currently a seller's market?
Tenants cause mould 90% of the time, not property problems and certainly not landlords.
I've got a well to-do colleague. Lives in a £1m+ home. He has friends who have rented their own house out. No mould problems at all. Tenants move in and it's mould all around the windows.
Home owners care about their own property and get rid of any mould if it first starts. Usually they prevent it in the first place. Tenants are more likely not give a damn. I'll just call the landlord.
Absolutely correct. My parents house I grew up in, no mould, I lived there for 4 years when I bought it off them, no mould. I let it to tenants, mould. House now sold.
I'm slowly leaving this market until they give me an incentive to stay.
This particular house is up for sale now. I have 2 extractor fans and a PIV unit since last year. No mould yet.
If the damp is caused by water ingress in a flat there is very little the landlord can do. Structural repairs are the freeholders responsibility. Trying to get a freeholder to action repairs can be torturous. I have ex Council properties where I have been reporting water ingress for 10 years. One specific problem has had assorted Council surveyors look at it, agree there's a problem and then go away and do nothing.
Is there a more villified group of business people than landlords? It's just one thing after another. Imagine facing the removal of section 24, section 21, being told to score an EPC C (even though it seems to be subjective) followed by nearly 6% interest rates, who the f would stay in the business especially with lunatics like this Generation rent parasite organisation?
I just thank my lucky stars I had the vision to sell off properties and clear all my loans. I'm probably going to sell off the rest too because soon we won't own anything with this dictatorship disguised as ''parliamentary democracy''.
The UK is like an unstable banana republic. You have utter retards running the country and a bunch of even worse morons to come in 2 years.
I've lived in 3rd world dictatorships which are way more stable, I envied my landlady abroad, she was never bothered by a crackpot government and it was a win/win for her and me as a result. What I saw in that country was a booming middle-class with disposable income and a better quality of life for nearly everyone.
Don't believe the nonsense we're fed about ''how lucky we are''. What I saw in my life was a damning inditement on the UK and our ridiculous political system where men in suits just run our lives and ruin businesses with some idiotic decision taken in conjunction with someone working in the civil service.
These British governments have ruined people's quality of life with their interference. Democracy and capitalism have been around 100s of years, but you'll get some idiot like Lisa Nandy who knows best. She has her little genius lightbulb moment and concludes the best way to solve the housing market is to tinker more with the rules of democracy and capitalism and make some reckless decisions that no longer make ''private'' property private anymore. Hand the power to the people that didn't show the initiative to actually buy the property, that's it, let's reward and encourage more people to be confrontational scroungers. Let jealousy flourish, that's the key to a properous society according to Lisa Nandy, a politician with an IQ hovering around 90 max.
That's one of the best posts I've read on here. I 100% agree. These useless self-serving politicians just mucking things up whilst working with the backwards civil service.
So much upheaval and negative changes introduced one after the other. All to help in some cases the lazy and the feckless. I think Britain is becoming a dangerous place to do business.
Exactly well said !!!! my feelings and experiences precisely laid out in a truthful and sensible manner
Dani, I fully agree with everything you said. The UK would be better run with a government of chattering chimpanzees or gibbering gibbons than this group of complete morons.
The UK government motto is “why have a crisis when with a little bit of work we can make it a catastrophe”
My Cockapoo has more sense than any Government Minister.
I’d really love to know which abroad country you are referring to?
Why does he have to live there,
who’s forcing him.
So why did he take it, it wasn’t there when he move in, move
out before you cause more damage.
Poor Generation Renters have little or no choice whether to rent or what to rent. That's largely because of government policies. But now they want to shove all the problems onto landlords.
Here's my theory Michael, why did he take the place to live in ? likely it was the only place and only landlord that would take him on as a tenant, why does he have to live there ? because there isn't anywhere else or any other landlord that would touch him, I suspect that's the truth of the matter, am I wrong?
Dani Simmons for PM!
Nick, I honestly think landlords need to stick together and be prepared for some rough times with a labour government. A government has a right to set law such as ensuring the safety of tenants with gas certificates etc. They do not have the right to interfere to the extent in which they are doing so. They should provide their own government housing, not dictate to private owners that they must accept people with pets, they must bankrupt themselves for some scummy scrounger. Let's be honest here, we've all got enough experience in this game to know that landlords generally only clash with tenants in the rare instance where the tenant is a confrontational loser looking to make life hell for someone they deem as successful. Usually the relationship between landlord and tenant is amicable but these governments want to make it toxic. They are dummies and we need to fight them...in the courts if necessary. This is supposed to be a free economy.
I agree Dani. I am bankrupt myself funding repairs to this idiot tenant of mine. And again as you say there is confrontation there. They are Nigerian. I was very wary about accepting them but wanted to do the right thing knowing I had section 21. They got accepted before the pandemic. I certainly wouldn’t accept them now.
Accepting people from a poor background can cause big issues with the landlord. I was struggling to find tenants a little so I gave in knowing I’ve got a section 21. Since saying I couldn’t afford to make some changes she has calmed down a lot. I think there’s a lot of jealousy in some people.
The government sold off all their properties with the help to buy scheme, buying votes of people. The Tories started it and Labour continued it and so has the current lot. But housing, it’s become such a problem now they feel the need to take over private property.
My scrounger has already sent me a no-win no fee solicitor letter once. If she can get legal aid, I will be in constant legal battles, and I really would bankrupt myself. Why because it would never end with all of the legal fees entailed. Tenants will see growing mould in someone’s house as a business.
I don’t like the way Gove thinks he can convert my tenancies into constant rolling tenancies. That’s a strict no.
I agree we shall stick together. Like the house builders have done with the cladding crisis. Gove sent them contracts where they would have to take unlimited liability, and then he would have the right to change the contract terms unilaterally!!! They also said no and he’s had to back down on things.
Landlords do not stick together. We have the NRLA. They don’t do much. Ben Beadle says he has no problem with section 21 going. Who is he representing exactly?
Andrew. you are not wrong. I can’t understand why those people moaning about everything don’t make more of an effort to deal with their situation themselves
It's because all these woke virtue signalling communist do-gooders tell them they are entitled to everything even though they can't work / won't work for it.
Is this a joke or what? What about the damage tenants cause to landlords properties, I had to evict 2 separate tenants last year due to arrears & the one had caused several thousand pounds worth of damage, but can I sue her, yes I can but unfortunately due to her financial situation & the rubbish court system & lack of support from government, I don’t stand a cat in hells chance.
I agree. My Nigerians have grown mould, cost me thousands, fixing it, and putting in the PIV system. Three broken window handles and three doorhandles in the house broken. Broken sink etc. The list goes on. But hey she’s on universal credit so who cares about me.
It’s all one-sided, and it’s getting worse. A Whole lot worse.
Alan Bonde - Cambodia
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