Matt Kelly explains which mold tests hold up legally in rental disputes. He warns against landlords or handymen doing remediation without proper containment and negative pressure, and recommends hiring a third-party mold inspector to do air sampling near the suspected source for evidence that courts will accept.
Questions this video answers
A third-party air test performed by a mold inspector who does air sampling, taken as close to the suspected source as possible.
About 95% (speaker states that general air sampling "missed 95% of mold").
$6,000 a month.
Chapters
Kcat's in a bad situation here because her question is what tests are best to run for legal reasons? What to do if your landlord lied and said he remediated, but you find out he didn't do it properly? Properly is the big issue here. Landlords and I and Karen and myself say this all the time in the group and it is. You almost never want your landlord to fix your mold problem. It's better to just look for a new place because if he comes in and opens it up himself or he hires a handyman, very rarely do places have proper inspections. Hire certified remediators that know what they're doing. And I've heard time and time again people having horrible experiences when management gets involved and comes in and opens it up. Like I have one lady that she came back after they remediated the mold in her wall and she had drywall dust and garbage everywhere on her stuff because they didn't do containment. So they literally open the wall and just let everything pour out. Okay, got another lady that shared in the group pictures where their containment was kind of put up, but it didn't go to the floor and wasn't taped down. So there was essentially no containment. Okay. And their air scrubber venting outside had the whole window open. So what blew out came in. There's no negative air pressure. It was a whole bunch of nothing. But they're trying to check a couple boxes. Use containment. Yes. Use an air scrubber. Yes. But they didn't do either of them properly. So it contaminated the whole home and caused her daughter to be very unwell, which she now has to try to figure out what to deal with. We had another situation where a leak was opened up by someone that didn't use containment. And the people can't even live in their house now because it unleashed a hellish hoard of mycotoxins, spores fragments and water damaged bacteria. So I'm saying this to scare you a little bit that when it's not done properly, it can make things worse. But your question was which tests are best to run for legal reasons? Legally you're going to need air testing done by a mold inspector that does air sampling. Okay. Now, general air sampling like that misses most mold, but hopefully he can get close enough to a problem that he's able to pick up a problem. They don't take the ERMI because all big corporations and insurance companies love air testing because it misses most mold. So this is why it's very hard to prove you have a problem. You'd have to Hire a mold inspector, you have to come do an air test and because they missed 95% of mold, you got to get him as close as you can to a problem to try to pick up some toxic and problematic molds. What to do if he remediated but you find out he didn't do it properly? Yeah. So that's not surprising. That it's not done properly can actually make people worse. That's why we say don't even go down that path. If you're at a place where you're wondering if they're going to do it right or not, if you're at a high end place and paying $6,000 a month for rent, then maybe they're going to get someone in right that knows how to do it right. But very often times people end up worse and we say, hey, why don't you start shopping for a place that's a little healthier rather than have this open and then you have to get out quick with nowhere to go. But as for the testing, you're going to need an air test done close to the source as possible to try to get a third party tested air sample that shows a problem. Hope that helps.
Kate, do you have questions about mold in your home or body? Book a consultation with Matt, AKA the Mold man to guide your home and body to the next level of healing.
