Indoor Air Quality Solutions, IAQS

Fellow Floridians

I am sending you this message in the hope that you will help prevent the repeal of the current mold licensing law by sending a personal request to NOT repeal the current mold licensing law to both your District Representatives and Senators.

It is very important for everyone you know to do the same.  Please share the need to send emails and make calls to everyone you know that would be impacted by the repeal of this law.  Send to the media, news papers, radio and TV stations, mold assessors, mold remediators, adjustors, family and friends that will benefit from a licensed mold professional.

With all that was done to create the current legislation and set a mold industry standard for our state it would be a shame and a devastating blow to our industry to see the law repealed.
Please include your current license number and a personal request to NOT repeal the current mold licensing law.

Link to Florida Representatives
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/SEctions/Representatives/representatives.aspx

Link to Florida Senators
http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/

Recent post regarding the current proposed legislation.
The Push to Repeal the Florida Mold Licensing Law
Licensing and Regulating the Florida Mold Industry
Florida Mold Licensing Law Update

•John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
•www.Microshield-ES.com

The move to repeal the current mold licensing law is working its way through committee.  Below is the list of appearances and voting results.

There was wide spread shock among the Mold Professionals, both inspectors and remediators, when Representative Grant introduced HB 4171 in an effort to repeal the current legislation requiring anyone providing mold related services to obtain a license to either preform mold inspections or mold remediation.

You see for the past 7 months both mold inspectors and mold remediators have been working to obtain their mold license.  Some individuals spending hundreds of dollars and some companies thousands.  All in an effort to improve our industry and comply with the current licensing law.

Those who proudly work in the mold industry are eager to improve themselves through education, licensing, and continued education, as required by the current licensing law.  We do this to help provide our client the best possible service in what is almost always a traumatic time of need.

We all submit to finger printing and licensing to show our clients that it is safe to allow us into their home and that they are free to look at our history and report and wrongful acts on our part to either the or their property.

Becoming licensed according to the current licensing law will not make anyone more ethical or force them to provide a better service.

•It does ensure to Citizens of Florida that anyone they are wanting to hire has met the minimal requirements currently required by the State to preform either a Mold Assessment or Mold Remediation on in their home.

•It does provide the Citizens of Florida a window into any licensed mold professionals history as recorded by the State.

•It does provide the Citizens of Florida with a means of reporting wrongful acts committed by a mold professional.

•It does provide a means and a way for the Citizens of Florida to be Informed and Empowered Consumers.

So I have to ask Representative Grant why he wants to repeal the Current Licensing Law.

Who’s interest is he looking out for?

•John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
•www.Microshield-ES.com

Finally, we have regulation in the mold industry.  The mold industry had been an unregulated industry for many years and the citizens of Florida suffered as they were exposed to fraud, scams, and scare tactics.  The citizens of Florida have been preyed upon by mold inspectors who inspect flood and storm damaged property and assesses thousands of dollars of damage that requires their immediate remediation.

There have been many arrests of fraudulent mold contractors as recently as this past February 21st.  It took 29 complaints to the Department of Environmental Protection before action was taken to stop the contractor.  If 1 or 2 complaints had been registered and confirmed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation FDBPR.  I feel it safe to assume that most Floridians would not hire the contractor.  None would surely hire him after 10 or 20 registered complaints let alone 29.  By 10 the FDBPR would have taken action revoking the contractor’s license protecting the next 19 from fraud.

Under the current Florida Licensing Law a Licensed Mold Inspector CANNOT provide Mold Remediation.  As of July 1, 2010 the state of Florida Prohibits anyone from performing or offering to perform any mold remediation to a structure on which the mold assessor or the mold assessor’s company provided a mold assessment within the last 12 months

The current Florida Mold Related Services Licensing Law provides a means of reporting these crooked and fraudulent Inspector/Remediators so that the citizens of Florida can be informed about the history of any Mold Inspector or Mold Remediator they hire.

The Florida State Mold Law Legislative purpose.–The Legislature finds it necessary in the interest of the public safety and welfare, to prevent damage to real and personal property, to avert economic injury to the residents of this state, and to regulate persons and companies that hold themselves out to the public as qualified to perform mold-related services.

It’s important for this information to be shared due the recent submittal of HB 4171 February 16th, by Representative James W Grant, District 47.  Representative Grant filed the bill in an effort to repeal the current legislation requiring mold remediators and mold assessors to obtain a state license.  The bill was introduced 7 months after the current law took effect and after approximately 3000 individuals became licensed as either mold remediators or mold inspectors.  With hundreds of additional applicants currently awaiting their license.

The current legislation provides both a means for the Citizens of Florida to report fraudulent acts by mold inspectors and mold remediators and a way for the Citizens of Florida to review the history of any Mold Inspector or Mold Remediator before they make their decision of who to hire.

An Informed Consumer and an industry that can now be held accountable.  Floridians, with the current licensing law, can now self-protect against fraud by either reporting a fraudulent mold inspector or remediator or simply by choosing not to hire a mold inspector or remediator based on the mold inspectors or remediators history of complaints.

I have to ask Representative Grant just what it is about an informed consumer that he is opposed to.  Or could it be someone in the industry that Representative Grant feels should be protected from accountability?

The Mold Related Services Industry is fully in favor of the current Florida Mold Licensing Law.  Thousands of Mold Inspectors and Mold Remediators have spent the last seven months obtaining the necessary training, certification, and insurance necessary to obtain their individual State Mold Assessor License and Mold Remediator License.

There is a push by the Florida Home Builders Association to either repeal the current law or amend the current law to allow licensed general contractors to provide mold inspection and mold remediation without the need for an additional mold inspection or mold remediation license.  I find this very interesting as builders have to be additionally licensed to plumb, roof, provide electric or HVAC service on the homes they build.  Hence the term general contractor.  The General Contractor simply needs to hire a Licensed Professional to perform the mold related services required for the homes they build.  Licensing a Mold Inspector or Mold Remediator is no different than any other trade in the state that is currently required to have a license.

It seems that when it comes to anything resulting from or associated with a possible building or construction flaw the general contractors would rather self police.  I’m sure that their homeowners don’t feel the same way.  The homeowners that I’ve spoken to prefer an independent licensed professional.

Follow the money is the key with the push to repeal the current legislation.

Who hired the Lobbyist?

Who was the Lobbyist?

What is the relationship between the Lobbyist and Representative Grant?

Most important is the “WHY” repeal the New Mold Related services Law?  and,

“WHO” benefits most from the repeal?

I would have to say clearly not the Citizens of Florida who lose their ability to report fraudulent mold inspectors and remediators and make informed decisions regarding who to hire based on the states recorded history of all licensed contractors.  Clearly not the thousands of individuals and businesses involved in the mold related services industry who have already paid for and given their time to become appropriately trained according to the current licensing law and have paid for and obtained the necessary insurance to comply with the current licensing law.

So I ask Representative Grant just “Who’s” Special Interest are you looking out for?

•John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
•www.Microshield-ES.com