Tenants claiming damaged clothing
Hi
We bought a house which had an excellent surveyors report with no problems at all. The home report had number one next to all the boxes. The house was in tip top condition.
We stayed in the property from November to march without any problems.
we decided to rent out the property for one year and live elsewhere.
The occupants started April and had a one year tenancy.
We were contacted in November that we had a serious damp issue that they attributed to penetrating damp. They did not have this assessed it was there opinion. They sent some pictures of the damp and 3 pairs of shoes which were damaged in the wardrobe. The was black mould growing on the walls in a few patches. Also inside the wardrobe clear signs of damp and mould.
Immediately we contacted them and asked if we could send in proffesionels to check out the problem which they declined due to sheltering from corona and stating the problem was not too bad that they would deal with it. We then suggested to send them a dehumidifier or salt traps to capture the moisture. We Also asked if they were dying clothes in the house and were they opening windows. They agreed to stop drying clothes and ventilate the property better. We had confirmation that the salt traps were working. They then contacted us with wanting to extend the tenacy for another 8 months which we declined because we needed to occupy the house again.
This is where it all started to go a little wrong. They contacted us again saying the damp had returned and we decided to buy a top of the range dehumidifier and send it to them. We again asked to send in professionals to look at the damp but again turned down. We then received a mail saying they were vacating one month early and we needed to pay for damaged clothing that was in a wardrobe. We did not receive any mail concerning this until they had vacated and received their deposit back. Then the mail arrived with photographs of shoes and clothing with mould damage with a price tag of 1700 pounds demanding that we payed. We decided to send in our architect who is renovating the house to inspect what the problem was. The architect has clearly said there is no rising damp and no penetrating damp. The problem in his opinion has been condensation due to not ventilating the property correctly. The walls on the house are non cavity and cold and the tenants had put furniture up against the wall which we had told them to move away because we suspected it was condensation damp. The two rooms with the damp on the walls had opening windows and radiators so tenants could have used these to ventilate the property. We then received another mail showing more garments they had forgotten about with serious mould damage and asking for another 500 pounds. We fully believe the damage has been caused by the tenants and that some of the garments have been added to the list that is impossible that they were ever in this wardrobe.We need to reply but just wondering who would be better to give a report on the damp issue, surveyor or architect?? Thanks for any help out there.
We bought a house which had an excellent surveyors report with no problems at all. The home report had number one next to all the boxes. The house was in tip top condition.
We stayed in the property from November to march without any problems.
we decided to rent out the property for one year and live elsewhere.
The occupants started April and had a one year tenancy.
We were contacted in November that we had a serious damp issue that they attributed to penetrating damp. They did not have this assessed it was there opinion. They sent some pictures of the damp and 3 pairs of shoes which were damaged in the wardrobe. The was black mould growing on the walls in a few patches. Also inside the wardrobe clear signs of damp and mould.
Immediately we contacted them and asked if we could send in proffesionels to check out the problem which they declined due to sheltering from corona and stating the problem was not too bad that they would deal with it. We then suggested to send them a dehumidifier or salt traps to capture the moisture. We Also asked if they were dying clothes in the house and were they opening windows. They agreed to stop drying clothes and ventilate the property better. We had confirmation that the salt traps were working. They then contacted us with wanting to extend the tenacy for another 8 months which we declined because we needed to occupy the house again.
This is where it all started to go a little wrong. They contacted us again saying the damp had returned and we decided to buy a top of the range dehumidifier and send it to them. We again asked to send in professionals to look at the damp but again turned down. We then received a mail saying they were vacating one month early and we needed to pay for damaged clothing that was in a wardrobe. We did not receive any mail concerning this until they had vacated and received their deposit back. Then the mail arrived with photographs of shoes and clothing with mould damage with a price tag of 1700 pounds demanding that we payed. We decided to send in our architect who is renovating the house to inspect what the problem was. The architect has clearly said there is no rising damp and no penetrating damp. The problem in his opinion has been condensation due to not ventilating the property correctly. The walls on the house are non cavity and cold and the tenants had put furniture up against the wall which we had told them to move away because we suspected it was condensation damp. The two rooms with the damp on the walls had opening windows and radiators so tenants could have used these to ventilate the property. We then received another mail showing more garments they had forgotten about with serious mould damage and asking for another 500 pounds. We fully believe the damage has been caused by the tenants and that some of the garments have been added to the list that is impossible that they were ever in this wardrobe.We need to reply but just wondering who would be better to give a report on the damp issue, surveyor or architect?? Thanks for any help out there.
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