Interesting phenomena of late. As a mold expert, I handle many folks suffering from exposure to mold. Many of these are faithful tenants that are so grateful for their living conditions, they hesitate to, ‘Rock the Boat’ so to speak. Despite my best efforts to explain to the tenants that if they have an upstanding landlord, (which I determined they did-) he should be kept abreast of issues within his/her home. Unfortunately, often times than not, landlords will balk at the suggestion that they help with air quality issues. Experience has shown landlords would rather get rid of the messengers instead of the message. One case I dealt with involved a single mom of 3. She cut my hair. She was sniffling and sneezing during my haircut. I arranged an inspection pro bono.
Test results indicated dangerous and contaminated rental. After presenting the landlord with the findings, they promptly offered to release her from her lease. Many people rent for one reason; THEY CAN’T GET A MORTGAGE! In short, as I have witnessed in many cases, the landlord holds the upper hand. If a tenant gives appropriated and documented evidence to the landlord, the landlord has two weeks to address the situation. The cost of legal action often deters tenants from pursuing their rights making the phenomena worse. Moving is expensive. It becomes a catch twenty-two. If you or a loved one is facing this dilemma here in the upstate, please feel free to consult with me for free. I have a ‘pay as you can’ program that includes a detailed didactic explaining how to avoid this. As I blogged before, I did not grow up wanting to remediate mold. On the other hand, the reason I love my job is that I help people.
Douglas R. Whitehead II
Arrayofsolutions.com