Black Mould In A Rental: Who Has To Get Rid Of It?
There's black mould creeping up the bedroom wall. You've reported it, and you've been told to open the windows more, stop drying washing indoors, and buy a dehumidifier.
Sometimes that's fair. Far more often it's a landlord describing the symptom and calling it the cause. Here's how to tell which one you're dealing with, and what you can actually make them do about it.
The short version
- If mould is caused by a defect in the building, it's the landlord's job. Full stop. Leaks, failed damp proofing, no extractor fan, single glazing with no trickle vents, poor insulation.
- "You're not ventilating properly" is a claim, not a defence. A home should be able to cope with a normal person living in it.
- Your council can force them to act. Environmental health is free, carries real legal weight, and is the strongest move most renters never make.
- Awaab's Law doesn't cover you yet if you rent privately. It applies to social housing now, and private renting later.
Whose fault is it, really?
There are three kinds of damp and they have different causes.
Penetrating damp comes in from outside. A cracked render, a blocked gutter, a leaking roof, failed pointing, a window that isn't sealed. Always the landlord's responsibility, and usually obvious because it appears in a patch rather than everywhere.
Rising damp comes up from the ground where a damp proof course has failed or been bridged. Landlord's responsibility, and rarer than the damp proofing industry would like you to believe.
Condensation is the common one, and it's where arguments happen. Warm moist air hits a cold surface and turns to water. Mould follows.
Here's the thing landlords often skip. Condensation is a building problem as much as a behaviour one. It happens because surfaces are cold and moist air has nowhere to go, and both of those are usually about the property:
- No extractor fan in the bathroom or kitchen, or one that doesn't work
- Windows with no trickle vents, or vents painted shut
- Cold spots from missing or failed insulation
- Single glazing
- Heating that's too expensive to run, or doesn't reach parts of the property
A home that grows mould when someone showers and cooks in it is not being used wrongly. It's underperforming. Our fuller guide to damp and mould responsibilities goes through the detail.
What you are responsible for
To be fair about it, some of it does sit with you, and being straightforward about that makes your case stronger rather than weaker.
- Using extractor fans where they exist and work
- Opening windows when you can, and not blocking vents
- Wiping down surface condensation before it turns into mould
- Reporting problems promptly and in writing
- Not sealing up every air brick and vent in the place
What you're not responsible for is compensating for a building that can't cope. If you'd need the windows open in January to keep a bedroom dry, the fault is the room.
The law behind it
Three things stack up in your favour.
Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords to keep the structure and exterior in repair, including the things that cause penetrating and rising damp.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires a rented home to be fit to live in at the start of and throughout the tenancy. Damp and mould are named as things that make a home unfit. This one matters because you can take your landlord to court directly, without waiting for the council. Our guide on what to do if your home is unfit covers it.
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System is what councils use to assess hazards, and damp and mould growth is one of them. A serious hazard obliges the council to act.
Awaab's Law, and whether it covers you
This is worth being precise about, because plenty of articles get it wrong.
Awaab's Law came into force on 27 October 2025 and applies to social housing only, meaning council and housing association tenants. If that's you, your landlord must:
- Investigate a significant damp or mould hazard within 10 working days
- Write to you with the findings within 3 working days of the inspection
- Make it safe within 5 working days
- Fix emergency hazards within 24 hours
If you rent privately, it doesn't apply to you yet. The Renters' Rights Act contains provisions to extend it to private renting through later regulations, and that is not expected before 2027. Anyone telling you a private landlord is currently bound by those timescales is mistaken.
That doesn't leave you without options. It just means your route is Section 11, the Fitness for Human Habitation Act, and environmental health rather than Awaab's Law.
What to do, in order
1. Report it in writing
Email, or a letter you keep a copy of. Phone calls don't exist later. Describe where it is, when it appeared, and what you've already tried. Ask for a written response.
2. Photograph everything, with dates
Take pictures as it develops, not just once. Include something for scale. Photograph the causes too, so the broken extractor fan, the painted-shut vents, the gap round the window. A humidity reading helps if you have a cheap meter.
Keep a note of what it's doing to you. Damaged belongings, a child's cough, time off work. That evidence matters if this ends up as a claim.
3. Give them a fair chance, then escalate
If nothing happens, say in writing that you'll be contacting the council's environmental health team.
4. Call environmental health
This is the strongest thing available to most private renters, and it's free. The council can inspect, assess the hazard, and serve an improvement notice requiring the work. That notice is legally enforceable, and ignoring it can lead to prosecution or a civil penalty.
It also creates an independent record written by someone with no stake in the argument, which is worth a great deal if things go further.
5. Consider a disrepair claim
Where there's real damage or harm, you may be able to claim for repairs to be done and for compensation. Take proper advice first. What to do when a landlord won't repair sets out the options, and who to complain to covers the redress schemes.
Can they evict you for complaining?
This used to be the reason people said nothing, and it was a rational fear. A landlord who didn't like a complaint could serve a Section 21 notice and be rid of you in two months, no reason required.
That route closed on 1 May 2026. GOV.UK states it directly: "From 1 May 2026 you can no longer be evicted using the 'no fault' section 21 process, even if your tenancy agreement says you can."
Existing assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies on that date. A landlord who wants possession now has to use one of the specified grounds and prove it in court. "The tenant complained about mould" is not one of them.
That changes the calculation quite fundamentally. Reporting disrepair is safer than it has been in decades, and the old advice to keep your head down is out of date. More in our guide to what the Act changed.
What good looks like
A landlord dealing with this properly investigates the cause rather than the stain. That means checking for leaks, testing the extractor fan's actual extraction rather than whether it makes a noise, looking at insulation and cold bridging, and fixing what they find.
A landlord dealing with it badly sends someone to paint over it with anti-mould paint. That buys about four months and the mould comes back through, because nothing that caused it has changed.
If you get the paint treatment, say so in writing at the time. It's useful later to be able to show they treated the symptom twice and never looked for the cause.
The short answer to the question
Responsibility for getting rid of black mould sits with your landlord wherever the property is causing or enabling it, which is most of the time. Your job is ventilation, prompt reporting and reasonable use. Their job is a building that works.
Report in writing, photograph everything, and go to environmental health if nothing happens. And know that they can't quietly evict you for asking any more.
If your landlord blamed you for a building fault, or painted over it and walked away, that's worth other renters knowing before they sign. Reviewing them on Marks Out Of Tenancy is how that gets on the record.
This guide covers England and reflects the law as at August 2026, including the Renters' Rights Act in force from 1 May 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, Awaab's Law guidance for tenants, GOV.UK, Renters' Rights Act overview, Shelter.