Bills Proposed to Regulate Businesses Cleaning Mold

Port St. Lucie, FL – The business of clearing mold from homes, schools and businesses has been flourishing in Florida for years without any government regulation. Two pieces of state legislation could change that.

Supporters say the bills, proposed both in the House (HB 117) and Senate (SB 590), would bring oversight and standards to an industry being overrun by fly-by-night operations and untrained companies.

Although no one keeps track of how many mold remediation companies are operating in the state, “all I know is that there’s not enough good ones,” said Michael Greene of the Florida Coalition on Healthy Indoor Environments.

Greene, a West Palm Beach lawyer who has worked on mold cases, presented a legislative update on the bills Wednesday during a workshop at Florida Atlantic University’s Port St. Lucie campus

The proposed legislation requires mold cleanup and assessment companies to be licensed, trained and insured. Also, to prevent price-gouging or conflict of interest, the same company cannot perform both assessment and cleanup services on the same project.

Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, who wrote the House bill, said the legislation would create the same kind of standards that building and construction trades operate under.

But there are loopholes in the bills that the Florida Coalition on Healthy Indoor Environments said need to be closed. One would allow private schools or businesses to ignore licensing requirements, which critics said would defeat the purpose of the bills.

Author: Carolyn Willbanks