Melissa Hickson, director of Prime Residential explains about what an agent should do when they find mould in a rental property?
Hi guys, Melissa here at Prime Residentials. So let’s talk about mold. Now, I went to a property today that I’ve just taken over from another agent. And I went to the property and I met with the tenant, which is a normal process for me getting new property on board. We go out and meet with the tenant. And we did a quick inspection of the property at the same time. So when we did the inspection, I had a look around and took some photos and stuff like that. And when I went into the bathroom, I saw that there was a whole heap of mold in this property. So on the walls, on the ceiling, on the door. In the bathroom, which had no windows and no working vent. So I said to the tenant, “How long has it been like this for? And have you reported this previously to your old agent?” And they said, “Oh, we just thought that it was normal.” And I thought, “Well, okay, I didn’t–” It’s obviously not normal because it’s quite a load of black moss all over the wall and ceiling of your bathroom.” So I spent some time educating the tenants and sitting down with them and explaining the process on why this has happened, what they should do to prevent mold in the future. Obviously, we need to get the mold cleaned up and treated and obviously get a working exhaust fan in that bathroom. But I just wanted to make a point that it’s really important that your agent actually educates your tenants on what to do in a situation if they’re not sure about how to treat mold or what to do to make sure that mold doesn’t come back because it obviously it’s a health risk for the tenants. They also have a young child so, I mean, hopefully no one gets sick from this. But it’s all about educating the tenants. So these guys didn’t actually know that there was an issue so I thought that that was super strange. They just really didn’t know that there was an issue. They didn’t think there was anything wrong with the property so now wait out an action plan to make sure that this gets sorted out ASAP for the tenants. Not really appreciative of the time that I spent with them, true, but just a quick video to jump in to say to make sure that you’re checking your property to see if there’s any mold. Especially in winter because obviously, you know, there’s with the warm water that people having in their showers and having them super hot. The walls can then get lots of condensation, which then causes mold. And then can in turn obviously damage your property but also make the tenant sick. So we need to make sure that this gets sorted out ASAP, which we’ll get onto for this owner and the tenant, as well. But just a quick to make sure that you check your ceiling and walls and bathroom and even behind the beds. Sometimes there’s mold behind the bed if you’ve got a bed next to the window. You know and there’s condensation in the window and things like that. So just make sure that you check all of that. And if your property is managed with an agent, make sure that they’re checking for any mold on the ceiling, especially in the bathroom and the laundry area. Coming into… We’re in winter time now so it’s a great time to make sure that there is no issues with mold in your rental property. Take care, everybody, have a great day. Thanks for listening, buh-bye.