This is how I interpreted your post, you said you agree with the use of S21 after a legal decision that rules in favour of the tenant over things like mould has been made. Did I misinterpret you?
Yes, you misinterpreted me. I never suggested that.
After living in HMO's for many years (as a tenant and then a landlord) I know of several cases where landlords used Section 21 notices to get tenants to change their bad conduct. For example, where a tenant had engaged in anti-social/threatening behaviour to other tenants or owed a lot of money for rent/energy bills etc, then the landlord would issue one
but later withdraw it if the tenant changed their ways before the 2 months was up. Therefore, by removing Section 21 you remove a useful tool for good HMO landlords to manage their properties effectively.
If a problem tenant leaves 2 months after being issued with a Section 21 notice (no Court appearance) then he will not have a CCJ on public record against him, even if he was a tenant from Hell. On the other hand, if he has to go through, for example, Section 8 proceedings (Court appearance) then there will be a CCJ against him. Hence, Section 21 can actually protect a tenant's reputation when the landlord just wants to cut his losses and get his property back. Otherwise, the tenant may struggle to rent another property if the landlord/letting agent does a CCJ check.
Do those dehumidifiers run of your own electric meter? Or do they pay for the cost of running them?
When I lived elsewhere (rented a room in cities where I was working) I used to compensate them for the dehumidifiers' energy use for the programmed number of hours every day. (Of course, they often unplugged them so they were getting money for nothing.) Now that I share the same house with them and have to collect their energy payments from them retrospectively the cost automatically comes off my account and I don't charge them for that.
Also what is the insulation like in the properties? Share the grade if you can.
The rooms are all double glazed with UPVC frames, there is cavity wall insulation and there is 30 centimetres of 3-year-old loft insulation. It would not be practical to add additional internal wall insulation and external wall insulation would be refused by the local planning department.
The problem is that many of my tenants are from southern Europe, Pakistan, India, the Far East etc and they are used to higher temperatures all year round, hence some of them don't open windows or like the ventilators.
Usually when I see stories of mould and the like, the insulation is trash in the property or something has been discovered that caused it. My own room has had mould, and although I have gone for spells during very cold weather I havent opened the window, (a) I had 9 months where I couldnt open any window due to LL leaving scaffolding up and (b) it has since been discovered the cause was external.
I had a landlord who didn't fix the shower for a month after it broke down in our HMO and another who left us for weeks without a functional toilet because he insisted there was nothing wrong with it (even though he never even came out to look). Now that I am a landlord with lodgers (to help pay my home's mortgage) I have vowed never to behave like them. In fact, I am probably too generous to my lodgers. As a landlord you often do get taken advantage of if you don't put your foot down.
Mould is caused by moisture on the walls/ceiling etc. That moisture can come from a leaking roof or pipe, but it can also come from condensation due to excessively high humidity levels caused by the ventilation being cut off and the release of too much water vapour in a room. You can have all the insulation you like but if humidity levels are too high you will still get condensation and mould.
As I said before, I have had tenants who never ran the provided (and fully paid for) dehumidifiers, blocked up all the window ventilators, never opened the windows, kept the (full length) curtains closed 24/7 in their bedroom, vaped in the rooms (illegal in a HMO) and ran kettles/rice cookers in there producing and trapping a lot of water vapour.
If all you doing is removing mould, in my opinion whilst its better than nothing, you not doing enough if you not investigating the cause, you might have your own opinion, but opinion isnt fact. What investigation did you carry out to determine that tenant caused it, and by which professionals?
I have lived in these rooms myself for years previously and not had a mould problem. I have had many sensible tenants who lived in them and never had a mould problem. But I have had a small number of tenants who lived in them and had a mould problem and by a strange coincidence they were the people who blocked off the ventilators, kept the windows and curtains shut 24/7, vaped, ran kettles and rice cookers etc. That's empirical evidence. I don't need to pay through the nose for a "professional" to tell me something that is obvious.
If you need to resort to dehumidifiers and all that nonsense then you need to sort out your property. Simple as that.
Did you read any of my previous replies? There's nothing wrong with the property. How would you suggest I "sort out my property" to stop people from blocking up ventilators, keeping curtains and windows closed 24/7 in their rooms, vaping (which is illegal in a HMO) and running kettles/rice cookers in there?
There's no magic fix like somehow adding more insulation to the walls. Unfortunately, detection of problems and enforcement of rules is the only way round it. Of course,
@chrcoluk will hate that.
