Two licences
The firm that finds it may not be allowed to remove it.
New York, Florida and Texas each keep mould assessment and mould remediation in separate hands and prohibit the same party from doing both on one property. The reason is the obvious one: a company paid to find mould and then paid to remove it has an interest in finding it.
- 00Find out which state rule appliesLicensing is a state matter and the rules differ sharply from one border to the next.
- 01Ask which licence they holdAssessment and remediation are different licences where both exist.
- 02Ask if they assessed here beforeIn Florida that alone can bar them from the removal for twelve months.
- 03Get the scope in writingA scope written by an assessor can be taken to two remediators for comparison.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
What each of the three states requires
New York licenses assessors and remediation contractors separately and bars one person from doing both on a property. Florida prohibits an assessor from remediating anywhere they assessed in the previous twelve months. Texas licenses both roles and requires a licence from 25 contiguous square feet of affected area.
Each publishes its own register, and a check takes a couple of minutes before a visit rather than an argument after one.
Many states regulate mould work lightly or not at all. That is not a verdict on a contractor; it means the check has to be made another way.
What the separation buys you
A written scope you own. One party decides the extent, another prices it, and because the extent is on paper you can put it in front of a second firm and get two prices for the same job rather than two descriptions of different ones.
It also gives you an independent check at the end, because the assessor can verify the finished work against the scope they wrote.
What it means when one company offers both
In those three states it means they are describing work they may not lawfully do that way, which is useful to know before paying anyone. Elsewhere it is permitted, and the question becomes whether you want the same company deciding the size of the job and quoting for it.
A workable middle path in an unregulated state: buy the assessment from someone who does no removal, then take that scope to two remediators.
Who you call first
The order depends on what you already know.
- 01You can see it and know the sourceYou may not need an assessor. Go to a remediator and ask them to justify anything larger than what you can see.
Ask them: which licence do you hold, and what is the number? - 02You cannot find the sourceAssessment first. Paying someone to look before paying someone to cut is the cheaper order.
- 03You are in a regulated stateCheck both licences on the state register before either visit, and expect two separate companies.
- 04You rentNeither call is yours. Report the damp in writing and let the owner commission the work.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
Where these figures come from
Published by someone other than us. Each link goes to their own words rather than to our summary of them.