A specialist firm is urging landlords to act on damp, mould and building safety, with the law due to change on Friday (1 May).
The firm said that the rule changes were more relevant to Brighton and Hove than many other towns and cities because of the high number of rented homes, especially older homes.
Matt Woodhart, founder of Woodhart Property Enhancements (WPE), a Brighton and Hove firm, said that the Renters’ Rights Act would come into force on Friday, bringing the biggest shake-up to private renting in a generation.
The law change brings in stronger protections for tenants, including measures to extend “Awaab’s law” to the private rented sector, requiring all landlords to fix serious hazards like damp and mould within strict timeframes – not just social landlords.
Awaab’s law is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died in Rochdale in 2020 from prolonged mould exposure while living in a housing association property.
The issue is particularly acute in Brighton and Hove, where around a third of all homes are privately rented – the highest proportion of any city outside London. And much of the housing stock is older, harder-to-treat period property.
Nationally, one in ten private rented homes has a damp problem, according to the most recent English Housing Survey, and a quarter of landlords reported identifying damp or mould in at least one of their properties in the past year.
Mr Woodhart said that the reforms represented a turning point for tenant safety – and that private landlords should be preparing now rather than waiting for enforcement to catch up.
He said: “It gives tenants and renters the opportunity to raise damp and mould issues and poor ventilation with a registered body because in the past a lot of tenants used to get blamed for the damp and mould themselves.
“It used to give landlords a get-out-of-jail-free card from rectifying the problems. I think it is a massive step forward for safety as a whole.
“This shouldn’t worry landlords who are already looking after their premises. This holds to account the people who don’t want to do anything or make a quick patch-up job. It makes sure all landlords will have to get to the root cause of the problems.”
He said that WPE took a whole-building approach to damp, mould and building performance, working across structural integrity, fire safety and compliance – and energy performance, ventilation and damp control.
Many issues were interconnected, he said, damp linked to poor ventilation, mould caused by inadequate airflow or thermal bridging – and treating them in isolation led to repeated failures and higher costs in the long run.
Mr Woodhart said: “That is where we come in. We take a whole-building approach and specialise in compliance.
“It protects the landlord from legal cases and from their tenants getting health issues. It makes the building fit to rent and over time it adds value.”
Working primarily in Brighton and Hove, Mr Woodhart said: “Many buildings are heritage buildings. They’re quite tricky to bring up to modern standards.
“Ultimately, its about looking after people’s health. We don’t want to see another case like Awaab, the poor child that is the reason for these new measures.”
Mr Woodhart is urging landlords to act now by commissioning a professional damp and ventilation survey, reviewing how they respond to tenant complaints and ensuring any existing issues are properly investigated and resolved – not just patched over.
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 also abolishes “section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions”, ends fixed-term tenancies and introduces new rules on rent increases, pets and anti-discrimination protections for tenants.
Woodhart Property Enhancements (WPE) specialises in damp remediation, fire safety, energy performance and structural repair compliance.
It is an arm of the Woodhart Group, founded by brothers Matt and Ben, and also includes a carpentry and construction division.
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So this article quotes a damp specialist who is in line to get more damp specialist work, due to a change in the law?
The problem here is that half the properties in Brighton and Hove will have damp issues due to their building age, and with many local properties having no damp course.
Modern double glazing and other attempts at insulation often seal in that damp, by reducing ventilation.
If we then add to the situation with high rents and increased mortgage repayments, people turn off their heating when possible, and that creates the perfect situation for damp to get worse. In winter, if you dry washing indoors, then humidity levels sky rocket, and so mould starts to grow.
Is this an issue than landlords can actually solve? Probably not.
The underlying issue causing damp and mould is poverty.
Employing a damp specialist probably won’t help.
Well said Billy
A damp surveyor will find damp then offer lots of complicated , costly solutions. Many experts in Victorian building say these can make the issue worse. Ventilation and condensation are often the biggest issues