" Attention apartment renters: you can be held responsible for property damage caused by mold"

 

The article proceeds to describe attempts by landlords to get tenants to amend their leases to be responsible for mold infestation. The mold addendum is being distributed by the National Apartment Association.

 

Charles Harak, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center said "...it's outrageous to hold the tenant liable for a problem that's not of the tenant's doing. Mold is usuall not caused by tenant behavior, but usually caused by the structure of the building or a system in the building, things outside the tenant's control. It's so clearly a building problem."

 

Further the article cites mold related problems as "It has been blamed for a number of health problems, including breathing difficulties, headaches, nausea, gastrointestinal ailments, skin rashes, severe allergic reactions and neurological damage."

 

New York Times, March 23, 2003

THE TURMOIL OVER MOLD IN BUILDINGS

     "It is slimy, sticky, black, brownish or sometimes orangey organism that mostly comes in knobby though sometimes hairy, microscopic ovals--half a million or more sporse fitting on the face of a dime."

     The article goes on to describe the increasing problems related to mold and the insurance companies' exclusions of mold damage from their coverages. The article describes the plight of families having to move from their homes while making payments on them and being responsible for remediation costs that run thousands of dollars. A double whammy. It also delves into the threat of forclosures by the banks on the affected properties and the banks plight of having a house on their hands that is greatly devalued.

     On health problems, " We know that there are a range of health effects related to mold exposure, said Dr. Maida P. Galvez, a pediatrician at the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. The most common are asthma and allergy-type symptoms." She continues, "We know that families with strong histories of allergic diseases are more susceptible to these exposures, that mold can exacerbate these conditions. At a minimum, mold can cause eye, ear, nose and throat irritation, as welll as coughting and wheezing--sometimes severe and unrelenting." 

     Still, mold can be deadly, says Dr. Jordan Fink, a professor in the allergy and immunology division of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, said mold can cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis, resulting in progressive lung impairment. There have been fatal cases of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, he said, because of the inflammation and scarring of pulmonary tissue.