Coventry's Post-War Housing and Student Lets: Damp and Mould Explained

Much of Coventry was rebuilt after the Second World War bombing, so the city has a bigger share of 1950s and 1960s housing than most cities of its size, alongside surviving older terraces. Terraced homes make up 39.9% of dwellings in the Coventry local authority area against 23.0% across England, and a large student population sustains a busy shared-housing market. Each of these has its own damp profile.

Post-war homes: built fast, built cold

Homes built in the post-war decades predate modern insulation standards. Thin walls, cold bridges where concrete or brick meets other materials, and single glazing in homes that have not been upgraded all produce cold internal surfaces, which is where condensation settles. Many of these houses also had open fires that once drew air through the building; when the fires were removed and the chimneys blocked, much of that accidental ventilation went with them. Insulation upgrades and proper ventilation usually do more than treatments to the wall surface.

Student HMOs: turnover and moisture

Student lets sit in both older terraces and post-war houses, and they combine several pressures: five or six people sharing one set of windows, tenants who ration heating, drying clothes indoors, and a change of occupants every year, which means ventilation habits and any hidden defects reset each time. A short handover that shows new tenants how the fans, trickle vents and heating controls work costs little and heads off many complaints.

Coventry in numbers

• About 134,000 households. Private renting: 24.7% (England 20.5%). Social renting: 17.0% (England 17.1%).
• Flats: 17.7% (England 21.4%). Overcrowding: 5.8% (England 4.4%).
• No central heating: 1.9% of households (England 1.5%).
• Flood risk: 0.4% of properties at medium or high risk from rivers and the sea (England 1.9%), and 5.9% from surface water, the same as England.
• Rainfall: 698 mm a year at the Coventry Coundon station, two miles away.

All figures are for the local authority area and come from the 2021 Census, the Environment Agency and the Met Office. Private renting runs about four points above the English rate, so the standard of rented homes matters more here than in many cities.

Duties and Awaab's Law

Private landlords in Coventry must keep homes fit for human habitation and in repair, and the council can act under the Housing Act 2004 where damp and mould is a serious hazard. Awaab's Law applies to social landlords in England only for now; the Renters' Rights Act 2025 provides for an extension to private tenancies, with a consultation closing on 18 December 2026 and no confirmed start date. Our private rented sector page sets out the proposals. Tenants can complain to the council about rented accommodation if a landlord does not act, and landlords can compare specialists covering Coventry on MouldPros.