Mold Prevention Guide For Tenants And Property Managers

Posted by Mastertech Environmental on August 17th, 2019

Tenant Mold Prevention Education In South Jersey

Nobody wants to live in a moldy environment. As a property manager in the South Jersey area, it is your responsibility to ensure that your tenants have a safe, sanitary space to inhabit. However, you can’t control everything that goes on in every part of the building. Educate your tenants about tenant mold prevention. This way they can help in eliminating some of these potential mold issues within the building.

Key Elements In Tenant Mold Prevention Education

Many tenants (and people in general) don’t know the first thing about mold prevention. It is imperative that everyone, not just tenants, understand how to prevent mold in a rental home. They will be grateful that you educated them, and they will continue to use that knowledge you gave them wherever they may move to. A few key elements in tenant mold prevention include:

Ensuring a home has proper ventilation is key when preventing mold. This is the number one thing you should be teaching during tenant mold prevention. While it is important to ensure that all of the home is properly ventilated, some areas need more ventilation than others. Make sure that you are educating your tenants of these specific areas. Kitchens and bathrooms are the areas that need ventilation the most. Showering and cooking produce a lot of heat and moisture, which creates excess humidity. Ensure that your tenants are aware of proper ventilation techniques that they can employ. Besides the obvious use of vents and fans, it can be as simple as opening a window while showering, cooking, or running the dishwasher.

Keeping humidity levels as low as possible. Indoor humidity levels should never exceed 50%. The ideal level for indoor humidity is between 35% and 50% relative humidity. Keeping the air conditioner running, especially during the summer months, can help keep indoor humidity levels low. If a building is particularly muggy, you may want to suggest the use of a dehumidifier to your tenants so they can keep a closer eye on those indoor humidity levels.

Preventing and remediating condensation is another simple tip you can use while educating about tenant mold prevention. Tenants can reduce the potential for condensation by adding insulation in areas that experience a lot of condensation. To make it even easier, you can advise tenants to simply wipe away accumulated condensation when they notice it.

Another easy technique to suggest during tenant mold prevention education is to immediately wipe up any spills that may occur. Make sure that tenants are aware of the damage that these spills could potentially cause. Larger spills such as an overflowing bathtub or toilet, especially, can cause a lot of damage. It is much easier to educate tenants to do their best to prevent and avoid mold than it is to get rid of it.  If a building experience flooding, the same rule applies. Cleaning up and drying out the building quickly and thoroughly after the flood occurs is imperative. If you are concerned that the damage is too severe, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional mold remediation company to assess the damage.

Tenants Expressing Concerns About Mold

As previously mentioned, the average tenant generally doesn’t know a whole lot about mold and mold prevention. Some tenants may even report concerns of pre-existing mold in their home. Some tenants may be uneducated about mold, or may even be exaggerating the issue. However, you should always take these reports seriously as their property manager. You are the owner of the building after all, and you want your tenants to be happy. When tenants report mold or other maintenance issues, it is your responsibility to investigate these reports. You must not only assess the issues, but ultimately straighten them out. While not all tenant mold reports are valid, no report should be ignored. You may even want to set up a professional mold inspection with a company in your South Jersey area.

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Making necessary repairs such as fixing leaky roofs or employing the services of mold remediation technicians are required as a South Jersey property manager. Whether there actually molds in the building or not, it is your responsibility as the property manager to ensure that living conditions are up to par. Neglectful property managers and tenants are one of the biggest causes of mold issues in a property. If you’ve educated tenants about tenant mold prevention, and you’ve kept up with property maintenance, your property should be safe from mold damage.