Clothes ruined by dampness

[Mr Right]

I rent a house and from the day I moved in there was a bad smell of dampness. The letting agent said it was just because it hasn't been lived in for a while and once the heating has been on a while it'll all go away. A couple of months on there was still a bad smell of dampness so I got the agent out. He said "just wipe down the walls and it'll all go away". It didn't go away. Many months later my girlfriend got back onto them this time and the letting agent just repeated that bleach will take away the problem. After this she got in touch with the CAB who advised to allow them one more attempt to fix it. At the same time she got in touch with Public Health and they confirmed it was condensation dampness. They then installed an extraction fan in one of the cupboards which doesn't really fix the problem, it's still in the cupboard walls just some of it gets filtered out. Not to mention the fact it's still in the other cupboard as well as (to a lesser extent admittedly) throughout the house but they said nothing can be done about that.


Now my other half has a "cold" she has had for months now which could be possibly related to the dampness and she is also 6 months pregnant. More or less every single piece of clothing we own is ruined by dampness too. The house, we don't care much if it gets fixed as we're moving out ASAP. Where do we stand with regards to the clothes? Would I just go to a small claims court?


The letting agent seems to love his bleach, he told us to wash all of our clothes with bleach and the smell will go away.

They also said My partner can't deal with anything because its my name on the lease, is that true? It is a bit of a struggle for me to deal with it with only a Sunday off whereas she has Tuesday and Friday off. They know this about us so is this true that only I can deal with all of this?

[charitynjw]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

Hi Mr Right

Condensation in a cupboard?

Is it visible elsewhere?
Unless there is a leaking pipe/tank in it, it's more likely to be penetrating damp (from rain, or a faulty gutter, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damp_(structural)

[ruthie59]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

Washing clothes in bleach? Does he inhabit a parallel universe? Have environmental health been informed?

[jon1965]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

There are several relatively inexpensive (for the landlord) to fix damp. These are small units that provide positive air pressure that keeps the air moving out .

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

im with Rurthie.. have E/H been involved, especially as your O/H is pregnant.. she must NOT touch anything with mould/mildew on it.

[jon1965]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

Someone please warn her to stay away from Cloggy

[CleverClogs]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

More or less every single piece of clothing we own is ruined by dampness too. The house, we don't care much if it gets fixed as we're moving out ASAP. Where do we stand with regards to the clothes? Would I just go to a small claims court?

I doubt that any claim would succeed.

Even if some of the clothing had actually been damaged rather than merely smelling musty, neither the landlord nor the letting agent was responsible for storing the clothes where they were affected by mould or mildew.

[charitynjw]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

Is there contents insurance?
If so, check the T & C's

& your partner can deal with it on your behalf.
A letter of authorisation signed by you should suffice.

[wales01man]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

If you knew there was a damp problem and could see or smell it in this cuboard why would you put clothes in there?if there was a smell in the cuboard when the OP moved in would they not leave the cuboard empty until its sorted?
Did EH. leave a report stating the problem and suggesting a remedy ,did the landlord letting agency get a copy and did EH return after a period of time?

[Mr Right]

Re: Clothes ruined by dampness

Hi Mr Right

Condensation in a cupboard?

Is it visible elsewhere?
Unless there is a leaking pipe/tank in it, it's more likely to be penetrating damp (from rain, or a faulty gutter, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damp_(structural)

There is (not as bad) but still present elsewhere. Like the living room walls look slightly more black, in the bedroom there is black mildew like things particularly in the corners but I wipe it away when I can.

Washing clothes in bleach? Does he inhabit a parallel universe? Have environmental health been informed?

Yes my O/H got in touch with EH and they said that the landlord does have to fix it as it is dampness, not something that bleach will fix.

I doubt that any claim would succeed.

Even if some of the clothing had actually been damaged rather than merely smelling musty, neither the landlord nor the letting agent was responsible for storing the clothes where they were affected by mould or mildew.

Where else can I store the items? I never stored them in either cupboard that smells really badly of dampness, they are kept in the bedroom cupboard which smelled okay to me.

In fact, when I got the letting agent out and he told me that it wasn't dampness, he also said I could continue to use the airing cupboard (one of the cupboards with the bad dampness) still to dry clothes as it wouldn't affect it. This seems like pretty rubbish information and I ignored it anyway.

Is there contents insurance?
If so, check the T & C's

& your partner can deal with it on your behalf.
A letter of authorisation signed by you should suffice.

The letting agent was contacting the landlord to see about the insurance, we didn't have any personally. They got back to us and said that the insurance company wasn't helpful advising us to write to them. I'm almost certain we can't do this as it isn't our insurance but that's what they told me.

Thanks I'll make sure to do that then.

If you knew there was a damp problem and could see or smell it in this cuboard why would you put clothes in there?if there was a smell in the cuboard when the OP moved in would they not leave the cuboard empty until its sorted?
Did EH. leave a report stating the problem and suggesting a remedy ,did the landlord letting agency get a copy and did EH return after a period of time?

At the very beginning we used the cupboard because the letting agent told me the smell was just because the heating hadn't been used in a while and once it was "lived in" it wouldn't smell like that. I quickly stopped using it as the smell clearly wasn't going away but the only things now stored there is the landlords furniture, my hoover and other things like boxes. No clothes or anything since the very beginning.

wasn't there but my OH has said that he didn't leave a report so I called up just now and he said he'd send out a report of the findings.

[ieshaitv]

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