Know Your Tenant Rights when Facing a Mold Problem
The housing market is a funny place at the moment. With house prices being incredibly high before the recession hit, many people found it hard to buy a home. Now that we are in a recession, house prices started to fall, however, because of the recession, it’s almost impossible to get a mortgage.
This combination has led many people to rent property rather than buying their own. It’s not just home owners looking to rent property. Many property investors are looking more at buy to let mortgages as these are easier to get and the investment seems to get a better return.
Although you may not think so, there are a number of advantages to renting property. The main one would be that it’s easier to get a rental property because there are more available in the market. The monthly payments required are less as mortgage tend to charge a larger monthly fee. Tenants also have the benefit of not having to worry about paying costly maintenance bills. This work is usually passed onto the landlord.
One problem that tends to occur in older property is mold. Even if you don’t have a mold problem in your home, if you are part of a block, it could be a neighbours that’s causing problems. Because mold can cause serious health issues, you are allowed to request a mold inspection of the property, even if you see no visible signs of mold in your home. If steps are not made to remove any mold, you are allowed to withold rental payments until the work has been made.
Of course there are items such as dehumidifiers that helps to lower the chance of mold growing in your home. A dehumidifier is used to reduce the humidity in your home to the safe levels which lies between 40%-60%. Purchasing a simple appliance like this will help to reduce humidity and therefore the chance of getting mold in your home.
A simple weather station won’t be able to tell you how much humidity there is in your home, you’ll have to get a thermohygrometer to get an accurate reading of humidity levels.
