What to Do About Mold in Your Home
Your family's health comes first.
- Your doctor needs to know. Say where in the house the growth is and how long the leak has gone on. Keep every appointment.
- Don't stir it up. Skip tearing out drywall or crawling under the house for pictures. If a storm soaked the place, a qualified remediation company can advise on safe testing.
- Photos and video of what you can safely see. Ceiling stains, black spots behind furniture, warped baseboards, ruined belongings. Repeat every few weeks.
- A timeline. When the water first showed, when you reported it, and what you were told.
- The back-and-forth. Screenshots of the rental portal, the landlord's texts and every email about the leak.
- The house file. Home inspection, mold tests, contractor invoices, the builder's warranty and the closing binder.
- New forms. Get your questions answered before signing.
Why Mold Shows Up Around Hilton Head
Salt air, summer humidity and afternoon storms keep island and Bluffton homes damp. Hurricane damage, a slow roof leak, a sweating air handler in a closed-up villa, or flashing and waterproofing that failed in a newer subdivision can all let water sit inside walls for months before anyone sees it.
Landlords and Mold
The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to make repairs and keep rental homes fit and habitable.2 When a landlord doesn't correct qualifying problems, tenants may have remedies such as actual damages, injunctive relief or ending the lease, depending on the circumstances. Whether a landlord is responsible for an illness depends on the condition, notice, repairs and medical evidence; mold in a rental doesn't settle it.1 Notice requirements may apply before ending a lease.3
Want someone to look at your situation?
Talk with our team about what happened and ask the questions on your mind.
How Long You Have to File
Most personal injury claims in South Carolina must be filed within three years.4 Simply opening a claim with an insurance company does not stop the statute of limitations from running.5 The three-year period generally begins when a person knew or, through reasonable diligence, should have known that they had a potentially actionable injury.6
For a newer home where the problem traces to construction, timing can be tighter. South Carolina generally imposes an eight-year outer deadline on lawsuits arising from defective or unsafe improvements to real property, measured from substantial completion of the improvement. Exceptions may apply. This deadline is separate from the ordinary statute of limitations and may prevent some claims even when the problem was discovered later.78
Claims against a South Carolina state or local government agency have their own filing deadline, which can be shorter, and there could be caps on damages, depending on the facts.9
Talk With Us
Expect us to ask when the first water stain appeared, whom you notified and whether it was in writing, and what the doctors have found. If you hire us, the insurers can usually deal with us.
We take cases across South Carolina, including Hilton Head, Bluffton and the rest of southern Beaufort County. Our office is on King Street in Charleston. The first conversation can happen by phone. See South Carolina toxic mold claims and, for gas, chemical or water exposures, toxic exposure near Hilton Head.
We'd like to hear about the mold problem.
South Carolina Law on This
- A toxic exposure or mold claim generally requires more than showing that a substance was present. Depending on the legal theory, evidence may be needed on how exposure occurred, whether the substance can cause the type of injury involved, and whether it caused the particular person's illness. Exposure does not automatically establish that someone is legally responsible for a medical condition.1
- South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to make repairs and keep rental homes fit and habitable. The Act generally does not cover short-term stays, such as vacation rentals, that are subject to the state's accommodations tax.2
- Under South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, tenants may have remedies when a landlord does not correct qualifying noncompliance, which depending on the circumstances may include actual damages, injunctive relief or ending the rental agreement. Specific notice requirements may apply before ending a lease.3
- Most personal injury claims in South Carolina must be filed within three years.4
- South Carolina's statute of limitations generally sets the deadline for filing a lawsuit in court. Simply opening a claim with an insurance company or negotiating with an insurance adjuster does not stop the statute of limitations from running.5
- South Carolina's three-year limitations period for personal injury claims generally begins when a person knew or, through reasonable diligence, should have known that they had a potentially actionable injury. A person does not necessarily need to know the precise substance responsible, every defendant or the legal theory before the clock begins running.6
- South Carolina generally imposes an eight-year outer deadline on lawsuits arising from defective or unsafe improvements to real property, measured from substantial completion of the improvement. Exceptions may apply. This deadline is separate from the ordinary statute of limitations and may prevent some claims even when the problem was discovered later.7
- Claims against builders, contractors and designers over work on real property can be cut off by a fixed outer time limit that applies no matter when the problem is discovered.8
- Claims against a South Carolina state or local government agency have their own filing deadline, which can be shorter, and there could be caps on damages under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, depending on the facts of the case.9
Frequently Asked Questions
The mold has been there for years. Have I waited too long?
My landlord in Bluffton just painted over it. What now?
Photograph the spots, including mold that bleeds back through the paint, and keep every written repair request and reply. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to keep rental homes fit and habitable.2 Tenants may have remedies when qualifying problems aren't corrected, and notice rules may apply before ending a lease.3 Moving out or withholding rent are steps to run past a lawyer first.
If there's mold in the house, did it cause my asthma?
Not necessarily. A positive mold test in the bedroom isn't proof about your lungs. A claim generally needs evidence on how the exposure happened and whether it caused that person's condition.1
Do I need a doctor's opinion before I call?
No. Keep seeing your doctors and tell them about the water damage. The repair history and texts can be reviewed in the meantime.
Sources
- General South Carolina toxic tort causation principles (Sean Hall, Nov 5 review)
- S.C. Code §§ 27-40-440 and 27-40-120(4)
- S.C. Code § 27-40-610
- S.C. Code § 15-3-530
- S.C. Code §§ 15-3-20 and 15-3-530
- S.C. Code § 15-3-535
- S.C. Code §§ 15-3-640 and 15-3-670
- S.C. Code § 15-3-640
- S.C. Code §§ 15-78-110 and 15-78-120
This page is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice for your situation. Every case depends on its own facts.
