A charity wants the government to be tougher with private landlords over issues like damp and mould.
Citizens Advice claims that its research shows “1.6m children currently live in privately rented homes with damp, mould or excessive cold” and that over half of private renters in England - 2.7m households - are “struggling with one or more of these issues right now.”
It says its research shows that private tenants are 73 per cent more likely to be living with damp if they live in a property with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of D to G rather than one rated A to C.
And it claims tenants are 89 per cent more likely to experience excessive cold in a D to G rated property than A to C.
The charity is calling on the government to follow through on its promise to make sure all new private rental properties are upgraded to a minimum EPC C by 2025 and existing tenancies by 2028.
It says: “Landlords are currently only required to bring their properties up to an E rating. What’s more, landlords currently don't have to make any improvements if it’s going to cost them more than £3,500. This cap on landlord investment needs to be increased from £3,500 to £10,000.”
And Gillian Cooper - described as “head of energy” at Citizens Advice - says: “Every week we hear stories of people living in cold, damp and mouldy properties they can’t afford to heat properly. It’s shameful that more than 20 years since legislation came into force to reduce fuel poverty and improve the energy performance of homes, people are still suffering.
“Improving energy efficiency in privately rented homes has never been more urgent. It's the step needed to keep people’s essential bills low, while also helping to protect their mental and physical health.”
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The government needs to have a full scale public information session on the importance of ventilation, cleaning and appropriate use of heating.
I was shocked to read somewhere that less than 2 million homes have smart heating thermostats such as Hive or Nest. No wonder tenants are too frightened to heat their homes in a way that minimises the risk of condensation if they don't have suitable heating controls.
It’s the Landlords fault they can’t afford heating, it’s the landlord’s fault they don’t open windows. It’s the landlord’s fault they don’t clean it’s the landlord’s fault the property is a D grade. My god no wonder so many are choosing to leave the sector.
Another charity that makes no mention of individual responsibility to keep mould at bay. These idiotic charities will relentlessly give the impression that mould is always 100% the landlords fault. Renters who may not know any better read these articles and assume this to be true. Most of the time it is down to lifestyle, but even where there are damp issues etc. there are still things renters can do to manage and reduce the problem until it’s fixed.
When I see pictures of rooms where mould has completely covered a room - i have to wonder - when was the last time the room was cleaned with mould spray, why wasn’t that done at the first sign of mould and then repeated every time it comes back. Are they using the central heating and ventilating the property regularly? How are they drying their clothes. Do they sleep with the windows slightly open?
There are some properties that have genuine issues that need to be addressed, but even a new build will go mouldy if too much moisture is produced in the property and not regularly ventilated out. I spoke to an electrician who installs PIV systems, he said although they work, the problem is that many tenants turn them off because they don’t want to pay the electric to run them (a few pence per week), and they don’t like the idea they bring in cold air from outside. Tenants need to understand they have a part to play in this, and if that means paying to use the heating a little more, paying for appropriate cleaning products, spending some of their own time regularly dealing with it as part of their cleaning routine then that is part and parcel of being a responsible adult.
How will those tenants who can't afford to heat their D rated homes pay the increase in rent that will result from the improvements to a C?
As an aside, my daughter lives in a D rated victorian terrace & manages to keep it mould free & pay her energy bills. Could it possibly be the tenants who are at fault in mouldy properties?
Jo. I think there is too much smart technology, some landlords controlling heating from their mobile phones.
I know this and its plain wrong.
Heating controls shouldn’t so sophisticated that they are not useable, keep it simple and it might be operated
Michael - if the landlord is including heating in the rent why is it wrong for them to be able to control the heating from their phone?
My favourite thermostat is the Inspire Home Automation one specifically designed for the bills inclusive HMO market. I set the programme from my phone or home computer. The tenants can boost it for an hour any time they want. So far since September they have boosted it twice. I can see on my phone exactly what temperature the house has been at for the last 24 hours and when the boiler has been running. It does show longer time periods but the graph gets a bit squished and difficult to read. I could identify there was a problem in the really cold weather last month and promptly went round to the house to check it out.
I've got Hive in a few houses and while I like it in my own home have found tenants aren't always very good with it. I had issues with one person turning everything off from his phone while his partner was at home. He found it highly amusing, she really didn't.
I don’t know how much it will cost Tenants to heat a D rated compared to a C.
What I do know it will cost buttons compared to the Rent increases caused by Removal of Section 21, 25/30%
let us penalise the landlord again shall we, most mould and condensation issues are due to the tenants not ventilating, having furniture pushed right against the wall and drying wet washing without opening windows. The tenants are the ones that need educating.
It's always the landlords fault... Everything!! No wonder we're leaving in droves...
It's always the landlords fault... Everything!! No wonder we're leaving in droves...
By improving the min EPC to C is a good idea for reducing energy costs so people can more afford to heat their homes AND we use less energy as a nation who is supposed to care about out climate change. Agree many mould issues are related to ventilation and heating use however needs to be done. improvements to EPCs will be a cost and one that this will be passed on in rents however the higher rents will be offset (partly) by lower energy bills so tenants overall costs should be considered. Why should the Government be subsidising heating bills when most of it is being allowed to escape through poorly insulated homes? All taxpayers are paying for this current waste of energy.
Right up to a point DB, but the costs will be high and so will the rent increases, to achieve a small reduction in heating costs, this all boils down to increased living costs for the tenant
The PRS cannot save the planet on its own! The fact that we are being targeted looks punitive rather than a coherent plan to cut our energy usage.
There are some improvements that are cost effective to make and have a noticeable impact - loft insulation for example. Equally, there are some suggestions required to get these properties to a C and the costs can be over £10k to result in a £40 per year saving. Which would be a ridiculous things to try and do, and yet we may find ourselves having to do these things.
Additionally the government is pushing things like air source heat pumps - and even the installers are saying they are junk and they wouldn’t have them in their homes.
If the replacement for gas was actually better and more cost effective, there would be no need for government schemes, arm twisting and EPC quotas, people would use them because it would be make sense to.
Funny how this subject should come up this week, I have an end terraced Victorian property, coffee shop with flat above, it's really 1 bed but there is a small box room out back 3 outside walls, 2 wks ago I get a call from the lady in the flat, I go and see her and it turns out her teenage daughter has moved in with her sleeping in the box room, damp and black mould. So last wk I dry line the back wall and paint the whole room out with Crown anti damp paint, on leaving I tell her to open the window in the day. Monday I drive past to see the window tightly closed.... red mist, I'm angry, we exchange emails and I end up telling her she's going, of course I'm the big bad landlord who's in the wrong
Have a nice Scotch single malt and look forward to a better tenant moving in at a higher rent.
Tonight it was Aber Falls, single malt Welsh, which my wife found me on offer in Tesco's, lovely ,sorry Robert
Jo. I understand that landlords pay Bills in some rental properties but really I know a landlord from Portsmouth controlling the heating in Plymouth and London so he decides from a far what heat they should get whether the room is hot enough or too cold and every individual require different temperatures, some people feel the cold more than others.
Michael - that's the beauty of it. It doesn't matter where the landlord is located, the house is heated to a reasonable extent, never allowed to get too cold and the tenants still have some control. It's far better than systems where one tenant reprograms the controls to either far too cold or far too hot and everyone else in the house suffers.
I've got mine set at 17.5 at night, 20 when they're likely to be getting out of bed, 18 or 19 during the day and 20 in the evening. Bare in mind it takes several hours for the temperature to drop to those minimum temperatures and very often sunshine or cooking will increase the temperature to above 20 even at this time of year.
They've all got TRVs if they don't want their bedrooms to be heated. They can boost the temperature to 24 degrees as many times as they want.
Both households that have that system are staying for another academic year and both groups have said the houses are always at a comfortable temperature.
The tenants can ask me to adjust the timings or temperatures if they want and it just takes a few seconds to do. So far none of mine have asked for any changes but all are fully aware they can. I can be anywhere in the world and adjust their heating program in seconds.
The added bonus is there's no mould as there's no condensation.
A dehumidifier - starting cost about £100 & running costs of a 200w one about 7p an hour - is a great way to stop damp & makes the washing dry quicker too!
I've tried that one Tricia, generally tenants leave them unused thinking they cost too much to plug in
You can lead a horse to water......but ultimately it appears to be the LLs fault when the horse dies of thirst!!!
Seriously, maybe smart meters will help in this situation.
Why does the charity only want to be tough on private landlords? Are social tenants immune to mold spores?
They are no doubt dependant on government funding and so do not wish to bite the hand that feeds them.
TBH social housing are more likely to suffer from mold spores because of the kind of people who live in them, a good example was where that young boy died a few months ago, parents too bone idle to wipe the walls down with a little warm water and bleach
Yet another article that does not look into the cause, just blame the landlords.
I see it on a day to day basis, tenants not ventilating, all windows closed, vents taped up, cooking with extractors off, overcrowding rooms by their own choice... yet its always the 'landlords fault.'
Andrew. The modern dehumidifiers are very good quiet compact a good one cost about £200 don’t waste electric as they have sensors that measure the moisture in the atmosphere and switch themselves on and off it’s just a matter of empty the the tank occasionally.
Try telling some tenants that though Michael, that's where the problems are
Michael you surely can't expect the tenants to empty the tank all by themselves?
The electricity used by these dehimidifiers contributes twoards the heating of the property. If the heating is electric then the dehumidifier costs nothing to run.
Jo that’s vey good but you only need a small screwdriver to revert it back for occupants full control. No Section. 21 you can’t tell them go either so you can whistle.
There’s a programme on ITV now the most one sided anti- landlords ever.
I can see plainly most is Tenant’s fault.
Oh God Michael Gove is on now I have to switch off I think I at going to be sick or smash the TV
Yes watched it, other than the HMO it was rubbish Housing Assoc homes at fault, the lady being evicted's landlord wanted to sell, wounder why ?? so she couldn't find a landlord to take her on because she wasn't earning enough, neither would I, as for back stabbing Grove... well I'll leave it there .
Ridiculous and Citizens Advice, an organisation I had respect for, should know better!
An EPC of grade C doesn't mean less condensation or mold. In fact, it could be argued that the greater the insulation (and EPC grade) the more likely there will be condensation mold in specific areas!
An inconvenient truth when you want to appeal to the larger demographic, tenants!
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