The landlord has settled us with a heavy renovation bill. He wants the walls sanded and repainted to remove all residues of mould.
He argues that we were negligent. And if we opened the windows often enough and used the heating more there would have been no mould and no damage. Additionally we should have cleaned the mould off as soon as we saw it to prevent it from spreading. This issue apparently hasn’t happened before.
In our defence, the repairman said that there is a lot of moisture coming through the windows and doors.
Our kitchen exhaust fan doesn’t extract the moisture or go anywhere.
It was covid, winter and there were three people living in the apartment as opposed to the normal two. We were pretty much always at home.
Looking at this link:
Is this any kind of recourse?
I dont want to say we are blameless but not 100% responsible for this either.
We are leaving soon or pretty much have left by now. I think the landlord knows and is taking advantage of us since we dont really have recourse as we are leaving Belgium and aren’t residents.
He also is pretty much trying to get free repairs for things that were already broken.
Edit: We have images that he has posted online where you can see mould from the way it was before we moved in.
3 comments
He is right. Mould is almost always dependant on the persons who live there. Except if there is a serious issue like water damage. Otherwise it’s exactly a question of letting the room breathe. Or having a dehumidifier running.
We just bought a house with mold in the living room and in the bath room. After one year of us living there it’s a lot better. And we only opened the windows and have an air dehumidifier. The windows were shut with silicone before we bought it. Now we open them every once in a while. Seems logical to have fresh air to get rid of moisture in the air.
Did you put the caution in a joined bank account ? Did you made an inventory when you started the location ? Did you inform your landlord when the problem started ? It’s a complex situation, you can have free legal advice from the service d’aide juridique. Ask your local administration
This is interesting.
The landlord is responsible for keeping the house habitable.
If the house is considered inhabitable by the municipal council, the landlord even has to provide compensation or a different place to live for you.
I don’t know how severe the mold is, but you could at least threaten to declare him. Then he won’t be able to get any new renters until the issues are resolved.
See this procedure for Flanders: https://www.vlaanderen.be/ongeschikt-of-onbewoonbaar-verklaren-van-een-woning#voorwaarden
Though it would have been better if you had notified the owner when you had the first mold growth (or did you?), it’s still unlikely a judge will order you to pay for these cleanup costs.