NYS Mold Law

1/26/2021 (Permalink)

Seal of NYS

NYS Mold Law

Following super-storm Sandy many contractors who were not familiar with mold remediation rushed in to provide service to property owners.  As well-meaning many of those contractors were the service provided by many of them was inappropriate, ineffective, or improperly performed. This resulted in unnecessary or overpriced work, or resulted in secondary damage, and wound up costing property owners and insurance carriers significantly more than it should have in order to achieve successful mold remediation service.  So, the insurance industry lobbied the NYS legislature to pass a law governing mold remediation.

In January 2015 Governor Cuomo signed Senate Bill S3667D requiring all remediation firms and employees performing mold remediation work in NYS to be licensed.  Administrative control was given to the NYS Department of Labor (DOL), Division of Safety and Health, Asbestos Control Board (ACB). Enforcement of the law took effect in January 2016.  With this bill mold became a regulated industry similar to asbestos.

As part of this bill several current industry best practices became law.  One of these best practices is that the Mold Assessor (the person/company performing air and/or surface testing) may not work as the Mold Abater (the person/company performing the abatement) on the same project; basically, they could do one or the other but not both on any single project.  Additionally, the Mold Assessor must provide a written Remediation Plan providing specific information to the client and Mold Abater.  The Mold Abater must than provide the client a written Work Plan providing specific information on how the Remediation Plan will be executed.

The law does provide for specific exemptions.

If this is a single-family residence, or a multi-family residence of four (4) or less apartments, there is an exemption to this law.  This exemption allows the property owner to act as the Mold Assessor and the Mold Abater and perform the work on their own.

If this is a commercial property the exemption allows the owner, managing agent, or a full-time employee of either to act as the Mold Assessor and the Mold Abater provided that the owner, managing agent, or full-time employee does not engage in the business of performing mold assessment or abatement for the public.

Unfortunately, even if one of these exemptions apply in your situation, if you want to hire a licensed Mold Abatement contractor to perform service you must first hire a Mold Assessor to provide a Remediation Plan.

We strongly recommend that you not consider performing the mold remediation yourself.  You should bring in a professional Mold Assessor who can perform pre and post remediation testing; post remediation testing is also known as Clearance Testing.  The results of the Clearance Test can be presented to the building occupants or potential buyers in a real estate sale to provide laboratory results confirming the environment has been returned to Condition 1 status (i.e. normal ecological environment) after remediation.