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I recently had my landlord come to my rented property as I noticed black mold forming along all our single glazing windows. It was much worse in the two bedrooms of the property. All the windows generally have condensation on them quite often and the two bedrooms are a lot worse. There is often pools of water on the window sills.

My landlord has said that this is because of my flatmate and I drying washing in the house and has basically said it is all our fault as we are not ventilating the property properly. She further said in an email that the bathroom was the worst affected area, which it isn't.

My flatmate and I regularly open all windows in the flat, but this rarely clears the condensation on them and it just causes the flat to be absolutely freezing, bearing in mind over the past few months the temperature outside has been around freezing. In addition to this the clothes drier is kept in the livingroom and the livingroom door is always shut to keep heat in. The bedroom doors are regularly shut too.

We are not sure if it is the case (as the landlord said) that the clothes drying is causing the mold and damp in the bedrooms as this seems unlikely, however, she will not listen. In addition to this, it appears to us that the single glazing windows, especially in the bedrooms, are letting in water.

We have one again cleaned the mold away, this time using neat bleach as instructed by the landlord.

We are hoping to just get a little bit of clarification here about whether the landlord is right or not in relation to the washing in the livingroom causing the condensation in the bedrooms. And also about the likelihood that the windows in the bedrooms are just not as tightly sealed as the other areas.

Thanks

As a landlord myself (I like to think a responsible one!) I have a similar problem in our rented flat (see post below re condensation and airbricks)

Once our tenants told us of the problem I immediately bought them a dehumidifier and asked them to keep it running as much as possible, this has dramatically reduced the problem and cost me about £100. We're still looking at improving circulation and we need to clear up the damp marks that the condensation problem has left behind, which we'll do when our tenants leave at the end of this month.

It's your landlords responsibility to keep the property in full working order, if mould spores are growing around the windows, that is not the case. Ask them to either send round a damp specialist or purchase you a dehumidifier to fix the problem.

Hi

You have a condensation problem, and by sounds of things it is quite bad.

The rooms need to have fresh air coming in 100% of the time, single glazed windows will always have condensation on them as there is no thermal capacity in them, the heat from the room meets the cold through the window and turns to water - condensation.

You need to maintain heat and ventilation within bedrooms to reduce condensation, it is not an overnight fix.

A dehumidifier will help but will not cure the problem, it is not advisable to dry clothes within the property, unless in a space provided with mechanical extraction and fesh air, along with heat.

The drying of clothes will have an effect but it is not solely this that is creating the probel, the rooms need to be vented, heated and in a perfect wold the windows to be double glazed.