Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Mold not disclosed

There's always the question that mold may not have been there when the inspection(s) took place, or in such an insignificant amount that it was undetectable. When the matter is brought into a legal arena that becomes a question of fact for the jury (if no jury then the judge) to determine. This is an additional legal cost because it becomes the battle of the experts. Your decision is to either attempt, with your limited assets, to solve the mold problem, or move out. Lawsuits take awhile. They can be started in a day. However, the trials are normally a year later. Then if there's an appeal. That's heard one to two years later. And your legal costs are not recoverable unless there a statute or contractual provision covering the legal costs. Does any of your neighbors have the problem? Will your Homeowner's Insurance Policy cover any of the costs? I have a client in San Bernardino County that has a sever mold problem. This is appaerently a new problem that I'd not heard of before.

Re: Mold not disclosed

I mentioned your mold problem to my wife who grew up here. She tells me that there has always been a mold problem in California. So a factor in any litigation would be if there's a scientific test. That could be used during the house inspection to detect the spores, and it wasn't used. Are any of the neighbors experiencing the same problem? This would give notice to the inspector what to look for.