Environmental Health Complaint Letter for Damp or Mould: What to Write and Why It Works
Your landlord has not fixed the damp. You have told them. Maybe they sent someone round who painted over it. Maybe they said it was condensation and left. Reporting to your council's Environmental Health team is the next step, and doing it with a formal letter that names the relevant legislation changes how seriously they treat the referral.
What the law says
The Housing Health and Safety Rating System, established under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, is the framework Environmental Health officers use to assess hazards in rented homes. Damp and mould are classified as a Category 1 hazard when they pose a serious risk to health, and officers have a legal duty to take action when they identify a Category 1 hazard. That duty is not discretionary. If an officer inspects and finds a Category 1 hazard, they must act.
The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 amended the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to require that all rented homes are fit for human habitation at the start of the tenancy and throughout. A property with serious damp or mould growth that damages the structure or poses a respiratory health risk is unlikely to meet that standard. The 2018 Act gives you, as the tenant, the right to take the landlord to court directly without waiting for the council to act. However, involving Environmental Health first creates a formal record and applies pressure through a different route.
When Environmental Health receives a complaint, they can inspect the property, issue an improvement notice requiring the landlord to carry out works within a specified timeframe, and ultimately carry out works themselves and charge the landlord if the notice is ignored. A well-written complaint letter that cites these powers and provides a clear account of the problem, with dates and evidence, is far more likely to prompt an early inspection than a phone call.
What your letter needs to include
Whether you are writing to Environmental Health to request an inspection, or writing to your landlord to make clear you are about to involve them, your letter should include:
- Your full name, address and contact details
- The date you first reported the problem to your landlord and by what means
- A factual description of the damp or mould: where it is in the property, how long it has been there and whether it has worsened
- Any response from your landlord, including promises made that were not kept and temporary measures taken that did not resolve the problem
- Reference to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and the council's duty to inspect under the Housing Act 2004
- Reference to the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 and the landlord's obligation to maintain a habitable home
- A request for an inspection within a specific number of days, or a stated intention to request one if the landlord does not respond
What happens after you send it
If you send the letter to Environmental Health directly, they will typically log your complaint and arrange an inspection within a few weeks, though timescales vary by council. If their inspection confirms a Category 1 hazard under the HHSRS, they will issue a formal notice to your landlord. The landlord then has to carry out the specified works within the timeframe set out in the notice. Failure to comply can result in the council doing the works and recovering the cost, civil penalties or prosecution.
If you send the letter to your landlord as a formal warning before involving Environmental Health, it creates a clear paper trail and gives them a final opportunity to act. Landlords who ignore a letter that explicitly references the council's enforcement powers and the Homes Act 2018 are taking a calculated risk. That letter then becomes evidence if you escalate to Environmental Health, the courts, or both.