Updating post from Reddit.
What are some reasonable requests to ask (and general advice to give) a tenant to prevent mould in an apartment?
Just done our annual check and noticed a few spots on the ceiling.nothing serious, but just don't want it to become a bigger problem.
She's drying clothes in the living area where the mould spots are, which I don't think is unreasonable for her to do, but I'm guessing this is the cause.
I'm thinking of buying her a dehumidifier and request that she uses that as a start.
Any other advice or things I should request she does?
Ventilate, keep the property warm- those are the big things when it comes to damp/mould prevention.
Thank you. She is away a lot of the time for weeks on end. Does it seem reasonable to ask that the property is heated to some degree whilst away over winter periods?
Yes, provided she has a way to do it. A lot of modern thermostats have functions to automatically turn the heating on at certain times of day (heck, my Dad’s does this and it’s 20 years old at this point) so unless the boiler and thermostat are both absolutely ancient, she should be able to set it to come on at certain times of day, or to reach a specific temperature at specific times.
Yeah we have a thermostat. Was more curious if this was a reasonable request 😊
In the past I have given a tenant a dehumidifier and to save the "yes but my bills" conversation have refunded £100 rent to cover dehumidifier bills for the year. No arguments then.
Open windows slightly, use a proper extractor fan. Dehumidifier in the laundry area, and keep doors closed to limit the moisture to the one room where the dehumidifier is. (also be aware if you supply the dehumidifier (as opposed to her buying it) you replace it when/if it breaks.
Buying your tenant a dehumidifier (along with a timer switch) for your property would make the most sense. I'm going to assume your property that you rent out does not have enough reasonable space for a full size dryer, so you should do what you can to help them.
With your tenant not there for long periods, you have a nice set up on paper
Depending on the size of the space it can become a real problem. Its so easy to have mold problems in a small space, like a 1 bed flat. The big thing is that they keep on top of it. You can say open the windows and have the heating on but humidity and condensation can happen. Its easy to clean the walls down every now and then with a bleach solution or mold spray. it does not need to get out of hand like the instances you see in the news.
Milton's, always use Milton's on mould not bleach. It's safe and it works much better.
Give them a humidity meter, and tell them 'keep this under 60% or you're gonna get mould'
Either a £2 one from china, or a £20 'smart' one that connects to WiFi and you can see the humidity too remotely.
They'll soon figure out which things make it go up - washing, wet towels, watering houseplants, many people in a room, etc.
depending on the size of the property, keeping it under 60% can be an insurmountable task.
opening windows for a short time in the day (10 mins) is usually enough. but if the tenant is away, having a permanent (piped to waste) dehumidifier is not a bad call. They cost next to nothing to run.
Tried that. Humidity doesnt drop below 70, no mould, but trying to reach 60 for any length of time seems difficult, without using a dehumidifier , which would cost a lot i guess to run.