Guide to Dealing with Mold in Your NYC Apartment

Your landlord is responsible for keeping your home and building safe and livable at all times. This is called the “Warranty of Habitability.”

Having a record of notifying your landlord makes for a stronger legal case. If your landlord has already been unresponsive to your requests to make repairs, a letter is a great tactic to start. Through USPS Certified Mail®, you will have an official record of the requests you’ve made to your landlord. The nonprofit JustFix covers the cost of mailing this letter for you!

New York City landlords have an obligation to remediate a mold infestation under Local Law 55, and under Local Law 61, owners of buildings with 10 or more units must hire both a licensed mold assessor and a separate remediator to remove the mold when it exceeds 10 square feet.

How to Get Your New York City Landlord to Take a Mold Issue Seriously:

Mold is a common issue in New York City. In fact, it pops up almost anywhere moisture can work its way into a dwelling. But despite the fact that it’s not rare, it’s still a potentially serious situation due to the myriad of health issues associated with breathing in its spores. Mold spores can contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which emit gasses that can cause problems ranging from cold-like symptoms (think sniffling, coughing) to toxicity (in the case of black mold). That’s why it’s so crucial to address the problem as quickly as possible. But when you and your landlord don’t share a sense of urgency about remediating mold, it can seriously impact the health and happiness you feel in your home.

Mildew or Mold?

Sometimes, spotting mold is easy. It might confront you in the aftermath of a water leak from a neighbor’s apartment, a heavy storm that leaves behind a musty smell, or a lingering cough or headaches that won’t go away. And while mildew, its less-scary cousin, is a nuisance, it’s usually a matter of some scrubbing with the right kind of cleaner to make it go away. You’ll find mildew on surfaces, while mold often lives (unknown) inside your walls, ceiling, or floors. And you can’t exactly hit those areas with some 409.

If you’re unsure whether you’re dealing with a mold problem, the best place to start is by asking your landlord to take a look at the problem. While it’s definitely in a landlord’s best interests to address mold issues quickly, it doesn’t mean they will. Visual indicators of mold or a sudden onset of symptoms can often be enough to justify a call to 311 if your landlord isn’t as responsive as you’d like (more on that in a moment) but if you’re struggling to prove a mold problem, sometimes the quickest way to find proof is by using an at-home mold kit. These usually cost about $80 (and about $25 to send to a lab for testing) and, while not exactly cheap, are an efficient way to get to the heart of the problem quickly.

So You Have Mold – What’s Next?

Dealing with mold can often involve not just taking steps to identify and solve a problem but documenting that you’ve taken those steps. The first (and easiest step) is to notify your landlord of the problem. It’s a good idea to do this in writing, even if you have a good relationship with your landlord. Again, think documentation.

If your landlord chooses not to respond in a timely manner or not to sufficiently address the issue, the next step is to call 311 (note the date, time, and the contact information of the person you speak with) and make a mold complaint. This will trigger a response from The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which will contact your landlord and inform them the complaint has been made, which may hit the landlord with a violation (and fines) if the problem is not corrected. Depending on the severity and location of the mold issue, HPD will give your landlord a time frame to complete any remediation work. After that deadline, HPD will contact you again to follow up. If the issue still has not been addressed, an inspector may come to the property and assess whether the issue has been dealt with. Hopefully, this should be the end of it. If it’s not though, you still have a few options.

This Is Where Documentation Proves Critical:

A phrase you might not be familiar with but one your landlord almost certainly is, is Warranty of Habitability. Essentially, this is your landlord’s legal responsibility to keep their properties in safe and habitable conditions. All great if your landlord abides by it but if they don’t uphold their end of the bargain, in addition to notifying 311 and informally notifying them (again, always in writing), a formal letter of complaint is also a smart option. If you send it through the USPS’s Certified Mail option, you’ll even get confirmation it’s been delivered.

But what exactly do you say in the letter? It can feel overwhelming when you’re already dealing with the rest of your responsibilities. JustFix promotes itself as, “a non-profit that builds free tools for tenants to exercise their rights to a livable home.” The site is filled with all kinds of helpful info, but one of its best features is that it offers you a free, attorney-vetted template to use for your letter of complaint. They will even mail it for you for free through USPS Certified Mail. After you’ve sent your letter, they’ll follow up with you to find out whether the problem was remedied.

Again, a certified letter is not a magic bullet but for many landlords, it will be enough to get them moving on the fix. And if not, if you have to escalate the problem to a housing court, you’ll be standing on as firm a foundation as possible if you’ve taken these critical steps and documented all your work.

If you enjoyed this article and are also curious to learn more about HPD violations, and how to avoid them, check out our overview here.

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