Every autumn, as the heating goes back on and windows start to stream, the same question lands with managing agents across the country: whose problem is this? The answer depends entirely on the cause.
Damp is one of the most common and most misunderstood issues in a block of flats. It causes worry, it damages decoration, and left alone it leads to mould that nobody wants to live with. It is also one of the biggest sources of friction between residents, freeholders and agents, largely because people reach for blame before they work out what is actually going on.
So before deciding who should fix it, it helps to understand what you are looking at. Most of the time it is one of three things.
First, work out what you are dealing with
Condensation
By far the most common, and the one people most often mistake for a building fault. Condensation happens when moist air, from cooking, showering, drying clothes indoors and simply breathing, meets a cold surface such as a window, an external wall or a cold corner. The moisture turns to water, and over time that water feeds mould.
It is worst in the colder months, in the least ventilated rooms, and on the coldest surfaces. If you are seeing water on the inside of your windows in the morning, that is condensation.
Penetrating damp or a leak
This is water getting in from outside the flat, through the building fabric. A
failed roof, a blocked or broken gutter, cracked render, perished window seals
or a leak from a flat above or a communal pipe. It usually shows as a defined
patch on a wall or ceiling, often worse after heavy rain, and it can appear at
any time of year.
Rising damp
Less common in flats above ground level, this is moisture drawn up from the
ground where a damp proof course has failed or is absent. It tends to affect
ground floor flats and shows as a tide mark low on the wall.
So who is responsible?
This is where the lease matters, because your lease is the final word on who maintains what. As a general rule, though, the picture is fairly consistent across most blocks.
Everyday condensation is usually the resident’s to manage, because it is driven by how the flat is lived in and ventilated. Damp caused by a building fault, a leaking roof, failed gutters, defective walls or windows, is typically the responsibility of the freeholder or management company, and is dealt with through the service charge. And where water escapes from one flat into another, the buildings insurance often comes into play.
The single most useful thing you can do is not to guess. If damp is presistent, spreading, or clearly coming from outside your flat, report it so the cause can be properly diagnosed. Fixing the wrong thing wastes everyone’s money.
What you can do about condensation
If it is condensation, a few habits make a real difference, and none of them are expensive:
- Ventilate. Use extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom, open trickle vents, and air rooms briefly each day
- Keep a low, steady background heat rather than short intense bursts, which leaves surfaces cold
- Cover pans when cooking, and close the bathroom door while showering
- Dry clothes outdoors where you can, or in a well ventilated room, not draped on radiators
- Wipe down streaming windows and sills in the morning
- Leave a gap between furniture and cold external walls so air can move
When to report it
Some damp is not yours to solve, and it is worth flagging early rather than living with it. Report it to your managing agent if the damp appears after rain, comes through a ceiling or an external wall, seems to originate from another flat, or keeps returning however much you ventilate. Those are signs of a building issue rather than daily living, and the sooner the cause is found, the cheaper it usually is to put right.
Never just paint over mould
Mould is a symptom, not the problem. Painting over it or wiping it away without tackling the cause simply delays its return, and persistent mould is not something to ignore, because it can affect health, particularly for the very young, the elderly and anyone with respiratory conditions.
Clean affected areas properly, deal with whatever is producing the moisture, and if mould keeps coming back across a wall or ceiling, that is a strong sign the underlying cause needs a professional eye
How good management helps
A well run block does not treat damp as an argument to be won. It diagnoses the cause, fixes building related problems promptly, and helps residents understand what they can do themselves. Gutters are cleared before autumn, roofs and seals are kept in good order, and reports are actually acted on rather than passed around.
If damp in your building is met with silence, or the same patch reappears winter after winter with nobody getting to the bottom of it, that usually says more about the management than the brickwork.
Chelton Brown has looked after property in Northamptonshire since 1975. If you live in a block we manage and something is not right, tell us and we will get the cause looked at. And if your current management leaves recurring problems unsolved, we are always happy to take a look.
Damp or a recurring problem in your block?
Talk to our block and estate management team and we will help get to the cause.
01604 603433
Or find out more at cheltonbrown.co.uk/block-and-estate-management
