Hi, good people of Reddit. I need advice on my current situation, as the title says.
I’d be super grateful for any opinion or advice, because, I’m kinda lost.
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So I rented an apartment in Berlin last February that when I moved in, was just renovated, smelling like fresh paint. The apartment is in a back-building that has only 2 apartments, each one on a separate floor, so my apartment is facing the outside from all sides and is on the ground floor. The building is quite old, over 100 years old.
A few months in, I started noticing the wall paint peeling off in some areas like [this](https://i.imgur.com/ti0MbqN.jpg), [this](https://i.imgur.com/uW1mLbG.jpg), and [this](https://i.imgur.com/SvJ7Bh3.jpg), which to me looks like due to excess humidity or something, which was strange to me because I always make sure to ventilate my space and never had an issue in any apartment for lack of ventilation or whatnot. So I told the landlord, he sent a handyman that just painted back those spots and told me to “open the windows more”. Ok, I started to do that much more even though I didn’t think there was an issue with my ventilation to begin with.
Now a couple of months ago, I started seeing mold growth in some spots on the walls, exclusively on the outside-facing walls, basically some in every room.
When I told the landlord about this, he sent the same guy, but now because the situation was much worse he didn’t do anything, and told me this is because I don’t heat the apartment properly, but I refused to take this for an answer and kept arguing with him, until at some point he said **”well.. also the apartment isn’t insulated (from the outside)”**.
After that visit, I didn’t hear back from the landlord, so I sent him an email with all the details and photos and asking him to take immediate action because the situation was unlivable, he replied to my email saying (in short) that the technician told him that I keep the apartment too cold, he also said that he already sent him to me twice and that “I’m destroying his newly renovated apartment”, and that if I don’t turn up the heat, I should look for another apartment.
Here are some observations I have on this situation, please tell me if I’m doing anything wrong and if I’m really “destroying his apartment”:
* I clean the mold off almost every week, then it comes back as soon as 2 – 3 days later, and every time it comes back worse, as in bigger, more widespread, and in new spots. Here are some examples: [1](https://i.imgur.com/sZFcgfY.jpg), [2](https://i.imgur.com/xaVTnLH.jpg), and here are examples for when I didn’t clean it for 2 weeks because I was too sick: [1](https://i.imgur.com/0Eal7Bz.jpg), [2](https://i.imgur.com/vBaZuBb.jpg).
* There seem to be some small mold spots that never come off no matter how hard I try to scrub them off, as if they’re behind the paint, and they’re slowly increasing in size.
* I noticed some discoloration on the aluminum window frames like [this](https://i.imgur.com/Nwhs54D.jpg), which is really hard to clean, and I’m not sure if this is mold or what (is it?).
* I installed a hygrometer in every room to keep an eye on the humidity levels, and I noticed that it’s almost impossible to get it below 60%, and I struggle so much to keep it around 70, so basically from 65 to 75.
* The walls are so damn cold all the time no matter what the room temperature is, and needless to say always super humid. I was actually happy with this during summer, but in winter not so much.
* I used to keep the temperature at 19 C when I was awake, and I let it drop to 16 – 17 when I’d go to sleep, I noticed that this is not inconvenient for me, and at the same time I don’t pay at least 300+ euros per month for gas, because like I mentioned before, the walls are too cold and aren’t helping. However, when the technician told me that’s because it’s too cold, I’ve been keeping it at 20 C all the time for a month now, but I think if anything this even further aggravated the problem.
* I notice that after/during rainy days the mold gets more aggressive.
* I tried a wide variety of mold cleaning products, but I now resorted to vinegar because I don’t think all of those chemicals are doing us any good.
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Now my question is, am I really doing something wrong? Is it my responsibility? Or does this seem like an insulation issue? and if it is, how can I deal with the landlord? He clearly replied to my email in a way to hold me responsible on the record.
I’m not gonna talk about how exhausting and dangerous the cleaning process is, but I just feel like I’m running out of energy, not to mention that seeing the mold growing everywhere takes a huge psychological toll on me.
This is only my 2nd year in Berlin (and Germany), and I’m still trying to navigate through this beautifully complicated country, which I love for the most part, but right now there’s so much going on in my life all at once, and, for the first time, money is becoming an issue, so my nightmare would be something like to go against him in court and lose, or similarly (maybe even worse given Berlin), having to move to a new apartment, and with all my furniture, and maybe even lose my security deposit in the process, because that seems like this is something my landlord would do given that I “destroyed his apartment”. I don’t think I can afford any of this now.
Oh, also, I don’t speak German very well yet. 🙁
Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to read through it all, any advice would be really appreciated.
by Redviolet07