Problems with Mold

thehotstepper

Hi Im in a flat in Rathmines and despite the best efforts of myself and landlord it wont stop. If it appears I wash it off with bleach and hot water, but I cant do this with my bags and clothes. Theres a green powdery stuff on the lats of the bed aswell I dont know what that is. Im told to keep the place aired and not to leave any wet or damp clothes lying around but its the rainy season. The landlord also says theres very little insulation in the walls so I should try to keep the room as warm as I can but as Im using electric heaters I dont want the bill through the roof. Bathroom ceiling is covered in it even though I leave the window open and theres a fan. Its in the corners behind my wardrobe aswell. How dangerous is this should I be moving out?

analbumcover

thehotstepper wrote: »

Hi Im in a flat in Rathmines and despite the best efforts of myself and landlord it wont stop. If it appears I wash it off with bleach and hot water, but I cant do this with my bags and clothes. Theres a green powdery stuff on the lats of the bed aswell I dont know what that is. Im told to keep the place aired and not to leave any wet or damp clothes lying around but its the rainy season. The landlord also says theres very little insulation in the walls so I should try to keep the room as warm as I can but as Im using electric heaters I dont want the bill through the roof. Bathroom ceiling is covered in it even though I leave the window open and theres a fan. Its in the corners behind my wardrobe aswell. How dangerous is this should I be moving out?

Mould can be very dangerous to your health, move out as soon as possible. Something is wrong with the building, damp is getting in. Mould on the bed means a new bed...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold_health_issues

shrapnel222

if you can't move out use the dettol mold and mildew. it works really well

TonyDub

I really think your landlord should sort it out. You need to heat the room better, ventilate better or remove moisture. Dettol will get rid of it for a while, but it always comes back!

We found a dehumidifier really worked - you can get small electric ones in Argos for about 70euro or bigger ones in Power City for about 150euro. Tesco and other places sell small disposable ones that absorb water but I don't think they'd work for a whole room.

Again though, I think your landlord should be working on this, and if you're not happy you should move on if possible.

mrgaa1

can you describe where about in the flat the mould appears - in particular what may be above your flat, outside wall etc....

thehotstepper

thanks for the replies, the bedroom is the back wall of the house, theres a vent and a window, the vent seems clear, the window has mould all around it and has lots of condensation and water pooled on the sill in the mornings. Beside the window Ive a wardrobe and some shelving, low down around the skirting there is some mould in the corner, and on the shelving some of the green powsery growth, aswell as under the mattress on a few lats. We are first floor and its all carpet. In the living room opposite the window I have some old bags and they are growing mould. then off the living room in the bathroom the ceiling is full of the black mould even though I leave the window open and the fan comes on for a good while. It gets very cold if theres no heaters on.

JuliusCaesar

this is really the landlords problem. I'm assuming it's an old house? This might be useful.

mrgaa1

Well at a simple guess - it would appear that the external walls are very poorly insulated and that you have cold-bridging. This means that a lot of cold air is getting into your flat - the condensation around your window sill could mean that the insulation around your window in the cavity of the wall is poor. It would be interesting to know if your flat is west facing - i.e. when the sun rises in the morning does rise on that side? most of our winds come from the west.
There are a few ways to check out cavity insulation - the guys that blow the insulation in can bore a small hole and put a camera in and look. Also a thermal scan (more expensive) will show cold spots.
Another thing to check is there downpipes on that part of the wall - if so they may be leaking. Without a good visual check its hard to tell.

tesslab

Im having a mold prob myself. Had LL down but told me there would be no way they'd sort it before xmas. Cant even use 2nd bedroom or shower its disgusting. Would I lose my deposit if I gave them a months notice, There are 5 months left on the lease but LL is in no hurry to fix the problem. Told me to keep cleaning it til they have the money to sort it!!!

Graces7

Move.

NB the 2004 Tenancy Act states that a rented house has to be free of damp and structurally sound. Not your job to maintain it and impossible anyways...

Up to the landlord.

I just did that; the house sprouted black mould and was very damp also.

Then in the heavy rains, water started coming up through the floor.

I had no sense of smell the whole while I was there, and constant sinus pain also; using VICK several times a day.

Realised when I had been here three days that I did not even know where the VICK was. Sense of smell has returned and no sinus pain.

Mould is very dangeous and it is illegal to rent out a house like that.

I gave no notice; he had let the lease lapse thankfully and the agency had not noticed... No problem getting the deposit back and we have billed hm for other damage.

Threshold were very helpful.

bangersandmash

tesslab wrote: »

Im having a mold prob myself. Had LL down but told me there would be no way they'd sort it before xmas. Cant even use 2nd bedroom or shower its disgusting. Would I lose my deposit if I gave them a months notice, There are 5 months left on the lease but LL is in no hurry to fix the problem. Told me to keep cleaning it til they have the money to sort it!!!

Call Threshold about this immediately and move out as soon as you can. It's completely unacceptable to rent out a property in that condition. Landlords with that kind of attitude deserve to be put out of business.

Graces7

Forgot to say that we used a dehumidifier to some effect. Some days it was drawing out 4 quarts of water a day.

But amen to the last poster.

Some landlords...

petes

Was it there when you moved in?


Whats this dettol mold and mildew all about? Any good? Moving out of a house and the room has a bit of damp, not much mind but I'd like to get rid before I leave.

sambuka41

its so annoying!! i have a damp problem too, found that green mold on my bags too, destroyed boots i owned as well. Washed it off just waiting to see if it'll come back. We got small dehumidifier off the landlord, it took alot of water out and the room didnt feel as damp but its still really cold and i imagine it wont be long before its back.

Feel for you OP its very stressful, esp when your belongings are getting damaged. We want to leave but are worried that the letting agents will come after us for the remainder of the lease, at this stage i would forgo the deposit just to be rid but cant afford to be paying 9 months of a lease!!

Threshold recommended to us to get the environmental officer out to see it, then its taken out of your hands. They pursue to the landlord to make appropriate changes, i imagine even the threat of this may get you released with deposit and all!!!:D

Graces7

The dehumidifier needs to be on all the time; it will also take the edge off the cold. We bought one a while ago.

It deals with the symptoms, not the disease.

Please, take Threshold's advice? If the health dept say it is not fit to live in, then they cannot hold you to a lease.

We were worried re our deposit, but there was not an issue.


We are going to make sure Environmental health know re the place we left.

He had drylined one room, but done nothing re the floor. I knit and had left yarn on the floor. When I picked up a large cone of mohair, it was sodden and with black mould on the bottom.

sambuka41 wrote: »

its so annoying!! i have a damp problem too, found that green mold on my bags too, destroyed boots i owned as well. Washed it off just waiting to see if it'll come back. We got small dehumidifier off the landlord, it took alot of water out and the room didnt feel as damp but its still really cold and i imagine it wont be long before its back.

Feel for you OP its very stressful, esp when your belongings are getting damaged. We want to leave but are worried that the letting agents will come after us for the remainder of the lease, at this stage i would forgo the deposit just to be rid but cant afford to be paying 9 months of a lease!!

Threshold recommended to us to get the environmental officer out to see it, then its taken out of your hands. They pursue to the landlord to make appropriate changes, i imagine even the threat of this may get you released with deposit and all!!!:D

eth0_

That is disgusting. I cannot believe your landlord allowed you to live in those conditions - it's like being a Victorian peasant!

How do these people live with themselves? No doubt he owns your whole building and is raking the cash in but is too tight to spend any money on bringing them up to acceptable living standards.

Graces7

With our last place, it was an old family home he wanted kept.

Any improvements had been done by previous tenants. Who it seems had laid stone tiles on bare earth.

Hence the water.

Also the slatted roof in the bedroom let the wind in.

When these old places were built, there was a turf fire burning day and night. That kept damp at bay.

But yes; the attitudes af landlords are appalling. You see adverts on old furniture "suitable for a rental" ie dump the junk.

Thankful for the new legislation; they should make a landlord live a month in a property before they rent it out.

Our new place is not without problems.

eth0_ wrote: »

That is disgusting. I cannot believe your landlord allowed you to live in those conditions - it's like being a Victorian peasant!

How do these people live with themselves? No doubt he owns your whole building and is raking the cash in but is too tight to spend any money on bringing them up to acceptable living standards.

Moojuice

We are in a similar position but not as bad as the OPs problem. The landlords are being vicious about it. We called the Environmental Health Officer who came out and found damp in the walls. It is out of our hands now, they have 12 weeks to make the repairs but we moved out anyway as we cannot live in a damp house. We are following the proper procedure as advised by Threshold and the PRTB as the landlord was going to go after us for all the lease rent if we just left. Tell the landlord you are moving out, tel him you want your deposit back or you will call the EHO. This will cost him thousdands at least to fix. If he doesnt then call the EHO.

hacked

Moojuice wrote: »

We are in a similar position but not as bad as the OPs problem. The landlords are being vicious about it. We called the Environmental Health Officer who came out and found damp in the walls. It is out of our hands now, they have 12 weeks to make the repairs but we moved out anyway as we cannot live in a damp house. We are following the proper procedure as advised by Threshold and the PRTB as the landlord was going to go after us for all the lease rent if we just left. Tell the landlord you are moving out, tel him you want your deposit back or you will call the EHO. This will cost him thousdands at least to fix. If he doesnt then call the EHO.

and then...call them anyway!

Graces7

Good for you.

Our last place was through an agency. When the flood came, we asked them re another house on their books. They told me about it, and the ad says it is in "lovely condition throughout" .. then when we asked it view it she said it was worse than where we already were; water running in and last time she was there there was blue mould on everything.

It is still on their online ads.

She said she she was not letting anyone take it.

But I suspect that had we not said we were planning to complain..

Moojuice wrote: »

We are in a similar position but not as bad as the OPs problem. The landlords are being vicious about it. We called the Environmental Health Officer who came out and found damp in the walls. It is out of our hands now, they have 12 weeks to make the repairs but we moved out anyway as we cannot live in a damp house. We are following the proper procedure as advised by Threshold and the PRTB as the landlord was going to go after us for all the lease rent if we just left. Tell the landlord you are moving out, tel him you want your deposit back or you will call the EHO. This will cost him thousdands at least to fix. If he doesnt then call the EHO.

Fifs

I have the same problem and decided the best solution is to move out, which I am doing after christmas. My concern now though is what are the chances of it carrying with me? My next house feels cosy and seems damp-free, and has recently been dry-lined, but I'm worried that the actual mould spores will transfer with me as a lot of my clothes smell musty and I have found traces of mould on books / cd case etc. I will do as much as i can as regards washing all of my clothes and throwing out anything I can't wash.

Just wanted to hear from people who have been in a similar situation, with advice on whether or not they managed to leave the mould behind them!

Graces7

I have been in the new place a month and no signs of the mould from the old place; had not thought of that.

Yes, things smelled musty but they have aired out. I have used teh dehumidifer also where most things are still boxed, and I moved in such a hurry there was no time to wash anything. So please worry not.

Sp glad you are getting out.

Fifs wrote: »

I have the same problem and decided the best solution is to move out, which I am doing after christmas. My concern now though is what are the chances of it carrying with me? My next house feels cosy and seems damp-free, and has recently been dry-lined, but I'm worried that the actual mould spores will transfer with me as a lot of my clothes smell musty and I have found traces of mould on books / cd case etc. I will do as much as i can as regards washing all of my clothes and throwing out anything I can't wash.

Just wanted to hear from people who have been in a similar situation, with advice on whether or not they managed to leave the mould behind them!

hacked

I've had an awful time with the place I'm living in. It was renovated recently, but it was done cheaply, so things are slowly coming back, but it's good enough for now. I moved into a different flat in the building, and it's a newer extension, so it was no where as bad as my first flat to begin with.

The flat I had orignially had a lot of mould and damp problems. The carpets were so disgusting that I refused to let anyone with small children visit. Everything smelled musty.

There was a major leak in the ceiling for over a month and I had to fight with the landlord to do anything. He made me live there the entire time and pay rent. The wall on the second floor ended up collapsing as a result, then and only then did they decide to renovate the building. Go figure.

I threw out a lot of my stuff when I moved. I also washed in all really well on a long warm wash and stuck it in the dryer...I did this in my parents house to ensure they didn't just stay the same way!

Honestly, I dont think books and cd cases will be too much of a problem. Just keep an eye on things to make sure you dont see any little bits of mould sitting around the place! As long as the place is dry you should be find. It's the warm damp conditions that will be your problem!

If anything you kee[ in your bathroom is still mouldy, keep an eye on that....maybe replace it if you can. Make sure your kitchen and bathroom areas are very well ventilated.

Graces7

No one can make us live like that. Just takes a lot sometimes to learn how to get out when the house is bad.

We are the customers and they cannot get away with it if we stand by the law now.

There had been other problems; eg he rented the adjoining fields to a farmer who had been in the habit of running cattle up through our drive and garden;; we said no and locked all the gates.

Someone can only treat us as we allow them to do.

I had decided to stay because of various factors eg there was at that time nowhere else within my range and needs.

When the water started coming in through the floor and the landlord refused to come out; told him I was OUT.

It was with an agent and I wrote a full and detaiilled report and sent it to both of them. Landlord sent a nasty message that he was "very upset" at the state of the place" and claimed it was "very dirty" I had foreseen that and covered it. ie the black mould used to come back overnight and when I left there were two inches of water in the place. I had used a gallon bottle of bleach cleaning before I left.

hacked wrote: »

I've had an awful time with the place I'm living in. It was renovated recently, but it was done cheaply, so things are slowly coming back, but it's good enough for now. I moved into a different flat in the building, and it's a newer extension, so it was no where as bad as my first flat to begin with.

The flat I had orignially had a lot of mould and damp problems. The carpets were so disgusting that I refused to let anyone with small children visit. Everything smelled musty.

There was a major leak in the ceiling for over a month and I had to fight with the landlord to do anything. He made me live there the entire time and pay rent. The wall on the second floor ended up collapsing as a result, then and only then did they decide to renovate the building. Go figure.

I threw out a lot of my stuff when I moved. I also washed in all really well on a long warm wash and stuck it in the dryer...I did this in my parents house to ensure they didn't just stay the same way!

Honestly, I dont think books and cd cases will be too much of a problem. Just keep an eye on things to make sure you dont see any little bits of mould sitting around the place! As long as the place is dry you should be find. It's the warm damp conditions that will be your problem!

If anything you kee[ in your bathroom is still mouldy, keep an eye on that....maybe replace it if you can. Make sure your kitchen and bathroom areas are very well ventilated.

katetehblue

I am currently living in house where the bedrooms (particularly mine) are infested with mold. The half of the ceiling in my room is black and half of the that has white and brown mold growing ontop of it. Its starting to creep down the walls now and the highest concentration of it seems to be met against the external walls, though there "random" spots in the centre of the ceiling where it ha started growing.

I have dis-infected/scrubbed it four times this year and everytime it has come back with avengence.

My dad (who rents the house) had been to the letting agency 8 times in the last year about this, where he was told "something would be done about it eventually". When he went last time they told him as the shower had recently been replaced (after it blew up no less) that they would have to wait another 4 months before they would mention it again to the landlord because they "can't bombard him with requests to replace or fix everything in one go".

My dad recieves rent allowance and doesn't want to go back to the community welfare officer as she was very nasty with him and so he puts up with it. He's got a social phobia. The letting agency has put up the rent in the last year by €24 p/week. Making the rent for our 3bed house close to €1150 when other houses in the same estate are currently marked at €775. I'm 22 and can't afford to move out, and as the letting agency will obviously only deal with my father (my father will not allow me to go with him to complain), I'm stuck here.

Anyway just as a word of warning the mold is extremely extremely dangerous, when i moved in I was in perfect health, as a result of the mold/dampness, I have developed very bad asthma, have had bronchitis 4 times and contracted pneumonia 3 times in the last year one resulting near in death and a two week hospital stay. I frequently have painful chesty coughs sometimes coughing until my throat is so raw it bleeds, nausea and vomitting, pain in my lungs and sore throats. According to my doctor I will still have to deal with some of these things long after exposure to the mold has ended. The Asthma is now going to be a life long condition. And god knows what else I'll end up with.

Anyway my point is if you can escape this, do it. This stuff has the potential to ruin your health and destroy your life.

I lived in an apartment with a mold problem on the bathroom ceiling. It was only a 10 year old 'luxury' block and apparently it was caused by the fan not working properly. The landlord simply painted the ceiling, painting over the mold which obviously did nothing to help the problem. I was really annoyed as I never would have moved in if I'd known. I ended up moving out after 6 months because I found it unacceptable to be paying so much money to be exposed to mold and potential health risks. It's crazy how landlords just don't care about things like this.

scottie pippen

Been reading through this tread.
Have a similar problem with mould in our bedroom, its extremely bad; we had to remove the back of our wardrobe, as the whole panel was cover in green mould. And a bunch of clothes had to dumped(on a few occasions) as well. The bathroom ceiling is a disgrace too
We bought the place and are stuck with it.
We had the placed checked out after we viewed it, had been freshly decorated so the mould wasn’t apparent at the time

The main bedroom had built in wardrobes, these smelt a bit odd, we put that down to other peoples smell, so we cleaned them, and all was grand, until winter everything went to mouldy inside the wardrobe. The wardrobe is on a gable wall. So we put it down to poor insulation?
We took out the wardrobes, tried to clean redecorate, but it’s come back again & again
The bathroom is not on a gable wall, but still covered in mould.

I am really worried about how this will effect our health
So what is the best way to deal with this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
Scottie

kandikane

Hi
I had the same problem and i got a damp consultant in and he said it was down to bad air flow in the apartment,and he showed me a system that worked off a sensor when the moisture reaches a certain level it kicks in and extracts it,also it creates a constant air flow around the apartment,i have had no complaints from my tennent since i got it installed,Thaig is the guys name i was dealing with and the name if the company is AAA damp and his number is 0867907555 they have a site in the net with great reviews its not a cheap system tho,i hope this helps

doctor evil

That is horrible Katetehblue, go to the welfare officer yourself or to the landlord directly. Look into getting an indepentdent person to evaluate it.

I'd be looking to move out. Is there any other family/friends that can be rallied around?

katetehblue

The only other option is moving in with my boyfriend and we're currently not 100% sure that we'll be able to afford it.

fret_wimp

this thread has opened my eyes. My partner and I live in a house with a lot of mould in the bathroom. She has awful sinus problems since moving in here. we never made the connection.

The landlord is fixing the issue at the end of the month by putting up some sort of pannelling over the walls. I personally dont think this will fix the issue, and will only cover the problem and perhaps make it worse.

Looking to move now ASAP. Thanks folks.