Wouldn’t it be good if you could remotely monitor your damp and mould issues across your portfolio?

Are you always on the receiving end of a tenant’s complaint? Wouldn’t it be good if you could remotely monitor your damp and mould issues across your portfolio?

As a building owner or landlord, ensuring compliance and meeting your responsibilities with regards to property standards and safety under the Fitness for Human Habitation Act can present its own issues.

Invariably problems rising within a property are only made known to landlord or building owners once the underlying problem is out of control. Therefore, reactive call outs are required which subsequently increase costs.

Throughout the autumn and winter months the likelihood of damp and mould appearing in any home is high. This could be just down to poor ventilation issues where windows are kept closed, clothes being dried over the radiators causing excess moisture in the air.

So, let’s look at the figures 80-85% of household mould is caused by condensation, which is man-made damp. If left it can be both harmful to the occupiers’ health and damaging to the property.

In social housing where there could be 1000s of properties in a portfolio, monitoring such issues cannot happen regularly enough and is cost prohibitive, but what if you had the ability to do this remotely from your home or office desk? What if you had an SMS helpdesk automatically assisting the tenant by letting them know there is an increased level of humidity within the property that may cause issues? Would an automated text message asking them to ensure that there is adequate airflow and heating throughout the property daily, save time and money?

Asking yourself all the right questions is a step forward in finding the ultimate solution. In most publications today, across social media or on the internet the word’ technology’ is widely used in the expectation that all businesses will be prepared to immediately upgrade, make change to, or invest, to either achieve the ‘Net Carbon Zero’ goal or just future proofing.

It is easy for a technology company to understand and feel comfortable with what they can offer, and if you consider the amount of research, development and investment involved in producing such products, do you not feel that some assurance to the end user has already been given?

I am sure you could argue that the move to using IoT technology is too soon but what are the recurring costs year on year if you don’t, let alone if you are hit by legal action?

Bad press is disappointing to all involved but could this have been avoided if tech had played its part?

Read more on legal action being taken here