‘Unsafe and unacceptable’: Hackney Council takes aim at private landlords who fail to tackle damp and mould with £400k enforcement boost

Mayor Glanville and Cllr Moema visit mould-infested property in Clapton. Photograph: Hackney Council

Hackney landlords who ignore serious damp and mould issues will face fines and legal action after the council announced plans to beef up its enforcement team.

Living conditions are in the spotlight following the case of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in his Rochdale home.

The tragedy has prompted councils across the UK to reassess their handling of housing complaints, with Hackney implementing a five-day turnaround for damp and mould issues as well as a next-working-day repair service for leaks.

The Town Hall has now turned its attention to rogue landlords, unveiling a £400k investment in its latest budget for more enforcement officers to keep tabs on the borough’s private homes.

Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville and Cllr Sem Moema, mayoral adviser for private renting and housing affordability, recently joined inspectors on a visit to a Clapton property where a woman lives with her five-year-old daughter.

The woman said: “I moved here around five years ago. At first I was so happy but after three months of living here everything started coming down and damp and mould took over.

“To be honest, we’re struggling a lot, but what can we do? It’s affecting my daughter’s sleep and she has developed a chronic cough – we’ve had to sleep and live in the front room. I can’t sleep and I’m scared.

“I’ve contacted the landlord several times and they refuse to carry out the necessary work to make this house safe. If it wasn’t for the support around me I don’t know what I would do.”

The enforcement team found mould covering the wall and ceiling of the bathroom, more mould in the bedroom, and high humidity in the kitchen that was causing the appliances to rust.

Rather than dealing with the issues, the landlord served the family with two Section 21 notices – no-fault evictions that the council is lobbying the government to have banned.

The council is now taking enforcement action against the landlord in a bid to force them to carry out repairs.

This is one of 70 cases in privately rented homes that the council has responded to since the beginning of December, and Mayor Glanville said it was a “heartbreaking” example of why the additional funding was needed.

Cllr Moema says the investment is also a filip for the borough’s 30,000 private renters, adding: “While this is only one case, it illustrates the unsafe and unacceptable conditions a lot of our residents in the private rental sector are being forced to live in to prevent unfair evictions.

“This funding boost will allow us to use every power to raise standards of accommodation and challenge rogue landlords in the borough, while we continue to lobby the national government for the protections that our private renters deserve.”

Private renters experiencing issues with damp and mould can report these to the council’s private sector housing team on 020 8356 4866 (Mon to Fri, 9am – 4pm) or at privatesectorhousing@hackney.gov.uk.

The council has also published some tips for preventing damp and mould at hackney.gov.uk/damp-and-mould.