Question regarding mold/damp clothes

dee.

I am in a rented house and there is no proper ventilation. LL drilled the window frame in a few places but there is no proper vents. The house is always cold (impossible to heat) no insulation, etc. I open the windows from when I get up (8am) until around 4pm now that the evenings are getting colder.

We have an infestation of mice, probably because of the many large holes in the outside walls, and I decided to take everything out of my closet after hearing one in there. The closet is built-in and there's a pipe running up the back of it which has a huge hole around it, about 3-4 inches wide, so I assume they got in through there.

Anyways - i noticed a couple of pairs of my shoes are covered in mold. These are expensive shoes I save for special occasions so I didn't discover it sooner. It's mostly blue/black mold but some of them have thick yellow growth..not sure what it is, maybe some kind of fungus? Some of my clothes are ruined too. Everything in the wardrobe smells damp/musty.

Is the LL responsible or is it a case of tough luck? A lot of my favourite clothes/shoes are ruined. I have been leaving them out in the sun (read online this kills mold) but no luck yet I left my harddrive on the floor in my room for a few days and plugged it in and it basically blew up, I am assuming this was due to damp as it's not very old.

LL knows about the damp/mold, I caught him in the bathroom with mold remover spray a few months ago because there was black mold growing in between the tiles. One of the bedroom Walls has mood growing from the bottom up now too.

If anyone can offer any advice, if LL is responsible for my damaged belongings, i would appreciate it very much.

Just to note, incase anyone suggests leaving - I'm in the process of moving but I won't be out of here for a few more weeks.

L5

move out tomorrow. i wouldnt spend another night in a place like that. Stay in a friends etc until you get sorted with a new place

dee.

L5 wrote: »

move out tomorrow. i wouldnt spend another night in a place like that. Stay in a friends etc until you get sorted with a new place

Really not possible, if it was I'd be gone long ago (so many problems since I moved in earlier this year..one thing after another) it's absolutely horrible to be in this situation.

thecelt

We lived in house with same problem,
my wife ended up having to dump a lot of her shoes,
was upsetting as a lot of $ worth

Honestly I would move out,
we stayed there too long too,
was impossible to heat the place,
and you get sick all the time!

dee.

thecelt wrote: »

We lived in house with same problem,
my wife ended up having to dump a lot of her shoes,
was upsetting as a lot of $ worth

Honestly I would move out,
we stayed there too long too,
was impossible to heat the place,
and you get sick all the time!

Sounds exactly like me! I'm sick all the time, as are other people in the house. Doctor said its caused by the house for sure. We've only been here about 8/9 months but 8/9 months too long! Heating the house is a waste of money as it never gets warm, at this point we might as well be throwing money in the fire. I sleep every night with two duvets, two tshirts, sweatpants, a hoodie and thick socks...madness!

I was hoping I wouldn't have to throw out my clothes/shoes but it's looking like it LL's shouldn't get away with stuff like this.

edellc

I lived in a house in mount argus harolds cross d6w with a landlord called matt the house was a **** hole it was filthy, damp, cold and we had mice. The boiler broke and LL didnt get if fixed

I know you said you cant move out and i understand cause neither could we I just stopped paying rent for a few months so i could afford to move out not legal i know but had to be done i had a four month old at the time so his health was more important to me that lining LL pocket for a **** hole that he wouldnt do anything about

What I suggest is that you ring threshold if you cant get through to the dublin office then ring cork or galway and ask what your rights are and they'll point you in the right direction, dont know if anything can be done

we also lived in a basement flat in rathmines upper rathmines road landlord called michael again a **** hole full of mould, the roof in the kitchen leaked and when it rained we actually had a waterfall so bad that we ended up having weeds growing on the floor in the kitchen...we went away for a 10day holiday when we got back we had to throw all clothes left behind out it was disgusting got so bad with the water situation that it blew the electrics, again kept a couple of months rent and moved out, landlord laughed when we complained :eek:

like i have said in numerous threads we need proper laws to protect tenants and landlords but also to improve the standard of accommodation especially for the extortionate rents that are still being charged

odds_on

Put your complaints in writing, dated (keep a copy), to the landlord and as these are very serious problems, give the landlord 7 days to rectify them (14 days if you are feeling generous!).

Failure to rectify the problems may render the landlord in breach of his obligations and you would be quite right in taking the case to the PRTB and claiming damages to property and for inconvenience and possible health issues.

For your information,
S.I. No. 534 of 2008
HOUSING (STANDARDS FOR RENTED HOUSES) REGULATIONS
2008

Ventilation
9. (1) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a habitable room shall have adequate ventilation.
(2) All means of ventilation shall be maintained in good repair and working order.
(3) Adequate ventilation shall be provided for the removal of water vapour from kitchens and bathrooms.

The 1993 regulations state:
(2) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a bedroom shall have permanent ventilation either by means of the flue of an open fireplace or by means of one or more ventilation openings having a total unobstructed sectional area of not less than 4,000 square millimetres and opening directly to the external air

dee.

edellc wrote: »

I lived in a house in mount argus harolds cross d6w with a landlord called matt the house was a **** hole it was filthy, damp, cold and we had mice. The boiler broke and LL didnt get if fixed

I know you said you cant move out and i understand cause neither could we I just stopped paying rent for a few months so i could afford to move out not legal i know but had to be done i had a four month old at the time so his health was more important to me that lining LL pocket for a **** hole that he wouldnt do anything about

What I suggest is that you ring threshold if you cant get through to the dublin office then ring cork or galway and ask what your rights are and they'll point you in the right direction, dont know if anything can be done

we also lived in a basement flat in rathmines upper rathmines road landlord called michael again a **** hole full of mould, the roof in the kitchen leaked and when it rained we actually had a waterfall so bad that we ended up having weeds growing on the floor in the kitchen...we went away for a 10day holiday when we got back we had to throw all clothes left behind out it was disgusting got so bad with the water situation that it blew the electrics, again kept a couple of months rent and moved out, landlord laughed when we complained :eek:

like i have said in numerous threads we need proper laws to protect tenants and landlords but also to improve the standard of accommodation especially for the extortionate rents that are still being charged

Sorry to hear you had the same problem as us. I was sorting through the rest of my cloths today and in between them was a dead mouse I can't shake the feeling of touching it, it had been there a while and I had a panic attack after realising I had just picked up a mouse that was decomposing, rotting away, in between my stuff. Feeling sick all day now. Those clothes were some of the few that weren't moldy
But I'll have to throw them out now anyway as just the thought of the mouse rotting in them makes me sick.

We rang threshold a while back. Dublin office was busy so got through to the Galway one instead. I know people say they're great but personally I thought they were useless. Maybe we just got through to someone on a bad day, but really not willing to help and basically told us we were screwed in regards to the house being in such bad shape (not true)

dee.

odds_on wrote: »

Put your complaints in writing, dated (keep a copy), to the landlord and as these are very serious problems, give the landlord 7 days to rectify them (14 days if you are feeling generous!).

Failure to rectify the problems may render the landlord in breach of his obligations and you would be quite right in taking the case to the PRTB and claiming damages to property and for inconvenience and possible health issues.

For your information,
S.I. No. 534 of 2008
HOUSING (STANDARDS FOR RENTED HOUSES) REGULATIONS
2008

Ventilation
9. (1) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a habitable room shall have adequate ventilation.
(2) All means of ventilation shall be maintained in good repair and working order.
(3) Adequate ventilation shall be provided for the removal of water vapour from kitchens and bathrooms.

The 1993 regulations state:
(2) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a bedroom shall have permanent ventilation either by means of the flue of an open fireplace or by means of one or more ventilation openings having a total unobstructed sectional area of not less than 4,000 square millimetres and opening directly to the external air

Thanks for this. We already had an inspector out who gave a list to the LL of things that needed to be fixed, she hasn't called back to check yet (this was 3-4 months ago now) he was required to change the windows (old ones were rotting frames) and vents but he put in new windows and drilled them..as you can imagine the holes are tiny. There is no fan or anything like that in the bathroom. There is one over the cooker in the kitchen though, which we open any time we cook. We leave the windows open as much as possible, the holes/"vents" he put on them are open 24/7 but are pretty useless as you can imagine!

As he has been told to provide proper ventilation already and hasn't done so, I'm wondering if he is responsible for my damaged belongings. He was given a printed report of things to fix so he knows the house needs better ventilation.