The Labour Party has committed to extending a crackdown on social housing landlords who fail to fix mouldy homes, to include private landlords as well.
Measures forcing social housing landlords to repair unsafe homes have been proposed by the government and Labour deputy leader and shadow housing secretary Angela Rayner says her party would extend the planned law to private landlords too.
Speaking on ITV, Rayner said: “[There are] 1.6m children living in mouldy, damp or cold houses in the private sector … You can’t distinguish between social landlords and private landlords if you’re renting a property. Mould is mould.”
She continued: “I’ve got relatives and friends who are too frightened to raise concerns about their landlord and the conditions of the house because they may be made homeless through Section 21 notices - the no-fault evictions - and … they’re really frightened about the future for their families.”
She went on to say that there has to be enforcement of existing and any future rules on repair times and quality, but she linked that issue to the shortage of supply, saying that some families have had to move 200 miles to find appropriate homes once their private properties have been deemed unsuitable. The knock of effects of children’s schooling and parents keeping work was a “real problem.”
“We have to do something about supply” she told the Good Morning show on ITV.
Earlier this month the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government began consulting on a clamp down on rogue social landlords who fail to provide safe homes. It proposes introducing new strict time limits for social housing providers and force them to take swift action in addressing dangerous hazards such as damp and mould.
It also proposes new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours. Those landlords who fail can be taken to court where they may be ordered to pay compensation for tenants.
Social landlords will be expected to keep clear records to improve transparency for tenants – showing every attempt is made to comply with the new timescales so they can no longer dither and delay to rectify people’s homes.
However, the government has ruled out a comparable law for private landlords.
* Last evening Angela Rayner herself tweeted: "Mould is mould. There is no justification for letting private landlords off the hook for resolving mould and damp issues in their properties. The Tories are refusing to extend protections to private renters. A Labour Government will."
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Mould is mould 😱😱 says the flame 🔥 haired one, god help us. If your tenant is the type to cause problems, get rid NOW.
Rightly or wrongly, that will be the solution, 'get rid'.
Already done it. They used Anthony Hoadari too..... They s**t has been sent packing!
I think that’s brilliant crack down on the people that don’t cause the mould / condensation it’s not damp (penetrating damp) but on the internal surface caused by the occupants. This has become much worse in recent years due to not targeting the occupants most with mold problems are families usually on Benefits but don’t dare say such a thing.
Start with the Parents get them to eliminate their own mold instead of encouraging them not to care less about the property, then their kids might grow up with some degree of responsibility & respect.
Her friend is right to be frightened and horrified about being evicted, then take action wash it down and deal with your own mess.
1.6 million children with feckless parents who will probably grow up to be equally feckless parents and breed a further 3.2 million trainee feckless parents!
Why not teach simple hygiene and maintenance in schools? Wait a minute. All the common sense teachers who could have done so have all retired!
Yes Robert. But we have Diversity, Equality and Inclusion resources now. We have our priorities in the right place💩
"Mould is Mould"? Caused by the private landlords or the occupants? The rent is far less than luxurious hotel room charges, the tenants are the occupants of the property, not hotel guests. These are two different business concepts. Occupants of the property have the responsibility for maintenance and certain repairs. Stop pointing the fingers to blame others. Political party should focus on the bigger vision to assure prosperity. Private business has binding contracts with clauses of upkeep. It is a wishful thinking that landlords should pay for everything. Is this a fair and objective way of thinking in educating the society? The PRS are not hotels! Anyone who disrespects others' properties should not be welcome, even in the hotels.
A handyman installed Nuaire Drimaster Heat Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) unit solves the condensation issue - mould - and moans.
Simple and common sense.
Hahahaha. Amazing as always.
Everyday I await with baited breath your next pearl of wisdom, 😂 keep them coming 🫣
Here He Issssssssssssss....!
Gibbo's Gibberish is good for a laugh at least. Remember folks, he has LOTS of rental properties fitted with these PIVs and has no problem tenants.
Can a handyman do this in a rented property? Doesn't it need a qualified electrician?
I prefer environvent as they are a professional and competent national organisation who know what they are doing and install their PIV units to a professional standard,providing the necessary certificate for small electrical works. They may charge a little more, but at leaast you know that it has been correctly installed. Saying you have them installed by some incompetent handyman who knows nothing about ventilation systems. practical or theoretical says it all. Even competent electricians installing these units get it wrong because they are not ventilation technicians. As a ventilation/air con technician myself, I have seen the result of incompetent DIY/handyman installations. of piv units suppled by manufacturers and retailers who do not provide technically competent staff to install for you.
Can I propose Dianne Abbott as minister for mould? She might just be able to cope with that one
But the mould would have a higher IQ 🤔😎
Mould is caused by tenants not airing the property
It is about time Rayner, Starmer and Co, started tell the audience how it really is .. not playing to tenant sloppiness or hitting the landlord, the majority of whom are decent folk not making huge amount of money from renting out
I have tenants with mould in the en-suite bathroom. The bathroom also has a large gable end window ! The agent has been informed of the issue by me post an inspection and the tenants will probably not have their contract renewed as they appear not bothered to sort it out
Not airing it and not heating the property too.
The landlord has a duty to provide safe homes like the timber framed Porto Cabin style Cladded Flats in the Sky that’s going up now to replacing us, how many more are going to burn down, didn’t we have another one on Monday night in Wembley 150 fire fighters no one injured this time TG they had the sense to come out unlike Grenfell the Authorities told them to stay inside and burn, to add all the others, whether London, Croydon, Reading. Bristol or whatever.
Yes she comes from good stock relatives & friends on Benefits, any hope of them buying their own. 200 miles is a good move why stop there keep going.
A lot of them coud keeping going beyond the 200 miles. Back to whence they came before they came over here to freeload.
Installed heated PIV, few days later it's cold and there's this draught....how much electricity is this using.....etc etc
Switched it off and evicted the tenants. There was no other solution and that'll be the same scenario for many others I'm afraid. You can only do so much but if you have a tenant that is a Mushroom farmer who won't open Windows and thinks washing dries best on radiators you've got no hope.
They often block up ventilation grilles etc too. You can't control how they use the home.
exactly tenants will turn them off, even rip the wires out of them and tape up the grills
You didn't act on Gibbo's pearls of wisdom did you? An installation done professionally should work fine. Probably had the suppy grille in the wrong location and the unit not properly set up to suit the property dimensions.
Another day and another new proposal to heap even more misery on the private landlord.
Labour are going to be a disaster for us when they get into power.
Let's hope that the election is as far away as possible, although, it is just putting off the inevitable unfortunately.
Actually, we are going to be a disaster for Labour, because we ARE leaving and there’s no-one to take our place anytime soon. They are on course to reap what they have sown. Bring it on!
A bit presumptuous isn't she.
Well Conservatives have not been that great.
Mould is all so the tenants responsibility . Open the windows .
Rayner did say she needs to increase the supply of rental property ,because there is nothing to rent for 200 miles.
Rayner and Gove who`s Government has caused this problem , Need to have better solutions other than Landlord bashing, Taxation , and constant regulation.
Will Labour help the landlord find a builder within their timeframe?! Will the enforcers who are not working from home or on a four day week be able to inspect the multitude of private landlords reported by their compensation hungry tenants?!! Will they be able to detect fraud by unscrupulous tenants purposefully growing mould through lack of ventilation and heating? Silly me perhaps the landlord will be forced to provide free heating and air conditioning? Will the Courts be able to handle nearly all the private landlords being taken to Court?
another vote winning ill thought-out missive, but it's okay labour will change their mind soon, they are infamous for retraction , but then come up with something equally unworkable
One of the main reasons I’m getting out. Everything pinned on the landlord.
The council inspector didn’t like my tenant I can see. She even told me she had a wet bathroom floor and wet towels on the floor at the time of the inspection. She didn’t want to do a return visit. Just wanted the photos. She was very fair and could see some tenants are a PITA.
Rayner had baby at 16 and so did her daughter. She was flashing at Johnston in Parliament, and made fun of it with her female friends. No mention of the elephant in the room, ie immigration.
She’s pro benefits. Steal from the rich (which in reality is the hard working middle class) and give to the poor. Some of which are lazy and feckless.
The only test Rayner passed at school was a pregnancy test...
I had tenants who put hard board over the gas ventilation grilles. The gas engineer told me when he went to do a gas certificate. He took the hardboard down and explained he couldn't issue gas certificate unless gas grills were clear. I did an inspection 1 month later and the tenant had purposely blocked the cover again. I got a witness statement from the gas engineer and put in a section 21. Tenants gone now. New tenants much better and both air and heat the house properly.
95% of Mould is caused by poor house keeping
Tenants not putting their heating on or only putting it on to dry clothes on radiators not opening windows after using the shower/bath or cooking not wiping the water on windowsills course by condensation on widows.
These tenants that have this problem have dirty homes just lazy people.
Yes, you are right, full agree with you
Story in Nottingham Post of a single mum in Council housing complaining of mould. She's been there 15 years. Council have inspected - no structural problems - maybe 5 people living in a 2 bed maisonette is the problem!
Classic 😱 imagine if this were a private landlord, we would have a no win no fee parasitic solicitor on us.
She has lived there for fifteen years, has four children aged 5, 11, 14, and 16; so two, if not three children were born there in a TWO BEDROOM FLAT. Should have tried birth control. No mention of support from the father or fathers. The housing association has repeatedly told her that the mould, which has ruined 'carpets, blinds, curtains, and beds', is due to the property being overcrowded.
They don’t realise it yet, but Labour are about to trigger an unprecedented increase in homelessness. The simple fact is, there are many homes that will grow mould if the occupant refuses to follow a few habits to manage the situation. This daft legislation will force many landlords to shrug their shoulders and sell up as they’re being held accountable for a problem they can not fix. Not every home (flats for example) have the loft space for a PIV system. Many landlords are already operating at break even or a loss and tenants that are also stretched to their limits. If I’m putting in a PIV system, I’m I’ll calculate it as having a.3 year lifespan and add the cost of installing one to the rent split over 3 years. Yes tenants, you can have this, but you’ll be paying for it.
I put a PIV in due to my mould growing tenants. Was in there for 16 months before I got her out. I'm not chancing another tenant with all this nonsense as you have stated above.
Steve, I agree with you that Labour are about to trigger an unprecedented increase in homelessness.
The Tories have started it and Labour will be the icing on the cake and cause landlords to sell off even more houses.
Already you can not blame a tenant for causing mould, it's always the landlords fault.
I've had mould in a few houses, 1 case rising damp, 2 cases due to leaks in the roof, and the rest from lifestyle of the tenants. Sometimes it's quite easy to see which is which.
A PIV fan installed by our electrician fixed the tenant caused problems, and another 1 where house was insulated to bits and it caused damp problems.
Fitting a PIV fan pumps cold air from the loft into the house under pressure? and forces it out through gaps, the same as opening a window but then the tenant has to pay to run the fan 24/7 and then add a 500w heater so cold air isn't pumped into the house... Then it has just got to be cheaper to open a window or 2?
I'll just tick the boxes and do what I can help to do to sort it out quickly, it may cost the tenants more but some have insisted on a PIV fan.
Strange that as some tenants leave and others move in the mould disappears and there is no need for the PIV fan and other measures?
Our mister mould has now moved between 2 houses where danp didn't exist and it followed him, he won't be moving to another, but according to the government it is my fault... Probably correct, I should not have let him move into another 1 of our houses. We won't make that mistake again, he can move into social housing next time and they can deal with it
The Conservatives are doing a really good job at getting rid of the private landlords, Labour are going to excell at it.
They already have me wanting to sell up and they are not yet in power.
I've no idea where they think they are going to house people? But it's not going to be in any of my houses.
I'll take the capital gains tax hit and get rid of all of them.
I'm already not buying any more houses and just putting the money in 12 month bonds before I can get up the guts to invest in Bonds other financial plans that my wife is already doing, and currently making more returns than rental houses.
Oh the sweet irony. Potty-mouth Rayner blames the short supply of Private rentals for creating tenant’s misery when it’s her punitive proposals that are causing it!
Well said. I'm too scared to let to new tenants now.
It’s funny how, the party that thinks it looks after the people at the bottom - is going all out to ensure private landlords are forced out to make way for institutional investors. The message loud and clear is “wealth is for corporations, it shouldn’t be something for actual people to have”. Tenants may hate landlords, but just wait until your landlord is a financial instituation who’s letting contract will be an 80 page online document of small print, and resolving any issues will be done by submitting an online form, and then waiting for 45 minutes to speak to someone in an Indian call centre. Be careful what you wish for!!
Another Big Boy has joined the buy to let but in Dublin. Ryan buy 25 one go.
The picture of the window reinforces occupier irresponsaibilty.
If only the lawmakers had the knowledge to interpret the evidence correctly.
Further why is there never any mention of mould in the owner occupier market, even though there could be a private property neighbouring an identical rented one.
I have a colleague in construction who had this situation. One privately owned new build = Fine. The adjoining rented property built identically at the same time = mould.
Tenants don't care. Gove wants to push all problems onto landlords.
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