A Florida seller is upset that unlicensed, unregulated home inspectors can perform non-standardized mold tests which may result in stigmatizing a home.

Homeseller Lora Fossler allowed a buyer to do an inspection on her home for sale. When the buyer's unlicensed home inspector did an air quality test, the results showed mold spores in the air. The buyers wanted to get out of the contract, and Fossler immediately hired a certified environmentalist to do a full-scale inspection of the wall cavities, the attic, roof, bathrooms, HVAC (air-conditioning) system and collecting pertinent data samples including air samples, relative humidity readings, and CO2 levels. The results showed no evidence of mold.

According to Florida state law, Fossler has to disclose the results of the buyer's mold test, even though the test isn't required or regulated by the state, and despite the fact that there is no recognized, standardized test for mold. She has decided to disclose the results of both tests, but has found that having conflicting reports only confuses buyers. Another buyer has shied away from buying her home, she says.

Fossler says her home is being stigmatized, and she has a lot of questions. Why aren't mold tests standardized? Why is there no oversight for home inspectors? Fossler says that while the original buyer's inspection was being done, the buyers had the door open to the outside so they could keep an eye on their children playing. Could muggy August weather account for the air quality test findings? Is that why the seller's environmental test showed different results.

Unfortunately, there are no clear answers because testing for mold isn't standardized, yet conflicting mold tests can stigmatize a home.

"In Florida, there are no regulations and standards for airborne concentrations of mold or mold spores, evaluation and visual inspection, and testing methods," says Fossler. "This allows a fertile ground of operation for home inspectors who can carelessly and purposefully continue to generate useless and harmful data. Homeowners selling their properties are further targeted by this unregulated behavior when real estate agents, brokers, and lawyers disclose these types of fraudulent reports to potential home buyers. Because of the public's perspectives on mold and adverse health effects, mounting law suits and settlements, Realtors, Realtors' brokers and real estate attorneys act to protect themselves from liabilities and leave no solution or protection from liability for the homesellers. My situation is not unique and has become a growing complaint among many in Florida."

Fossler wants the buyer's inspection company to recant the inspection report, and she has hired a real estate attorney, Michael Eisler, to help her.

"This could be a test case for the state of Florida," says Eisler. "We are no longer talking about whether we have roof damage or termites. We are talking about mold which has been in every newspaper and scared people to the point that they don't want to purchase a house. It's like being on a dump. It stigmatizes the home."

Eisler says there are some remedies available to Fossler. "What we prefer to have is the original inspection company retract their report and admit that their testing wasn't properly done," says Fossler.

Eisler says his client hasn't made a decision yet whether to take the case into court, but he suggests that there are things other sellers and buyers can do. After all, it wasn't just Fossler who lost an opportunity. The buyer lost the opportunity to buy, and the broker lost the opportunity to collect a commission.

Sellers can legally refuse to allow unregulated, untrained personnel into their homes to perform tests such as air quality tests to determine the presence of mold, but says Eisler, if they refused the buyer, they would run the risk of appearing as if they are hiding something. Sellers could instead insist that environmental tests such as for mold be performed by a certified environmentalist which are trained to perform standardized tests.

"There are industry standards," says Fossler, "they just aren't in the home inspection societies. The Fosslers used a certified environmentalist which had training and greater qualifications."

Where can sellers go? "The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers has the thermal comfort requirements for air," says Eisler. "They look at air moisture levels. Another place to go is the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. They have a guide to chemical hazards, and The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists has written literature with regard to how the test is to be conducted and how people should be trained, so you can have someone who has been trained. You can ask inspectors whether they have attended certain training in the area of mold."

Other suggestions by Eisler include protecting the chain of custody of air samples. "As we learned from the O.J. case, the chain of custody is important. If there is any contamination of the sample, you will get a false positive or nonsensical reading. You have to have a chain between the technician and the microbiology lab. How the technician gets the sampling and hands it over (in the proper time frames and in the proper containers) is also important so when the sampling and analysis are done you are assured of an accurate reading."

There is also a way to safeguard confidentiality in mold testing. "One thing that should happen is if there is an inspection that there is a confidentiality agreement that the inspection remain the property of the buyer, and not be turned over to the seller. The buyer can keep the results confidential, and the seller can't pass on knowledge they don't have."

The seller can also dispute false findings. "They have to disclose those matters not readily available to the buyer," says Eisler, "A seller isn't supposed to be in a position to be evaluating which test they like or don't like, but there is a place on the disclosure where the seller can contest the old reading and put the new reading and provide it to the buyer."

After that, it is simply a matter for the real estate industry educating itself about mold, testing, and the rights of both parties so that what happened to Fossler doesn't happen to another seller, and so Fossler's buyers and other buyers won't be scared away by tests that can fluctuate with the summer weather.

Fossler says, "It is disheartening to believe as the seller, I have no rights or protection from a business reporting false mold readings. If nothing else comes of this, perhaps my situation can educate agents, brokers and others about the need to have set standards and regulations regarding mold inspections."