Cold and damp homes

Total absence of insulation.

No loft space in which insulation can be laid.

No cavity walls (1920s terraced construction) into which insulation can be inserted.

Flat roof. Hot in the Summer, cold in the Winter.

Central heating supplemented by expensive local electric fires.

I am very fortunate to have my own home which is quite warm.  However I have a damp problem in one bedroom and a leak when there is heavy rain in the passage next to my extension,

My problem is finding a reliable reasonably priced tradesman to fix these. It's hard to know whether estimates are fair - they always seem too much- and whether the tradesman can be trusted to do a good job. I find that big builders aren't interested in small jobs.  It would be so helpful if there were a register of proven reliable tradesmen.

I have no central heating - so resort to wearing layers. Thermal underwear, and long johns particularly, are brill as are a thin cotton hoody and over that a thicker hoody. I wear a beany in doors and fingerless gloves. The two hoodies provide additional head warmth over the beany if I wish. I pretty much utilise one small room in the upstairs of my house where I live alone. A halogen heater on one of available two bars is quite adequate to warm the room. I have as backup a Calor gas heater that I sometimes use to boost warmth first thing after rising. I'm one for fresh air and will have windows open for a while even in coldest of weather. I leave rear upper windows open a little to air home when I am out. I don't have running hot water - so wash from a boiled kettle at a sink in my 'winter room'. I strip down for whole body wash as bath is not in use without central hot water. In any case, the bath is full of books and archival papers. In case you ask - No, I don't smell of BO. I like to think, perhaps, that I live somewhat like they did in the olden days which comforts and amuses me mightily in being able to have some empathetic feelings and practices of poverty. I retire to a freeze chest of a small bedroom where I again wear layers a cap and bed-hoody and thick bed socks overlaid with duvet and other blanket and woollen throw that is entirely sufficient for a warm snug sleep upon a tier of two soft sprung traditional horsehair mattresses themselves covered below lower sheet with undercover layers. As a child camping in very rudimentary manner I learned that layers below as well as on top was the key to a better sleep upon cold damp grounds. I own my own home and could fork out expencively for renovations. However, all my savings would be gone in a swoop to unreliable builders one of which scammed me years ago of a considerable sum before he scarpered without completing.

In my experience, most private rental homes in London are cold and damp (at the bottom end of market rate). Landlords are very reluctant to make improvements that would increase a property's energy efficiency rating. In my last two homes, double glazed windows and cavity wall insulation would both have helped considerably. In my current flat, we have condensation on our single glazed Crittal windows for 4-6 months of the year, even though we ventilate the flat when cooking and showering, and always dry clothes outdoors. Access to outdoor clothes drying space is rare and very important for reducing the humidity levels inside. Requiring landlords pay some kind of carbon offset for a poor EPC rating would incentivise them to make upgrades to their properties that would improve the comfort of tenants and reduce their heating bills.

My house is freezing we might as well be sitting in the garden when the heating is not on, the windows are awful you can feel a draft when they are closed. This is a council property and they changed the glass on a couple of windows as they were shot and the water was inside the double glazing. They didn't even want to do this I felt like I was begging in the end.I pay £118.00 per month all year round for gas and electric costs me a fortune and it is going out the window.

We live in a block of 21 flats, where I am one of four directors (Treasurer), registered with Companies House, who manage the property. I own my own flat and 20 out of 21 of us own the Freehold as well.

I did have some damp problems in my flat several years ago, but since we managed to get free cavity wall insulation some years ago, the problem seems not to have returned.

I am a housing association tenant we have an issue about double glazing with them they won’t consider installing it, living opposite a open space a park in a Victorian house high ceilings the nature of the property is very hard to keep warm, what with utility bills being highs and living on a pension money is tight.i know double glazing would solve the problem and keep the heat in the rooms.it is to expensive to have installed ourselves.at the moment we have just had scaffold erected to have the external works done painting etc.a good time to have it installed.The housing association will expect us to have windows and doors open this time of year when it is so cold and damp,yes I worry about my health and being cold.what is the point of heating a house when we have to have windows and doors open.Cannot go anywhere to keep warm because of security to the property whilst this work is being done.

I'm joining in just for contrast. I'm fortunate in having a good pension and that both my partner and I are still working in our 70s. We own our late 19C terrace house, we did loft insulation and the previous owners replaced some of the windows with the earliest and most useless double glazing. We loose heat through them and through the solid brick walls. Result is we spend a lot on gas which is environmentally bad, but we can afford it. No condensation. We must be typical of a lot of middle/high income elderly people. We aren't the social misery reported by most of the other respondents, but we are an envionmental problem.

I have suffered from damp and mold ever since moving here in 1995. I was even advised by my housing manager at the time that the problem was due to the numerous plants I had at the time and told me to get rid. However, the problem continued and got even worst as I had mushrooms growing on my carpets too. (I don't have carpet anymore even though it is warmer in the winter to have it). Anyway, after 23 years of complaining, the council decided to insulate the walls and put a vent in the rooms that were affected the most. However, they had to remove the radiators from the walls to do the insulations and replaster the walls and from June, they have failed to replace the radiators. They are currently in my passageway. Three times they have failed to keep their appointment. They came to do their annual gas check two weeks ago, I told them there is no point going upstairs as they are no connected radiators. A couple of days later, they sent some to INSPECT the radiators, but no appointment was made to reinstall them so I am still without heat in my bedroom in the middle of November. Do you think I have a case against the council and if so. can you recommend a solicitor for me?

I now live in my own property in London where investment over the years means damp is finally avoided and warmth kept in the house and not escaping up old coal fire chimney or through floorboards, poorly insulated thin walls, badly fitted single glazed windows and the boiler and central heating made much more energy efficient by avoiding expensive old style electric or gas fires or radiators.

Years spent in rented property (Liverpool, Birmingham and London) taught me the hard way that UK housing is very heating and damp proof inefficient given its age plus landlords have zero interest in improving cheaply bought properties in maximising rents.

What to do is dependent on having stronger goverment with active local authorities support that are prepared to really shake up the rental property sector (private and social housing) by putting the onus on the landlord where rented (whether private, housing trust or local authority) plus make it attractive to improve the housing stock in this country for both landlords and homeowners by tax reliefs and incentives. That in turn means having schemes that succeed in their intention and do not become scams (as with solar heating).

I live as a privat tenant in a one bedroom apartment with open kitchen, located on the ground floor.
For heating and cooking I use electricity, there is no gas connection.
If I turn off the radiators, within 1 hour all the heat goes away and it's cold again as if the rooms were not heated.
When cooking I have to open the window to the kitchen and the living room to avoid condensation. When I washes my laundry I must dry it inside because there is no other possibility. And this again causes condensation.
I have double glazing but I think the cold penetrates through the walls.
The cost of electricity is very high and I can not afford to leave the radiators permanently turned on. So I stay in the cold. It's very tough at age 70!

I live in a council owned, ALMO managed, street conversion, Victorian, property. With single glazing I have a significant condensation problem in winter, which results in black pin mould. Every morning I squeegee the water off the window panes and wipe off the excess water and mould from the window frames. I then leave the windows open for half an hour. Consequently my flat gets very cold. So I wrap up in extra layers, sometimes even in a duvet to keep warm. I know I could significantly improve the problem by having the heating on during the day but I cannot afford that and only have it on in the evening. I'm long term sick/disabled and living on ESA but not old enough for a winter fuel allowance. I have to dry my clothes indoors as I have no external space.
I can't see any solution to this so I just have to live with it.

Helix Housing Association tenant: old Victorian house, 2nd floor maisonette, cold damp, condensation in every room. Single glazing, no insulation in roof over bedroom, walls need insulation. Damp coming in under window sill next to my bed. Two windows don’t shut properly. They just ignore me - partially disabled pensioner, still having to climb 32 stairs. 

I live in a housing association property and have done since it was built via a Housing Action Trust 23 years ago. It is an end of terrace 2 storey house which is attached to a 3 storey house. The part of the roof that is attached to next door wall has let in rain water a number of times causing dampness in of the bedrooms.  It has been repaired about 4 times. Up until the last time this happened any internal damage was put right by my landlords but although the last repair seems to have done the job, the internal water damage hasn't been dealt with. I bought the stuff to do it myself. But  I realise I am lucky compared to so many people who rent.

I am a retired building surveyor who used to work for a housing association. I was also a council tenant when younger, living in an extremely damp and dry rot infested council flat in Fulham, so I have seen the problem from both sides. There is no one cause, but surveyors are adept at diagnosing what is wrong. Today much of what is termed damp is caused by lack of adequate ventilation for the water vapour caused by cooking and bathing, but there is also the problem of over-occupation and poor choice of materials together with poor maintenance and bad design. Back in the 1970s I saw the high point of social housing, which has dwindled to the point where little new rented housing is being commissioned. Associations are having to take on the dregs of stock built by speculative developers to minimal space standards and using the cheapest of materials. Most have internal bathrooms and kitchens, tiny windows and are over-occupied so dampness is rife. 

My first 2 flats that I rented in London back in 2012-14 had terrible consensation and damp issues. The first, we reported to the landlord and she provided us with dehumidifier, which was quite expensive for us to run however it did help. The second flat we continued to report it to the management agency for the flat but were only told to leave our windows open. The condensation quickly led to mould issues, which we reported numerous times and tried to manage ourselves as again we were told only to leave windows open (which was dreadful in winter). On leaving this particular flat the landlord then kept £1000 from our deposit to fix the mould issue, although the mould we believe was due to the fabric of the building rather than our actions in our opinion. Furthermore, my flatmate who I lived with at the time also developed asthma due to this mould issue. I now own my own dehumidifier and have excellent landlords and so have not experienced any further issues since 2014. However, without supportive landlords, this problem is very difficult to tackle. Drying washing inside the home we found exacerbated the issue, however in London flats there is often no outdoor space in order to dry washing.

I'm in the private rented sector (but a very large landlord with many properties). It's an old Georgian house converted into flats - single skin walls and very cold! The landlord refused to put in loft insulation or secondary glazing (even though the old sash wondows are very draughtly and rattle hugely in the wind). I also have an illness that makes me susceptble to the cold, and I work from home - therefore at home the majority of the time.

So - to make it liveable for me, we paid for loft insulation, secondary glazing throughout, reflective panels on the external walls where possible and draught excluders on the doors and windows. The landlords do maintain the boiler and fitted radiator thermostats when I asked. The bathroom has always tended to be damp and grow mould and at times we've had mould in the kitchen (the external wall especially) and water from leaking roofs etc - that last one the landlord did fully mend after a few years. I sometimes blast it with very strong mould cleaner, but hate doing that (chemicals, fumes ...)

Aside from wearing lots of jumpers and always thermal longjohns and tops from Spetember to May, I have to have the heat on a lot. Otherwise my fingers loose all their blood and I can't work, cook or anything else.

Luckily, although the landlord issues us with an end of tenancy notice each year or two, they then offer us another lease (with a rent increase, of course), so the large amount of money we've put in to the flat hasn't been just thrown away.