Liability for mold in apartments

[Guest guest]

Liability for mold in apartments

October 22

Examiner.com*

by , Business Law Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/x-640-Business-Law-Examiner~y2008m10d22-

Liability-for-mold-in-apartments

A question from a reader that asked if the health hazards that are

associated with mold prevent a landlord from renting a tenant an

apartment that has that substance provides today's topic. The short

answer is that it depends; this is same answer as the one for

virtually every question of this type.

A landlord must keep an apartment or any other type of home that he

or she rents out habitable. It is equally true that mold is of great

concern these days, has prompted several new laws across the country

in roughly the past 12 months, and is an issue in a significant

percentage of tenancy-related legal claims.

However, the first relevant legal principle is that requiring that a

tenant move out of a rental unit permanently is a drastic remedy

that health and safety officials and courts try to avoid. The

condition must be inspected and a determination of the extent of the

necessary remedy must be known.

It is preferred that the work be done in a way that allows the

tenant to continue living in the rental unit. Additionally, even

making one room uninhabitable during the work does not necessarily

render the whole rental unit uninhabitable. For example, extensive

repairs in a bathroom may not require that a tenant move out if the

rental unit has another bathroom that at least has a shower stall.

At the same time, this type of work might entitle a tenant to a

temporary rent reduction that reflects the reduced habitability.

It seems as well that the reader is asking if the landlord is liable

for the damage. Several prior entries in this ongoing discussion of

business law contain information that can help determine that, but

the most important factors are whether the tenant is the one who is

responsible for the water damage and whether the tenant did (or

could have) provided the landlord notice of the condition that

caused the water damage or of the damage before the mold formed.

Basic legal principles and the general concept of fairness state

that a landlord is not liable for harm that a tenant causes in his

or her own apartment or for any harm about which the landlord had no

reason to know. Greater responsibility for sharing information about

a rental property's condition is one price that a modern tenant pays

for increased privacy.

Please feel free to share your comments or questions; you can also e-

mail me at nelsonexaminer@.... I must provide my standard

reminder that I only discuss general legal principles that cannot be

considered legal advice or be considered a basis for forming an

attorney-client relationship.

[Guest guest]

What a hornets nest of problems for both tenants and (responsible) landlords...

I can see why the landlords and regulators would prefer for mold to be

seen as harmless and therefore not a condition effecting the

habitability, legally.

Landlord association magazines encourage landlords strongly to protect

themselves from liability by immediately evicting tenants

(temporarily, if the law requires so) for the duration of any

" improvements " . They also encourage landlords to not acknowledge

responsibility for anything like mold or even what is the reason for

the eviction. (They also often try to pretend that they were never

notified)

So the reasons given for an eviction will often be vague worlds like

" improvements " .

If the tenant is under a rent control ordinance, then they can be

charged for the cost of some improvements, making the apartment

unaffordable when it is finally available again, also the length of

time " required " to do " work " can be long. The cost of moving all of

ones belongings into storage can be huge, and the rent for storage

containers can be high. If one finds another apartment, you may often

be asked to sign a lease, that will typically make you ineligible to

return to your old apartment at the previous rent.

Two options might be staying with friends (although if your apartment

takes a long time to " improve " the welcome can wear thin) or staying

at hotels (which often make you move from room to room every 29 days

to avoid being seen as apartments by the law)

" suite " type hotels are also available, but often very expensive.

Then there is the question, when I move back in, will the mold have

been fixed? The answer to that is very difficult to answer. In my

case, clearly, the amount of work that was done in the building I

think would have made permanent resoluton of the issues doubtful for

me, although the apartment may have been cleaned up enough so that new

people might not have been made sick, if they only opened the front

windows and never the interior ones..

I don't know.