The good, the bad and the mouldy…

Getting ready for an inspection is a military operation…

Estate agent inspection that is. You put the best bed sheets on, pop the two (dozen) bottles of wine in the bin and generally make sure it’s neat and tidy because at the end of the day, we all want to look like the perfect tenants.

We’ve just received the letter following our inspection and the one thing which they’ve picked up on is the on-going mould issue in our bathroom. The mould has been there since we moved in, and quite frankily it’s grown on us – not in a good way!

The reason being is there isn’t much we can do to prevent it, so when this letter outlined the fact that the mould should be cleaned and the bathroom ventilated as much as possible, although we were in agreement this also frustrated us.

We’re on a ground floor flat where the only system of ventilation in our tiny bathroom is an equally tiny window, therefore when leaving the house at 8am to go to work, we’re going to make sure they’re tightly shut and locked, not giving the steam much time to escape.

Our response back to the estate agent was one of dismay and curiousity – “We really do think a ventilation system should be put in place”, we said, continuing to inform them that we’re doing everything we can to prevent it. We went on to ask “Any ideas you have to prevent it, we’d be happy to hear”. The reply which we received pretty much repeated the fact that we should leave the windows open as long as possible, although they do appreciate that we live on a ground floor.

Our problem isn’t even so much the mould, it’s more the estate agents who seem to feel that rented properties are going to be kept in sublime condition when actually they’re oblivious to the problems which occur frequently. Getting a landlord to then sort any issues out is another matter altogether. 

Where do estate agents live anyway? Magical castles where everything is cleaned with fairy dust. At the end of the day, things like mould are a common issue for many and it seems that it’s easy for estate agents to flag up problems but not so easy for them to present solutions.

David & Mark x