Damp Problems - Help!

[jghomer]

I have a tenant who is a serial moaner (don't we all!)

His latest thing is to moan about little patches of damp forming on one of his bathroom walls and is threatening to withhold rent. It's a ground floor bathroom with a functional Damp Injection, and what's more the damp wipes off with a cloth and clearly is from within the property, and not from rising damp. There is also a functioning fan in the bathroom. The wall is a north facing wall and is the coldest of the walls in the property, but it is double brick with a cavity, and he has gch & upvc to keep the place warm.

Do my Section 11 obligations cover this? as frankly i'm not sure what to do about it! I even get little patches of damp around the windows in my bathroom, which I wipe off regularly and think no more of it.

Anyone had any similar experiences or offer any advice?

[jeffrey]

Section 11 of LTA 1985 covers keeping in repair "the structure and exterior of the dwellinghouse (including drains, gutters, and external pipes)", but a bit of damp is not otherwise your responsibility.

[P.Pilcher]

Two things to do:
1) Tell your tenant that the damp is due to poor ventillation and he needs to keep windows open more. Don't forget that even in well ventillated house in the winter, a single glazed window will deposit loads of water on the inside windowsil overnight - mopping same up is normal practice.

2) Issue a section 21 notice NOW to get rid of such a tenant as soon as possible!

P.P.

[jghomer]

Thanks for the good advice :-)

[Editor]

From what you have described this is almost certainly condensation - read this article:
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/pdf/Mould.pdf

[jghomer]

Excellent article - thanks

[Paragon]

ed - Many thanks for the article. Very appropriate timing for me as well.