Show up for residents before they have to complain.
Housing officers, tenancy managers, complaint handlers. The people residents actually speak to. MouldWatch gives your team earlier knowledge, warmer language, and a case the resident can see.
The Housing Ombudsman calls it "zero tolerance": no blaming the resident's "lifestyle" or "behaviour". It first said so in its 2021 Spotlight report, and said it again in an open letter to landlords in November 2022, after Awaab Ishak's death. MouldWatch is built around that instruction - the workflow, the templates, and the words your team uses with residents.
A problem caught early. A person treated with respect.
Resident-facing teams are the face of everything that happens here. The workflow is designed to make that face warmer, earlier, and better informed.
- 01
The risk is spotted before the resident sees it.
MouldWatch flags conditions weeks before visible mould. The resident-facing team contacts the household first - not as a complaint response, but as care.
- 02
The first conversation is a question, not a defence.
"We've noticed signs that your home could be starting to get damp. Would now be an OK time to come round and take a look?" No forms. No blame. No waiting for the problem to get worse.
- 03
Vulnerability is taken at face value.
If the resident mentions a child with asthma, an elderly parent, a respiratory condition - it goes on the case, immediately. No request for medical evidence. No gatekeeping. That is what the guidance requires, and it is what the workflow does.
- 04
The resident can see the case, not just hear about it.
A short, plain-English case status: what was found, what happens next, who is coming, and when. Not just a status sitting in a portal - a real update, sent the way the resident asked to be contacted.
- 05
We fix the cause, not just wipe the surface.
We deal with the real cause - ventilation, insulation, a leak, or a design fault. Then the sensors confirm the home has settled. If the problem comes back, the case re-opens automatically.
What we stop saying. What we start saying.
The Ombudsman's 2021 spotlight was titled "Damp and mould: it's not lifestyle." The phrase is a quiet instruction to the sector. MouldWatch builds it into the copy your team uses.
"It looks like a lifestyle issue."
"The readings suggest the ventilation is under-specified for how the home is being used. That is a building issue, and it is on us to fix."
"You need to open your windows more."
"We will look at the extractor fan, the trickle vents, and the insulation in the corner. The data is pointing at ventilation."
"There's no mould in your home."
"There is no visible mould yet, but the risk signal is rising. Let's sort the cause before we get to the visible stage."
"We need medical evidence of your condition."
"Thank you for telling us. That is now on the case and your home is being prioritised."
The household that needs help first is the one that shows up first.
MouldWatch lets resident-facing teams record vulnerability simply - children under five, elderly residents, respiratory conditions, mobility limitations, pregnancy. The queue uses it. The triage uses it. The investigation template uses it. And reports show you the wider pattern - for example, how many at-risk homes have a young child or someone with a respiratory condition.
And it is recorded the way the guidance says it should be: at face value, without a request for medical proof. The product protects your team from having to ask awkward questions.
Residents can see what you see.
If you choose to switch it on, residents get free access to their own home's readings - the same data your team sees, with alerts on their own phone and the ability to log what they've done, like running the extractor fan or opening a window after drying clothes. Their actions join the same property record.
This is the proof behind the no-blame promise. A resident who can see the same numbers you can is a partner in the fix, not a suspect in the cause - and a nudge they act on themselves is a visit your team never has to make. Alerts are designed to arrive with plain what-to-do guidance, not a raw graph.
Whether to offer it - to every home, a pilot group, or not at all - stays your call.
- Their own home's temperature, humidity, and risk state - nothing about anyone else's.
- Plain-language alerts with what-to-do guidance, on their own phone.
- A way to log their own actions, so the record shows what they did as well as what you did.
Letters, texts, calls - written by people who understand this sector.
Every MouldWatch workflow ships with resident communication templates: the first contact after a risk alert, the investigation scheduling, the written summary within three working days, the remediation scheduling, the post-fix confirmation.
All no-blame. All plain English. All editable by your team. Tenancy officers start with a working draft, not a blank page.
A working session for your housing officers and complaints team.
60 minutes. Walk the resident journey, read the templates, and talk through the vulnerability workflow. Bring your real language. We'll show where the product strengthens it and where it gets out of the way.