Mold can cause serious health risks, and water damage can lead to both mold and mildew, which can put you in grave danger of getting sick. If you are renting a property that is affected by mold or water issues, this can cause unsafe living conditions, and your landlord must correct the problem.
Unfortunately, not all landlords live up to their obligations, and some actively try not to make fixes when problems with mold and water damage arise because mitigating these issues can be very costly and time-consuming.
If your landlord does not respond promptly to your report of mold or water damage in your unit, take action by contacting our Colorado mold and water damage lawyers at Sue My Landlord before your health suffers.
Our Colorado Mold and Water Damage Attorneys Are Here to Help
Sue My Landlord has spent decades standing up for the rights of tenants whose landlords violated the rules and left them in unsafe living conditions.
We will take on any landlord, no matter how big or how small, and make them fix your home and compensate you for damage done — and we have the legal knowledge of Colorado regulations needed to make that happen.
Give us a call today to schedule a free consultation with your Colorado tenants’ rights lawyer if mold or water damage is an issue in your home, so we can protect your rights and get you back to a safe living space.
Common Health Risks of Mold Exposure
Being exposed to mold can be a very serious health and safety issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides insight into the dangers and health risks of mold exposure, including:
- Nose congestion
- Sore throat
- Skin rashes
- Burning eyes
- Severe or worsening asthma
- Lung infections, especially for the immunocompromised
- Fever
- Shortness of breath
- Cough and wheeze in non-asthmatics
- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis
There could also be long-term damage done, which you don’t always recover from. Because of the serious risks, landlords are expected to take swift action to remediate or mitigate mold problems as well as to address leaks and other causes of water damage that may cause mold to form. If your landlord fails to do so, you may have grounds to pursue legal action with the help of a Colorado health code violation lawyer.
What Is a Landlord’s Responsibility When It Comes to Mold and Water Damage?
In Colorado, a warranty of habitability exists that ensures landlords provide safe living spaces for tenants. Landlords can’t opt out of following this warranty and must make sure that they are correcting problems and avoiding issues that could put their renters in jeopardy.
While a warranty has existed for a long time in the state, the passage of SB24-094 in 2024 gave tenants even more rights and made clear what types of conditions landlords needed to fix quickly. Under the new rules established by the Safe Housing for Residential Tenants Act in SB24-094:
- Mold, dampness, and water leaks can make a property uninhabitable and unsafe. The law spells out specific steps that landlords must take, including mitigating the problem, testing for the presence of more dangerous mold, implementing a filtration system, and instituting containment protocols. Landlords must take steps to begin protecting tenants within 72 hours.
- Landlords are not allowed to force tenants to file a claim with their renters’ insurance to deal with mold issues.
- If landlords fail to take action within the appropriate timeline, or if the issue still exists 7 or 14 days after a landlord is notified, then the landlord is presumed to have violated the warranty of habitability, although this is a rebuttable presumption that the landlord can refute with evidence.
- Landlords may be required to provide a comparable rental unit or to cover the cost of a hotel since the mold remediation is likely to take more than 24 hours and, since it is likely to take more than 48 hours, landlords either need to ensure the replacement unit has a kitchen or must provide a meal allowance for the days the tenant is displaced.
If landlords don’t live up to their responsibilities, then tenants can take legal action and pursue one of several remedies under the law.
How Can Sue My Landlord Help You With Mold and Water Damage?
If you are coping with mold and water damage in your space, or if you had an issue with mold and water damage that your landlord did not fix properly, you should reach out to a trusted legal advocate who can provide you with help and support.
Our mold and water damage lawyers in Colorado are the advocates you’re looking for:
- Our legal team has successfully helped many clients coping with mold issues to get their situation resolved. We have a long track record of making landlords do the right thing — which is not just cleaning up the mold, but also providing appropriate compensation for any damages that resulted because of it.
- We know the law inside and out. We’ve kept up with the many changes to Colorado’s law in the post-pandemic era, and we can make the law work for you by gathering evidence, developing sound legal arguments, and assisting you in exploring all of your potential remedies.
- We can represent you no matter how your dispute arises or is resolved. If your landlord is taking legal action against you for breaking your lease or for not paying rent because you subtracted the cost of fixing mold, or you broke your lease because of mold, we can defend you in the landlord’s case against you. We’re also prepared and ready to negotiate an out-of-court resolution with your landlord or to file a civil suit against them to help you pursue justice.
- We treat every client like our most important client. We have heard from many tenants who we represented who finally feel safe at home because of the help we provided — and we take our responsibility seriously because we know how high the stakes are when it comes to having a living space free of dangerous mold.
Contact a Mold and Water Damage Attorney in Colorado Today
Don’t wait another day to resolve your mold issues. Contact Sue My Landlord at (720) 783-7368 to get the help you need to enforce the rights available to you under Colorado’s laws. Your landlord doesn’t have all the power here–the law empowers tenants, and our Colorado mold and water damage lawyers will help ensure you make the legal system work for you.
