Action | Initial promulgation of Mold Inspector and Mold Remediator Licensing Regulation |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 1/7/2011 |
I had an expert witness case today for a client which I had tested a home for about a month ago. The case was in Fairfax county court. The occupants had rented a home and the discovered it had mold in it. The landlord apparently knew about the mold issue prior to renting the home. When the renter complained, the landlord came in and wiped all the basement walls down with chlorine bleach and told the pregnant occupant to stay upstairs for a few days. Later the occupants started having respiratory issues, headaches, dizzy spells. We were called to provide testing and a remediation protocol. The house was loaded with potentially toxigenic mold. The occupants moved out because the landlord refused to remediate the mold. In court today I found out that the landlord if he does not own more than 10 homes in VA then he has little resposibility to disclose or fix the mold problem. Is this true? My testimony seemed to help a lot and the tennants prevailed in court. There should be better laws to protect families from renting homes with indoor air quality problems. In this case the occupants including a new born baby suffered serious reactions according to the client. This case was under Mo Hamdan. They were able to recoup fees but still believe they are having health related problems. Protections should be in place. John (CIE)