You may be thinking about taking care of your mold problem yourself, and in some cases, this is okay. However, if you have a commercial mold problem, you should consider professional mold removal services. The cost of professional mold removal is much less than the costs you could face during a lawsuit.
How Much Will a Commercial Mold Lawsuit Cost?
Attorney’s fees will be thousands, and the awards to the victims of toxic mold can be as high as in the millions. Your professional liability insurance may cover a majority of this, but your rates will rise following a suit that large. This means you could end up paying for it for quite a while. It could also do damage to your reputation as a commercial building owner.
Tenants and Employees
It’s not just landlords who need to worry about commercial mold liability. Any building that has people in it must be safely habitable in order to avoid a lawsuit. Mold is impossible to remove from every space, but allowing it to remain active and grow is what makes it dangerous. Buildings should be kept dry with good circulation, and this will remove the chance for mold growth.
Have a Plan
Once you find mold, there must be a plan for proper commercial mold removal, and this should involve a professional. This does not mean that your own cleanup of the bleach would be inadequate, but it does mean that you hired people to make sure the mold was gone. The source of the moisture in the building must also be resolved. Plan on rechecking the area periodically to make sure the mold does not return. All of this planning will reduce your risk of an initial lawsuit, but it also looks good to the judge or jury if you have taken steps to protect the people in your building.
Going Solo Isn’t Worth the Risk
The truth is, people have died from mold exposure. Not everyone is sensitive to it, but people have a reasonable expectation of safety when they enter a building. If there is a known commercial mold problem, nobody should enter the building, and the problem should be taken care of as soon as possible by professionals. You may be able to clean it up yourself, but it isn’t worth the risk of it not being effective.
If a judge determines that you were grossly negligent in your cleanup of a mold hazard, the results of a lawsuit could be very damaging to your business. Instead of risking the health of people in your building and the balance in your bank, hire a professional commercial mold remediation specialist to correctly take care of your mold problem the first time.