subject: Black Mold In Your Apartment? Who Is Responsible? [print this page] Black Mold In Your Apartment? Who Is Responsible?
When an issue with black mold happens, it is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with right away. The reason is that long term exposure to black mold can cause major health problems. If you rent your home or apartment you need to know your rights when it comes to getting rid of the mold. It is important to find out if you have to take care of the problem yourself, or if it is the landlord's responsibility.The first thing to evaluate is whether or not the mold was caused directly by something you have done. If you are not at fault, you will have to contact the landlord to fix the problem. Some landlords may not think it is their duty to alleviate this problem, so you must take steps to make sure you have a solid case if you end up having to go to court.The first thing you will need to do is send a letter to the landlord to notify him or her of the problem. This is critical because you will want to have every communication around the problem documented just in case it escalates into legal action.The next thing you should do is to keep the mold away from the people living in the house as well as your personal possessions. If this means you will have to clean part of the mold yourself, then so be it. The reason for this is that if mold damages any of your personal property, the landlord will probably not be responsible or liable. Thus, you will want to protect your belongings before they are essentially destroyed. Additionally, you will want to keep it away from people as much as possible because the inhalation of the toxins could cause serious health problems.Ultimately, the mold will have to be remediated by a professional environmental company before the apartment can be considered totally safe. If the landlord agrees to take care of the problem, then he should hire the company. If he refuses. then you should pay to get it cleaned up and then try and get your money credited back to you. When the cleaners are done, make sure to find out how deep the mold had penetrated and in which locations. When all is taken care of, if the landlord initially refused to pay for the clean-up, you have every right to go to the landlord and ask to be reimbursed for your expenses as well as any inconveniences the situation has caused. The reimbursement can be credited toward your rent, or given back to you in the form of cash. If the landlord still refuses to reimburse you for the costs incurred, or if you feel you were under-compensated, the next step would be to look into getting an attorney who specializes in these type of cases.
