If you are exposed to mold in your environment, this can make you very sick. In some cases, you may need expensive medical treatment or may suffer ongoing impairments that affect your ability to work or enjoy your life. Your property could also be damaged by mold exposure.
If the exposure that is causing you harm is occurring because of someone’s negligence or wrongdoing, then you may have legal rights. Matthew de Lira can help in these situations.
We have extensive experience helping clients harmed by landlords or by home sellers who caused black mold exposure in San Diego to others, and we are ready to put our knowledge to work for you.
To find out how a mold lawyer in Riverside, CA, can help you, give us a call or contact us online today to schedule a free consultation.
What are the health risks of mold exposure?
When you are exposed to mold in your living environment, breathing in the mold spores can have both short-term and long-term consequences for your health.
This exposure can cause or worsen medical conditions, necessitating expensive medical treatment and potentially causing you to miss work and experience pain, suffering, and emotional distress.
Some of the most common health risks of mold exposure include:
- Allergic reactions
- Skin rashes
- Asthma attacks
- Respiratory irritation
- Sneezing and a runny nose
- Sinus congestion
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Lung disease
- Compromised immunity
- Invasive Aspergillosis
- Mucormycosis
- Aspergilloma
- Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis
- Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis
- Mycotoxicoses or mold toxicity
Some of these conditions can have a lasting impact on your health, causing permanent scarring of the lungs and leading to a chronic cough, ongoing respiratory impairment, chronic fatigue, and other life-changing illnesses.
Signs of mold in your home
It is important to be aware of signs of mold in your home so you can take action to protect your health, especially if you are experiencing symptoms of mold exposure. Some of the most common signs of mold in your home include:
- A persistent musty smell
- Black, green, or white spots on walls or other surfaces
- Peeling or bubbling paint
- Water stains on the walls, floor, or ceiling
- Condensation or frequent heavy fogging of windows
- Fuzzy, clumpy, or flat spots of visible mold
- Warped materials such as buckling floorboards
- Persistent damp areas
- Dark grout lines
- Mildew on caulking
- Warped ceiling boards
Mold is especially likely to form in bathrooms, under sinks, behind appliances, within HVAC systems, and in basements and attics.
If you see signs of mold, especially if you are experiencing health issues like an increase in allergies, breathing difficulties, or chronic fatigue, you should consider speaking with a mold remediation expert to see if mold is present in your home.
Who can be held responsible if you are exposed to mold?
In some cases, your mold exposure doesn’t just happen. Sometimes, the negligence or wrongdoing of others is the direct cause of your exposure to this toxic substance. This can happen, for example, if:
- You have mold in a rental apartment because your landlord fails to respond to complaints about dampness or a water leak
- You report the presence of mold to your landlord, and your landlord does not take steps to remediate the problem and remove the mold from your home
- A property seller is aware of mold or water damage in a home and fails to properly disclose this information to you, despite the fact that it would be difficult for you to identify this information on your own
When you experience mold exposure because of a negligent landlord or property owner, you may have legal rights.
This is especially true under California’s landlord/tenant laws, which guarantee you the right to a safe and habitable home environment and provide a variety of remedies if your landlord fails to make repairs.
Recovering compensation for mold exposure
If someone else was to blame for causing your mold exposure, you may have a right to pursue a compensation claim. You could potentially recover payment for:
- Medical bills that you incurred to treat the mold-related illness
- Lost wages if your mold-related symptoms or medical issues caused you to miss work or affect your health in a way that impairs your ability to earn a living on an ongoing basis
- Pain and suffering if you experienced physical discomfort as a result of your mold-related illness
- Emotional distress as a result of your medical issues or because of the stress associated with unexplained health issues or persistent worries about the safety of your living space
- Lost quality of life if your mold-related illness affects your ability to do things that you once enjoyed
It will be up to you to demonstrate that the landlord, property owner, or other defendant was the direct cause of your mold-related illness. You will also have to show that the defendant failed in an obligation to you and that you suffered damages because of it.
Matthew de Lira will help you to gather the evidence that you need to maximize your chances of recovering full and fair compensation for mold-related losses.
We can help you to obtain medical records, testimony from experts on mold exposure and mold-related illness, witness testimony, photos from the areas of exposure, and other evidence to build a strong claim.
Our attorneys have represented many clients who have been harmed as a result of mold in their space, and we have a deep understanding of California laws.
We can negotiate with the property insurer of the defendant on your behalf to help you reach an out-of-court settlement, or we are prepared to go to trial to fight for the money that you deserve when mold has caused you to become sick.
Contact a mold lawyer in Riverside today
You should be fully compensated for your losses, and Matthew de Lira is here to help make that happen. To find out more about how we can put our extensive legal experience with mold exposure cases to work for you, give us a call or contact us online today to schedule a free consultation with a mold lawyer in Riverside, CA.