Allow only Certified Professionals take care of water damage and mold issues!!
Sorry, I’ve been recovering from Hip Replacement surgery for the last month.
It is important to address potential moisture issues when you become aware of them. Or, as some would say, you will need Professional Mold Testers. In addition to that make sure that you only Companies Certified in Water Damage Restoration and Applied Microbial Remediation do needed work on your property even if you are only renting it. Insist on having Certified Companies, not even a licensed handyman or any contractor do work on these issues unless they are certified in the above areas. That can be an issue to deal with if you are the tenant and the landlord wants to use their handyman. One reason is that using uncertified personnel can make the situation worse.
On my most recent inspection (before surgery) a family renting a condo had lived there for about 4 years and had several different leaks where ceilings, walls and floors had been affected. The owner used their handyman to fixed the issues. The owners did not use Professional Mold Testers. For regular repairs this is fine. However, when areas have been affected by water Certified companies, as mentioned above, must be used to remove wet materials and dry the areas properly with the right equipment so to eliminate mold and bacteria growth.
In this case the family had been affected by sickness for several years and lost employment as a result as well. Because of the past and wet conditions I found the property was un-habitable per State Code and said so in the report. Because of this situation the renters were no longer obligated to pay rent until the issues had been corrected.
FYI, if a renter has to vacate the property for the work to be done then the landlord, by law, is obligated to supply another place for the tenant to live at the landlord’s expense (assuming your rent is current). Landlord’s don’t volunteer that information so you have to let them know you know it.
I advised the family to get a Legal Shield policy (at $24.95) which would give them access to top tier legal help (Meaning top tier lawyers) versus paying a lawyer a retainer (They had an offer of $1500 from a lawyer ) to assist them with this issue.
They took my advise and saved some $1475 and the lawyers supplied by Legal Shield wrote a letter for them telling their landlord they would no longer pay rent due to the property bein un-habitable per code with the Inspection Report I supplied.
The basic Plan from Legal Shield pays for unlimited monthly consultations on any legal matter and pays for writing letters when needed, the writing of a Will, help with traffic tickets and about $15,000 of civil defense built into it. They also have huge discounts with the package to save money on things like movie tickets (back when we still went to the movies) and even groceries.
I recommend everyone get one of these plans unless you have money to burn. Click the link https://stevenmullins.wearelegalshield.com/ to find out more on the plan. Then contact me to answer any questions. This is something you don’t want to be without. You can literally have a lawyer on speed dial for certain emergencies. The member discounts pay for the membership fee and then some.