Damp and Mould in a Rented Home: Your Landlord and You

If you have been searching for a damp proofing grant because your rented home has mould on the walls or water coming through, the money you are looking for probably is not there. Government funding for damp and energy efficiency work goes to property owners, and in a rented home the owner is your landlord. Fixing damp caused by disrepair is their legal duty. It is not something you should be paying for or chasing funding for yourself.

Some schemes do pay towards insulation and heating improvements in rented properties, including ECO4 and the Warm Homes: Local Grant. The landlord applies, not the tenant. They are discretionary, landlords are usually expected to put in some of the cost themselves, and they deal with energy efficiency rather than structural damp or a leaking roof. Availability and eligibility change, so check GOV.UK or your council for what is actually running in your area. None of it replaces the landlord's repairing obligations.

What your landlord has to do

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 applies to almost all tenancies of under seven years. The landlord must keep the structure and exterior in repair, including the roof, walls, guttering, downpipes and windows, and keep the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating working. Damp from a leaking roof, failed pointing, blocked gutters or a burst pipe is covered by those obligations.

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 goes wider. Rented homes have to be fit to live in at the start of the tenancy and stay that way, and damp and mould are among the things that can make a home unfit. That catches problems which are not strictly disrepair, such as a home so poorly ventilated or so cold that condensation and mould are unavoidable. Under this Act you can take your landlord to court yourself, without waiting for the council to act.

Tenants of councils and housing associations also have Awaab's Law. It sets legal deadlines for social landlords on damp and mould: investigating a reported hazard within a fixed number of working days, giving you a written summary of the findings, starting work within a set period where there is a significant risk, and acting within 24 hours in an emergency. If the home cannot be made safe in time, they must offer suitable alternative accommodation. The duties are being phased in, damp and mould first, and the exact timescales are in the regulations on GOV.UK.

Worth saying plainly why this is treated seriously: breathing in mould spores can trigger asthma attacks, worsen existing lung conditions and cause repeated chest infections. Babies, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system are most at risk.

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Reporting it and keeping a record

Report it in writing. Email or the landlord's online portal both work. A phone call leaves you with nothing to point to three months later. Say which rooms are affected, roughly when it started, and whether anyone in the household has a health condition that mould could make worse.

Then build the file:

• Dated photographs of every affected area, retaken every few weeks so the spread is visible
• Copies of everything you send and receive, including missed appointments
• Notes of visits: who came, what they said, what they did
• Any GP letter or medical evidence connecting the conditions to ill health

Give the landlord a fair chance to inspect and repair. If you get nothing back, or you are told to open the windows more and that is the end of it, escalate.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Escalating it

Private tenants should contact the council's environmental health team. They assess homes under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, damp and mould growth being one of the hazards on the list. If they find a serious hazard they can serve an improvement notice, which is enforceable, and they have a duty to act on the most serious ones.

There is some protection against retaliation. Where you have complained in writing and the council has served the relevant notice, a section 21 no fault notice can be invalid for a period afterwards. Eviction rules are changing under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 as its provisions come into force, so check the current position on GOV.UK, or with Shelter or Citizens Advice, before you rely on it.

Social tenants should use the landlord's formal complaints procedure, in writing, and see it through to the final response. After that, or if the landlord fails to respond properly, you can take it to the Housing Ombudsman Service. That costs nothing.

Court is a real option, not a last resort you should feel embarrassed about. A disrepair claim can ask for an order requiring the landlord to do the works, plus compensation for the damage and the way you have had to live. Where conditions are a serious risk to health or safety, legal aid may cover housing disrepair advice and representation, subject to your income and capital. Civil Legal Advice can tell you if you qualify, and a local housing solicitor or law centre can take it from there.

What not to do

Do not withhold rent. It will not produce a repair and it hands the landlord arrears to evict you on. Repair and deduct, where you pay for work and take it off the rent, does exist, but the steps are strict and getting them wrong is costly, so take advice first.

Do not paint over mould and hope. Do not sign anything accepting blame for damp you did not cause. And do not keep quiet because you are worried about the tenancy: a written complaint is what switches most of these protections on.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Home Repair and Damp Grant Checker lets you check which grants, schemes and legal duties might cover damp, heating, insulation or repairs in your home. Try it now →