The Press Democrat reported earlier last week that Judge Gary Nadler ordered the landlords to compensate tenants displaced by mold in Santa Rosa. Mold litigation is both an issue for landlord/tenant attorneys and personal injury attorneys. Alongside legitimate claims of injury from mold are also claims made by people which who are simply looking to shake-down a landlord for some extra cash. Like most legal issues, there are two sides to every case. It is important to base your opinions on the facts rather than your relative position to either litigant. Landlords complain about being taken advantage of. Tenants complain about being taken advantage. Some of them are telling the truth. Some are not.
If you are a landlord you should have a well-drafted lease agreement that covers all the important conditions that can arise, among them being mold. A smart landlord, upon hearing any inkling of trouble should immediately attempt remediation of the problem. A less-than-smart one will ignore it, hoping it will go away. While this usually works, I don’t recommend it.
