Sensors have been fitted in 211 Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) properties to detect damp and mould with the data being closely monitored by local authority officials.
But one councillor has claimed issues have been caused by the way some council homes were built.
Cllr Frank Smith said some tenants on his ward have had bathrooms repeatedly replaced only for damp issues to return.
On Wednesday, October 2 as the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee approved PKC’s Annual Assurance Statement as part of the Scottish Housing Regulator’s Regulatory Framework, several councillors raised the issue of damp and mould in council properties.
Cllr Frank Smith said: “When a house seems to be covered in it and we’ve repeatedly repaired it, do we find the construction of the house is so bad that it has to come into consideration, maybe taking these houses away and replacing them?”
Strategic lead for Housing and Communities Elaine Ritchie said: “I’ve never come across a property where it has been that bad we have had to demolish because of mould and damp. However we would look at what we can do and we have put significant improvements in our properties and that’s why we’re using sensors to do that.”
An officer from the council’s Housing team added: “We do have a robust procedure in place for any reports of mould growth, damp or condensation in our properties that we follow. We now have the environmental sensors as part of that process and they are supporting us to pro-actively put preventive action in place where there are issues.
“We certainly don’t at the moment have any properties that are completely covered in mould or that we have to take significant action in relation to the structure of the property for that.
“We’re working very closely with tenants who have repeated issues. We’re monitoring the data we collect from the environmental sensors on a day-to-day, weekly basis. We’ve got some further development work planned under way with the supplier of the environmental sensors and we are hoping through our rent-setting process that we will be able to agree additional funding to set up a specific small specialised Condensation, Mould and Damp Team within the service.”
The members of the council team would undertake a nationally recognised qualification in relation to their approach to damp, condensation and mould.
However the Almond and Earn councillor said there were “repeated” issues with dampness in council properties within his ward.
Cllr Smith said: “Unfortunately in my ward we have got considerable problems in certain properties. If you consider replacing bathrooms two to three times, I don’t think it’s economic especially when the problem has returned. And most of the tenants I have spoken to have said ‘This will not be resolved by repeatedly putting new bathrooms in’.
“It seems to be the construction of the building.”
SNP councillor Jack Welch said it would be good to get more information fed out on both behavioural and structural issues that can cause damp, mould and condensation.
The Strathmore councillor added: “Ultimately how people dry clothes in the winter time, the size of families they have, their access to utilising sheltered external drying facilities. These are real challenges and are behavioural as well as with the housing stock themselves.”
The council’s Housing and Communities chief Elaine Ritchie responded: “The majority of our condensation is lifestyle behaviour of some of our tenants – drying washing in the property, not airing and having windows opened.”
She said they were analysing the data on sensors “to be much more proactive in a spend to save” approach so that “rather than having to do the repair, let’s get it right first time”.
Tenant representative Lynne Palmer suggested tenants invest in mould and mildew sprays.
She said: “They’re not expensive. If I see one or two blue-ish, darkish or damp spots, I just spray it and it just kills it. In my view, it’s up to the tenant to buy their own container of damp and mildew spray.”
However Cllr Smith is convinced there is a structural issue with some properties.
He said: “Certain ways of building houses come back to haunt us like the RAAC [reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete] problem at the moment. I think we’ve got to accept that certain houses we’ve got might not be up to the standards we think of nowadays.”