Tenant – landlord relationships can sometimes escalate into serious disagreements ending up in the layers office. This week I have completed a project where moulds and mould contamination has been blamed for deterioration of tenants’ health thus warranting braking of the tenancy agreement. The tenants in this case obviously concerned with mould have appointed a mould inspector to come and test their property. The inspector has carried out an indoor air quality test consisting of humidity check, airborne particle count, moisture survey and viable (culturable) mould sampling. Humidity check and particle count showed no problems with the property, visual inspection, although not mentioned in the report, has presumably not identified any problems, moisture mapping has not identified problem but culturable spore count showed elevated spore count. Furthermore the inspector did not carried out any background mould test to establish a baseline for the investigation.
Baseline (background) sampling is an essential part of any investigation because it provides information on the normal mould spore concentration in the air typical for the immediate area, time of day and time of year. Without background sampling the indoor spore counts are almost meaningless.
Amazingly based only on the elevated viable mould spore count alone the property has been declared unhabitable and it has been stated that there is a serious risk to health to the tenants. This conclusion has been drawn by the inspector despite the fact that visible mould was not present and that the house did not have a dampness problem. Implications of such a strong statement without real supporting evidence are far reaching. As a result of the inspection the tenants moved out immediately, but more importantly property had to stay unoccupied for several months. Letting agents involved with the property cannot let a property which has such damming report attached to it.
I have been invited to carry out an inspection on the property along with mould sampling and provide second opinion on the indoor air quality in the house. As previous inspector I have carried out a serious of diagnostic tests which did not identified any problem with the property. Culturable (viable) and non culturable (non-viable) mould sampling showed as in the first case moderately elevated spore count but not to the point I would declare the property as inhabitable. Mould sampling and spore count is only one element of the indoor air quality inspection and on its own only provide small glimpse into the overall indoor air quality.
Without any other supporting evidence (visible mould, hidden mould, dampness, water damage, odours etc) just mould count cannot be uses to condemn a property. Root cause of elevated spores count has to be reliably identified and linked with the contamination to provide solid evidence.
I have prepared a report of the landlords which contained more or less the same findings as the original reports but completely opposite conclusions. I have concluded that also elevated mould spore count exists in some rooms of the property; this on its own is not enough evidence to declare the property as inhabitable, especially in the lack of any other supporting evidence. The cause of elevated spore count could be among dozens of other things lack of cleaning or just accumulation of mould spores by settlement from outdoor air. Mould Inspection Report is a serious documents which is likely to end up on a layer’s desk and therefore needs to be prepared carefully with balanced views and enough solid evidence to prove the case.
By Tomas Gabor
