I got £3,000 compensation from my landlord after my home was riddled with mould and damp – how you can too
A YOUNG mum-of-three managed to get thousands of pounds in compensation after her landlord failed to fix her mould riddled home.
Chelsie Sansome, 28, rents a housing association property in Oldham with her children Keegan, 5, Kaleb, 2 and Theo, 1, who have suffered serious health problems because of their living conditions.
Mould is a hazard for young children and can cause respiratory problems.
“Keegan got asthma, and that was triggered because of the mould and Kaleb suffers breathing conditions and bronchiolitis," Chelsie told The Sun.
"We were in and out of hospital on numerous occasions."
"I felt helpless and I broke down every day. I wanted to move but I had nowhere else to go.”
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Chelsie moved to the two-bedroom house in 2018 and first noticed spots of damp on the walls a few months later.
“I opened the windows because I thought it might just need air ventilation. But it didn’t go away and it got more aggressive,” she said.
Black mould first appeared in one of the top bedrooms and spread to the next room.
Chelsie says: “It kept getting worse and, in one of the bedrooms, it went completely across the whole wall. It was in my bedroom too, on the window sill and the walls. It was really bad.
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“I called my social landlords about it and told them I had young children, but the lady on the phone just said ‘Do you not open your windows?’ Of course I did,
Chelsie was then told that it wasn't the landlord's problem and to clean it herself, she claims.
Things got worse in 2020 when a burst pipe caused water to leak into Chelsie’s kitchen, leaving water dripping through her wall.
Eventually the housing association sent someone to cut off the electricity to a plug socket in the kitchen where the water was coming through - but not the leak itself.
It was the final straw for Chelsie, who pays £92 a week rent and is on Universal Credit, working eight hours a week in Primark.
"I’d had enough. I wasn’t getting anywhere. There’s only so long you can live like that"
Taking action
Chelsie heard about a ‘no win no fee’ solicitors taking on cases like hers.
She registered her details and sent them pictures of the damage – they said it was the worst case they’d dealt with and took on her case.
Within a couple of days, they sent a surveyor out, contacting the landlord’s solicitors to “give them a kick up the bum”.
The work to repair the damage started in February 2021 and carried on for four months.
It took a lot longer to settle their claim for compensation for all the suffering, and Chelsie’s solicitor had to threaten court action.
Eighteen months later, having tried to offer the minimum amount they could of £1,000, Chelsie's landlord eventually agreed to pay her £3,000 for the distress caused.
After fees she was left with a final figure of £1,650.
Her battle is not over, though, as the mould problem is returning and affecting her kids health.
"I just want to get out of there,” says Chelsie.
Anthony Middleton, a partner at GLP law which represented Chelsie, has successfully dealt with thousands of property damage claims and specialises in providing legal services for vulnerable members of society affected by adverse housing conditions.
“There are many thousands of homes affected by penetrating or rising damp, mould, water ingress, leaking pipes, defective doors and windows, unsafe electrical and gas systems and defective roofs,” he says.
“Many landlords have historically put profit before safety and at best have been reactive to carry out repairs, but only after tenants have complained for months or years about the problems with their home.
"Repairs are often inadequate, dealing only with symptoms and not the causes of the issues.
"A good example of this is when landlords carry out a mould wash in an attempt to remove mould from properties which, unsurprisingly, returns within a short period of time because whatever is causing the creation and build up of mould has not been dealt with.”
Anthony says that landlords often try to blame the tenant’s lifestyle for causing the problems.
“Landlords would argue that the tenant was failing to adequately heat or ventilate the property but, in many cases, we find properties suffer from inadequate ventilation or defective heating,” he says.
But since an act called the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 was made law, it has become more difficult for landlords to defend such claims.
Your rights and how to complain
According to Shelter you can ask your landlord for compensation if they fail to carry out repairs in a reasonable time frame.
Issues you can take action for include:
- Damp and mould throughout the property
- Defective plasterwork
- Defective brickwork
- Defective windows throughout the property
- Defective/faulty electrics
- Excess cold due to lack of radiators in the property
- Defective/leaking shower
- Lack of extractor fans in the property
- Defective / cracked rendering
- Defective heating
You can also claim if it's unfit to live in because of poor conditions.
These rules apply to private landlords, councils and housing associations.
You'll first need to go to your landlord or letting agent to complain and you'll need to show evidence and set out why you think you're entitled to a payout.
If your landlord doesn't agree you can take court action, but beware that this can cost money.
You can do this when you are still living there, like Chelsie, or after the end of a tenancy.
But Shelter warns that some private landlords evict tenants who ask for compensation, so it may be better to wait.
You can claim up to six years from when the work should have been carried out, or three years for a personal injury claim.
You can make a claim for the inconvenience as well as financial losses.
For example damage to your belongings, the cost of having to buy a heater if your boiler breaks, or loss of earnings from taking time off work if your health is affected.
Before going to court your landlord might settle the claim by offering you compensation or a rent reduction.
If not, before heading to court you could go to the to make a formal complaint if you are a council or housing association tenant.
You can also complain to a if you rent privately through a letting agent, but only if the agent contributed to the dispute.
For claims of under £1,000 you can take it to the small claims court.
Fees are lower and you won't have to cover the costs of your landlord if you're unsuccessful.
You can also do this yourself and don't have to have a solicitor.
For larger claims there are higher fees and you're likely to need a solicitor.
The costs can add up but you might be able to get help through legal aid.
You could also use a no-win, no-fee firm, but remember that it will take a cut of any payout.
The court can force a landlord to carry out a fix and pay compensation.
If the court finds in favour of the tenant then the landlord could be liable for some or all of the legal costs.
Compensation for housing disrepair usually ranges from 25% to 50% of your rent, according to solicitors FreemanHarris.
For example, if you paid £9,600 in rent over a year and had heating issues continuously for that period, if your claim was successful you could get 25% of that back - which is £2,400 in compensation.
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How much you'll get will depend on the damage and how long the landlord took to make the repairs.
But if not, you could be left covering costs so it's worth considering court as a last resort.
