Damp, Mould and the Renters' Rights Act: Why Landlords Are Fitting Ventilation Now

For years, a damp and mould complaint in a private rented property followed a familiar script. The tenant reported mould. The landlord suggested opening windows and drying washing outside. If the complaint persisted and the relationship deteriorated, a Section 21 notice ended the tenancy, the property was cleaned and redecorated between tenants, and it started again with someone new the following winter.

That route closed on 1 May 2026.

Quick answer: The Renters' Rights Act abolished Section 21, made all tenancies periodic and raised penalties to as much as £40,000. A damp and mould complaint can no longer be resolved by ending the tenancy — it has to be fixed, with the tenant still in place. Damp and mould are Category 1 hazards under the HHSRS, giving councils enforcement powers today, and Awaab's Law duties are expected to extend to the private rented sector from 2027. Continuous humidity-tracking ventilation is now the cheapest and most defensible way to close that exposure. Call 0161 706 1360 to arrange a survey.

What Changed on 1 May 2026

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 came into force on 1 May 2026 and is the biggest change to private rented sector law in a generation. The headline items are covered in full in our guide to what landlords must do, but three of them bear directly on damp and mould.

Section 21 is abolished. There is no longer a no-fault route to possession. Where a dispute over property condition previously ended with a notice, it now ends with the problem still there and the tenant still in it. The only route to possession is through the reformed Section 8 grounds, and "the tenant keeps complaining about mould" is not one of them.

All tenancies are periodic. No fixed terms, no natural end date at which a property empties and gets redecorated. A property with a recurring winter condensation problem now has that problem continuously, with the same household, indefinitely.

Penalties have risen substantially — up to £40,000 for certain breaches, alongside the enforcement powers local authorities already hold.

Put together, the economics have inverted. Under the old regime, managing a mould problem tenancy-by-tenancy was, cynically, cheaper than fixing it. It is not any more.

The Damp and Mould Enforcement Picture

Three separate things sit on top of the Renters' Rights Act, and landlords frequently confuse them.

The HHSRS — in force now. Damp and mould growth is a recognised hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and where it is assessed as Category 1 the local authority has a duty to act. Councils can serve improvement notices, carry out works in default and recover costs, and prosecute. This is not new law and it does not depend on Awaab's Law — it is available to every council in Greater Manchester today, and has been for years.

Awaab's Law — in force for social landlords. Named after Awaab Ishak, who died from prolonged mould exposure in social housing in Rochdale, it took effect for social landlords on 27 October 2025, setting binding timescales for investigating and remediating damp and mould hazards. Extension of those duties to the private rented sector is expected from 2027.

The Decent Homes Standard is being extended to the private rented sector, bringing minimum condition requirements that have applied in social housing for two decades — covered in our guide to Decent Homes and electrical requirements.

The Rochdale connection is not incidental for anyone operating in this region. The case that drove the legislation happened a few miles from most of the properties we work in, and Greater Manchester local authorities have been noticeably more active on damp and mould enforcement since.

Why "Open a Window" Stopped Working as a Defence

The traditional landlord response to condensation is that it is a lifestyle issue: too much washing dried indoors, showers without the fan on, heating turned down, windows kept shut.

Some of that is factually true. A household does generate 10–15 litres of water vapour a day, and drying clothes on radiators genuinely does make it worse.

It has stopped being a defence for two reasons.

First, the building is usually the cause. Most Manchester rental stock has been double glazed, draught-proofed and had its chimneys blocked, with nothing put back to replace the ventilation that was removed. Solid nine-inch walls with no cavity provide plenty of cold surface for the moisture to land on. Occupancy did not change; the building's ability to shift moisture did. That is a landlord's responsibility, not a tenant's.

Second, it is not a legal answer. Where a hazard exists, the question an environmental health officer or a court asks is what the landlord did about it — not whether the tenant's habits contributed. A landlord who can show adequate ventilation was installed, commissioned and certificated is in a completely different position from one whose file shows three mould washes and a letter about opening windows.

Why Ventilation Is the Cheapest Risk Management Available

Set the numbers side by side.

| | Cost | |---|---| | Greenwood Airvac humidity fan, supplied and fitted | £330 + VAT | | EnviroVent filterless fan, supplied and fitted | £430 + VAT | | Mould wash and redecoration to one room | a few hundred pounds, recurring every year it is not fixed | | Chemical damp-proof course and replastering (often the wrong fix) | four figures, and it will not stop condensation | | Disrepair claim — damages, tenant costs and your own | several thousand upwards | | Local authority improvement notice, works in default | council's costs, recovered from you | | Renters' Rights Act penalties | up to £40,000 |

Our fan prices are fixed and include the through-wall installation. The other figures are indicative of what these things generally run to rather than quotes — the point of the table is the order of magnitude, and the fan is an order of magnitude below everything under it.

A fan is the cheapest line on that table by an order of magnitude, and it is the only one that stops the problem recurring.

There is also a rent-roll argument. A property with a chronic damp problem is a property with high tenant turnover, longer voids and downward pressure on rent — see what every void day costs. And an EPC point: a property that is being ventilated properly is one where a tenant can heat the rooms they are living in, which matters as minimum energy efficiency standards tighten. See EPC and MEES compliance.

What Good Looks Like

If a landlord asks us what "adequate ventilation" means in practice, the answer is short.

Continuous running, not light-switch linked. A fan that only runs when the light is on does not run for summer showers and does not run for a tenant who leaves the light off. Continuous low-rate extraction with automatic boost on humidity is the specification.

Humidity-tracking, so it responds to what is actually happening. A fixed timer overrun of three minutes does not remove the moisture from a ten-minute shower. A humidity-tracking fan runs until the moisture has gone.

Not defeatable. Wired permanently live with isolation for maintenance, so it cannot simply be switched off.

No maintenance dependency. In a rental property, a filter that needs changing every couple of years will not get changed. EnviroVent's filterless designs remove that failure mode entirely — see our guide to filterless fans in rental property.

Properly installed and ducted. Short, straight, correct diameter, falling to the outside, terminating outside the building. This is where most of the value is, and where most installations fail.

Measured and certificated. The extract rate measured on commissioning against the rates in Approved Document F, and a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate issued for the electrical work — see our Part F guide. The certificate is the evidence, and evidence is the point.

Build the Paper Trail

The thing landlords most often get wrong is doing the work and not recording it.

If you fit ventilation and a complaint arrives two years later, what you want on file is:

The survey — what was found, what was measured, what was recommended
The specification and the invoice — what was fitted, where, and when
The commissioning record — the measured extract rate on the day
The electrical certificate — a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for the work
The tenant handover — confirmation the occupier was told what has been fitted and how it works
Your response times — when the complaint came in, when you attended, when it was resolved

We issue all of that digitally as standard through our eWorks portal, so it lands in your records without you chasing it. For agents and portfolio landlords, that means the evidence exists across the whole portfolio without anyone having to assemble it after the fact.

Respond quickly, too. Awaab's Law is built entirely around response timescales, and even before it reaches the private sector, the speed of a landlord's response to a reported hazard is what an enforcement officer looks at first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Renters' Rights Act specifically require ventilation?

Not as a named item, in the way an EICR is specifically required. The exposure is indirect but real: you can no longer end a tenancy to escape a condition dispute, damp and mould are already enforceable hazards under the HHSRS, and Awaab's Law duties are expected to extend to the private rented sector from 2027. Ventilation is the practical fix for the hazard that generates most of those complaints.

When does Awaab's Law apply to private landlords?

It has applied to social landlords since 27 October 2025. Extension to the private rented sector is expected from 2027. The sensible position is to get ahead of it — the work takes a morning per property and the deadline is not going to move backwards.

Can I still take action if a tenant is causing the damp?

You can raise it, and genuine tenant-caused damage is a different matter from condensation. But condensation in a draught-proofed property with no adequate extraction is, on the evidence, a building problem. Attempting to argue lifestyle without having fitted adequate ventilation is a weak position and an expensive one to lose.

What if the property already has extractor fans?

Have them measured. A large proportion of the fans we test in older rental property move almost no air — clogged filters, crushed ducting, or discharge into a loft or soffit void. A fan that exists is not a fan that works, and "there is a fan fitted" is not evidence if it delivers nothing.

How quickly can this be done across a portfolio?

Quickly. A through-wall fan install is typically two to three hours per property and can be done in occupied properties. We programme ventilation upgrades alongside EICR and remedial visits so each property is attended once, priced on an agreed schedule of rates — see managing compliance across multiple properties.

Does damp affect the electrical inspection too?

Yes, and landlords consistently underestimate this. Sustained condensation corrodes terminals and accessories and drives down insulation resistance readings, which is how a property ends up with an unsatisfactory EICR and a remedial bill on top of the mould problem. See damp, moisture and electrical failures.

Get Ahead of It

Manchester Compliance installs EnviroVent filterless fans and Greenwood Airvac humidity fans across Greater Manchester for landlords, letting agents, block managers and housing providers. Through-wall installation, proper ducting, measured on commissioning, fully certificated and documented.

Call 0161 706 1360 Email: hello@manchestercompliance.co.uk

NICEIC approved. Covering Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton, Wigan and Trafford.

Damp, Mould and the Renters' Rights Act: Why Landlords Are Fitting Ventilation Now