Some of the issues faced in legal issues Building Forensics are not offering legal advice. This section provides information based on 30 years’ of experience.
People generally take legal action if they feel landlords or those responsible have not taken their legal obligations seriously and or their health has suffered from building related illness.
There may also be circumstances where contractors have supplied goods or services such as decontamination and water damage restoration or remediation which have not fulfilled their objectives or have actually made the issues worse.
Evidence to support claims may take various forms depending on the type of claim followed, and this might be civil or criminal prosecution.
There are now shortcut routes to justice through legislation such as Healthy Homes Act 2022.
Evidence of harm or loss can be as simple as photographic, and emails.
You may also offer courts contemporaneous notes of your written log itemising documentary evidence or direct oral contact recorded at the time or as soon as practically possible after the event.
The following pertinent issues should be considered when considering a legal challenge.
Did the landlord fail to repair or was it a poor maintenance issue? The reality here is the landlord has a duty to inspect and maintain the property and other than emergency notifications they should monitor the property to ensure it is safe and not a health risk.
Are you claiming section 21-8 issues? (Likely compensation less than £20,000) Clients who have mould issues should be aware that many solicitors offer no win no fee support.
Solicitors often win compensation based on:
Failure to repair properly. GPs medical evidence. Photographic evidence of damage. This historic and established route to compensation may result in settlements usually less than £20,000.
Here are two papers I wrote to assist you on possible routes to follow
Mould contamination and the law Download The Tenants law regarding mould Download
Are you pursuing the evidence-based route to compensation? Unfortunately, the compensation routes many take is based on failure to repair instead of failure to maintain.
Many rely on GPs medical evidence, which is usually restricted to asthma and respiratory symptoms, which unfortunately may ignore cancer, miscarriage, Parkinsons, Alzheimer’s, gut issues such as IBS, and unfortunately the list is almost endless but may be identified and confirmed with new medical technology.
Are you a homeowner or business? While landlords may be an easy target for compensation, thousands of homes are water damaged every year and homeowners may be surprised to learn most of the contractors used to remediate have no training or qualification in biohazard or mould and almost all ignore international standards of verified remediation. From experience of more than 35 years I have yet to see a meaningful clearance or drying certificate and usually I am involved because the water damage victims got sick within 2 years post event.
Using the right expert (likely compensation more than £300,000) There is some misconception that the medical fraternity don’t recognise mould and biotoxin illness (from water damage)
This may depend on which member of the medical profession you call. An orthopaedic surgeon, an eminent surgeon will no doubt give a very different view to a toxicologist.
Building Forensics can often provide your legal team with routes to evidence, identifying and or confirming both personal injury and material damage.
This information, subject to being positive can be supported with over 600 international peer reviewed papers and leading inflammatory response toxicologists.
Getting the right case and relevant compensation We have supported may clients with successful claims receiving over £300,000 compensation and some receiving undisclosed settlements. The success will depend on the legal team recognising the need for a professional Indoor Environmental Hygienist , such as Building Forensics and utilising their international assets. Many may shortcut and utilise well known companies who simply haven’t kept pace with technology and Data Minning.
Defending water damage and health claims. Building Forensics simply collect facts and as both Indoor Environmental Hygienists and experts in decontamination and remediation we can support defendants. Defence may revolve around specialist medical diagnosis and or collection and review of relevant facts. Oftentimes third parties may be at fault, and it may be imperative to drill down on events and circumstances and residues to identify actual causation or responsibility.
