As a landlord to residents in Highland Court, you have the following obligations:

1. Please draw your tenants attention to the Terms of Lease, perhaps print one for your property and store it somewhere convienient for them to notice and read.
2. Please also verbally notify them of the recent additions; these include the rule of no children playing in the communal gardens and absolutely nothing can be stored in the communal areas such as buggies and bikes.
3. You need to obtain a landlord licence from Redbridge Council under Selective Scheme 4, which commences on 8 April 2024. Applications can be made from 4 March 2024 by visiting Redbridge - Selective Licensing . There is a significant fine for those found to be renting out properties without one.
4. Your flat must have a working smoke alarm. You have responsibility for repairing this and should advise your tenants on how to test it regularly.
5. Please let your tenants know that there is information they might find helpful on the website and how to find it.

Advice for Tenants/Owners on Damp, Mould and Condensation

This is a very common question for the Directors. Often people assume its rising damp and therefore is the responsibility of Highland Court Woodford to fix. This is NOT the case. We have had multiple surveys on multiple properties and the conclusion is always the same; the mould and damp inside the flats is down to the moisture generated by washing / showers / wet air.

The most effecive way of solving this problem is to buy a dehumidifyer to sit in the hallway of the property. This will draw the water out of the air and will not cause mould or damp windows. Here is the detail... 

The air in buildings can have a high level of relative humidity due to the activity of the occupants (e.g. cooking, drying clothes, breathing etc.). When this water laden air comes into contact with cold surfaces such as windows and cold walls it can condense, causing water to be deposited.

The point at which the water held in the air changes from vapour to liquid is known as the dew point.  A number of the flats at Highland Court have suffered from this problem.

However, condensation isn’t the only cause of damp.  It also comes from: leaking pipes, wastes or overflows;  rain seeping through the roof or spilling from a blocked gutter; penetrating around window frames, or leaking through a cracked pipe; and rising damp due to a defective damp course or because there is no damp course.