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Building Manager's Guide to Mold in Rental Homes, Apartments, Offices InspectAPedia®  -     A building manager's guide to moldy apartments or rental homes, offices A tenant's guide to building management reluctant to address possible mold contamination How to handle mold problems in rental property, apartments, rental homes, offices Mold testing advice for rental tenants Mold testing and mold remediation advice for landlords Should you call your health department about a moldy apartment?

This document discusses explains why building managers or landlords are sometimes reluctant to face a mold problem and offers advice to both building owners and tenants about these worries. We discuss what to expect the rental property managers to do if they are going to address a mold problem properly, and what the rental apartment tenant needs to watch out for during a mold investigation and mold remediation of their home. An easy-to-print PDF version of this article is here. © Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Building management reluctance to address mold problems in Rental Properties

Mold cleanup cost concerns: Sometimes a building management is reluctant to face the expense and trouble of handling leaks and mold contamination correctly.

Correct response to mold in a rental property might require a (costly) thorough building survey, evaluation, diagnosis of problem areas and their causes and specification of the steps to remedy them, followed by performing of the work followed by clearance inspection and testing by someone not at all connected with the contractors performing the remediation. It would be rare for a building manager to have such an expert on full-time staff, so hiring an outside expert would be necessary.

Mold fear concenrs: Reluctance of building managers to address mold also comes from the wish to avoid alarming other tenants. In our experience this is always a mistaken notion, as tenants talk to one another anyway, and building-related illness frightens people - fear spreading faster than mold growth.

Accurate information and the assurance that tenant concerns are being handled competently is more effective than other less direct responses by building management.

True cost of improper mold remediation: Half-baked or amateur workmanship risks increasing the ultimate cost to the building management:

• Improper mold cleanup can increase indoor mold levels, making building occupants sick and/or by contaminating their belongings leading to the need for additional cleaning of contents and personal items.
• Improper mold remediation can lead to unnecessarily high costs of repeated attempts to clean up or remove problem mold or even repeated visits by building inspectors and "mold testers" until someone finally correctlyi diagnoses the causes of problem mold and finds the actual mold reservoirs, including moldy materials that may not have been obvious based on just a superficial inspection, an air test, swab, or culture mold sample.
• Risks of mold-related illness may spread to other building occupants or to future tenants in the same rental space if the cleanup is not properly performed.
• Improper mold causation diagnosis risks having to repeat the mold cleanup because the basic causes of mold growth have not been identified and corrected

In sum, it's least costly in end if mold remediation is performed properly in the first place.

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RENTERS & TENANTS: MOLD ADVICE
  Describe a Moldy Apartment
  Possible Mold Causes
  Action Advice for Tenants
  Immediate Safety Advice
  Health Risk for Tenants
  Possible Hidden Mold
  Building Manager's Guide to Mold
  What Can Tenant Do
  Health Department

Also see

• Mold Action Guide: What to do about mold, mildew, and other indoor allergens
• HOW TO LOOK FOR MOLD - How to Find and Test for Hidden Mold in Buildings
• Insulation Mold: How to Find and Test for Mold in Insulation
• Mold Prevention: Avoiding Mold Problems in Buildings by Using Mold-resistant Construction Products & Practices

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