Rental apartment is humid but agent says dehumidifier won’t help to lower the humidity..

slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 13:43
Last edited 11/05/2020 - 14:36

Edit: please don’t focus on whether it’s the agents responsibility to supply or not (yes I asked to see if they couldn’t but I wasn’t expecting it / expecting it was free)… the question is about whether we can be held accountable for any damages and what are other solutions, and why a dehumidifier won’t work in this case? Our temps indoors without a heater is 20C. Humidity with door open is 60+%

Edit 2: Thanks to the suggestions re: the air conditioning unit. I checked the manual and there is a dehumidification mode. We will try this out

——

Our current rental apartment is a 1 bedroom but humid as hell. We don’t have windows (just the balcony door and the glass panes next to it). Most morning (when it’s single digits overnight), we wake up to condensation on the balcony door.

We asked the real estate agent if they could supply a dehumidifier to see if it helps. I had already explained what we do to try (keep door open on days it isn’t freezing, door open when cooking, we don’t use a heater as it’s warm enough in the bedroom at night, we don’t use a dryer or have a hot water laundry cycle run overnight, don’t dry clothes overnight). Our humidity yesterday when we woke up was 74%.

She said she asked their plumber and he said a dehumidifier won’t help. The only way is to keep the balcony door open for airflow. Sure, we are doing that when we can but I don’t think this is an acceptable answer. The issue happens at night so is her instruction to leave our balcony open overnight?

  1. We don’t have a screen door and
  2. We are kind of on a ground level (elevated ground floor). We don’t have access from ground floor but it’s not hard for someone to climb over the balcony if they saw the door was wide open.

If for whatever reason, there is damage to the apartment from the humidity (blinds are damaged, mould grows, carpet damage from the moisture dripping down the glass), and we ignore her suggestion of leaving the door open during winter, can we be held accountable for any damage? Does anyone else have any actual suggestions? Would it be worth contacting our rental insurance about this? Why won’t a dehumidifier work to dehumidify?? We had one in our old place and it helped…

Home & Garden

Comments

  • djsweet on 11/05/2020 - 13:54
    +1

    I imagine a dehumidifier would work, but I can't see why its the agent's responsibility to provide one.
    Also, probably running a hot water washing cycle at night doesn't help.

    • slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 14:11

      We don’t do run a dish load or laundry load overnight.
      We weren’t expecting one, we just asked to see if they had one to loan to see if it works, but the response we got made me a bit bitter. A simple no sorry would have been good enough.

  • netjock on 11/05/2020 - 13:54
    +1

    Dehumidifier should help. Helps in places like Hong Kong to dry clothes indoors where humidity is high.

    Your apartment building should have a central system to force air throughout the hallways gently into your apartment to keep humidity down (if hallway air is not cycled they will have high humidity and grow mould too).

    One option you might have is get a silent always on extractor fan fitted into your bathroom so air is always being drawn out (taking in fresh air from gaps you might have)

  • Mechz on 11/05/2020 - 13:55
    +1

    Ask them to supply a security screen.

    • Amaris on 11/05/2020 - 13:57
      +2

      You know they don't HAVE to, don't you?

      • Mechz on 11/05/2020 - 13:57
        +2

        If they say to keep the door open they do.

        • Amaris on 11/05/2020 - 13:58
          -1

          Not really. They might say they didn't ask to keep it open all the time

    • slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 14:13

      See this is what I’m concerned about. They now have said keep door open. If we get mould that wasn’t on the original report (btw this is a lease takeover), then where does that leave us? “We told you to leave e door open during winter and you didn’t”… even if they didn’t say keep open all the time, but the time it is needed is overnight and we just wanna cover our asses.

      Screen door kinda helps but we also don’t want it to be freezing inside!

  • Amaris on 11/05/2020 - 13:56

    The tenant cannot be blamed for damage from humidity.
    However, as there was no agreement at the time of signing to provide a dehumidifier, you're not entitled to get one for free if the landlord doesn't want to give you one.
    If you keep the door open and damage is done by a burglar to the fixtures, etc. you might be held responsible.

    • slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 14:16
      -1

      We didn’t sign a lease, it’s a lease transfer. It’s just a lease application we sent in… So agreement is with first tenant (we are third tenant in 2 years so clearly this place is the worst).
      But as long as we cannot be held responsible for damage from humidity.. that’s my main concern.

      • MrHyde on 11/05/2020 - 15:42
        +1

        That makes no sense. The lease has to be in your name, otherwise how can you be staying there?

        • Wickz on 11/05/2020 - 20:03
          +1

          Exactly. Lease transfer means you become the new tenant and took over the lease from the previous tenant, and are fully responsible and held to the lease agreement with the agent. You may want to ask for a copy….

  • moph on 11/05/2020 - 13:58
    +2

    A dehumidifier obviously will remove moisture from the air, but if there's too much air or too much moisture in the air then it can only do so much. Perhaps the advice from the plumber was that a dehumidifier wouldn't be sufficient to make a big difference? Personally I don't know much about dehumidifiers, but that's how I would interpret what you were told. Whether or not the landlord/RE should provide one for free is a different question, and if the issue is bothering you then I would suggest to buy your own if that is a possibility.

    Some other things to consider:
    - Reverse cycle air conditioning dries the air. It would get expensive to run an air conditioner all the time, but it could be part of the solution if you have one.
    - If you've been asked to keep the balcony door open but that is a security risk, it is certainly reasonable to request the installation of a lockable secure screen door for that door.
    - Exhaust fan?
    - Make sure you have these conversations via email so as much of it is documented in writing as possible. If there are mould problems down the line you will have a record that you brought the humidity issue to the attention of the RE and you did everything you could do.

    • slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 14:23

      If the agent said sure we have one to borrow but it’s a fee to rent then that would have been a fine answer too. But to downright say a plumber told them that a dehumidifier doesn’t remove humidity is what irked me.

      We have a reverse cycle air conditioner. Maybe we can try it one night on low and see how much energy it sucks up. We have set a regular fan up but it did nothing. I just don’t see leaving door open as the only viable option because it can’t be done when it is needed.

      Everything is documented and photos were sent in as well. I checked the humidity with door slightly open (it’s cold!), and it still remains above 60% and the panes still have condensation at 2:30pm!

  • Youfah Mizzum on 11/05/2020 - 14:17
    +3

    If you have a reverse cycle air con (or any air con) several of them have a 'dry' mode which neither heats nor cools, but just blows air & whilst doing so, dries the air as it goes through the compressor.
    If you have one, see if you can hunt down the user manual.

    • slee123 on 11/05/2020 - 14:37

      Found it! Yes, it has! Thanks :) now to wait until 11pm to try it because we are on time of use so it’s expensive now 😑

      • jace88 on 11/05/2020 - 14:45
        +1

        I believe dry/dehumidify mood uses less power than cooling/heater.

        That being said for me, I'm using a Breville dehumidifier and it worked wonders in my apartment which previously had humidity issues. That being said, now that we're approaching the cold season, there should be a natural reduction in humidity levels.

        (also worthwhile to get a humidity monitor/measurer clock so you get a sense of what level of relative humidity you have).

  • jellykingdom on 11/05/2020 - 15:24

    I had similar problem at my apartment (that i owned). I ended up with mould on a whole heap of my furniture and my books and clothes, didn't even realise until it was too late! We had to pay for a fumigation which cost around $1500. He said that the danger zone for mould growth was 70% and above

    We then bought a dehumidifer for $250 (and a $10 humidity gauge) and it worked wonders. We would be emptying the thing every day, and run it most of the winter. it wasn't particularly power hungry to be honest, which was a nice surprise. Kept the place at around 60% or lower for humidity

    I can't speak to Who is responsible for rental though?

  • brokenglish on 11/05/2020 - 15:55

    Dehumidifier definitely helps!!!!! Your agent just wanted you to go away by giving you that kind of answers.
    Their job is to get money from you, not make your life comfortable.

    I once lived in a 1BR apartment unit (1st floor) with a really bad humidity problem.
    I bought a dehumidifier which greatly helped but sometimes the noise can be troublesome (sometimes you want quiet time, work call, not feeling well, etc.)
    You need to turn it on almost every day and make sure all windows are closed!

    The aircon dry mode doesn't work as well as a proper dehumidifier. You need one that has a water bank that you need to clean out every other day.
    After some time you can smell wetness/socks/moulds from the aircon for running it too long because the water/humidity has nowhere to go (outside humid, inside humid, water stagnant inside aircon).

    Just put up with it until you can move out/end of contract. It is not a HUGE deal but YES IT IS BETTER IF YOU MOVE!
    One day you will forget to turn on that dehumidifier or go on a long vacation and come back to moulds on carpets, window gaskets, etc.

    I bought the 20L one in 2016 and it's still going strong.
    Now I mainly use it to dry my clothes in my bedroom. Cheaper and more effective than my dryer.

    Don't forget that dehumidifier dries YOU up as well! You may need to use vaseline every now and then.
    When it hurts to breathe (because air is too dry you start coughing) TURN IT OFF!

    PS. freezing is the last of your worries when you open the doors/windows, it's spiders!

    • Amaris on 12/05/2020 - 09:42
      +2

      water/humidity has nowhere to go (outside humid, inside humid, water stagnant inside aircon).

      Split aircons have a pipe connected to the outside to drain the condensed water.

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