Homeowners need mold answers now
By JOHN R. COBARRUVIAS
(Printed in the Houston Chronicle May 4 2002)
It doesn't take a government-funded study to prove that dropping a bowling
ball on your foot will hurt. And, given the amount of testimony heard during
the Texas Department of Insurance mold hearings, it is perfectly clear:
Mold contamination is a serious financial and health issue that must be
immediately addressed by this state.
Ask George W. Bush or Texas Attorney General John Cornyn. Both the Governor's
Mansion and the Texas attorney general's field office were determined to
be contaminated and remediated for mold. Either Texas mold is intelligent
enough to attack only elected officials, or we have a very serious health
issue.
Common sense dictates the latter. The recent decision by state Insurance
Commissioner Jose Montemayor concerning mold coverage has provided quite
generous protection for the insurance industry. And his much anticipated
Mold Task Force was well stacked in the favor of the insurance and homebuilding
industry -- leaving out those most affected by mold contamination, Texas
homeowners. As one would expect, the recommendations by the task force
were little more than instructions on good housekeeping and how to handle
a water claim.
What homebuilders, Realtors and tort reformers could have possibly added
to this recommendation is unknown, but it is again clear that the insurance
industry has been granted further, unnecessary protection.
While protection has been generously granted to the industry, the hard
questions which are most important to consumers have been left unanswered.
In the short-sighted quest for lower insurance rates, mold coverage has
been dropped from homeowner policies. And yet we still do not know what
causes mold to become toxic, how to quickly detect it, how to prevent it
and how to cost effectively kill it.
Throughout the hearings, these questions were asked of the industry
with absolutely no response. So, without insurance to cover this peril,
and no known risk mitigation plan, Texas homeowners are left playing Russian
roulette with their life savings and home investment. Adding insult to
injury, our homeowners' rates have skyrocketed even without mold coverage.
It is difficult to understand how months of hearings and a special Mold
Task Force has resulted in absolutely no benefit to the Texas homeowner.
The task force addressed only one of many causes of mold contamination
-- a sudden water leak -- and failed to address slow water leaks, building
products prone to mold growth and construction defects. These causes will
not simply vanish by issuing a consumer's guide or further protecting the
industry.
Many homeowners may not realize it, but the additional mold coverage
that can be purchased does not cover these causes of mold contamination.
Thus, homeowners have been left with little if any protection against toxic
mold contamination.
The insurance and homebuilding industries do not deserve any further
protection from the state. Before any more protection is granted, the hard
questions, which have been ignored concerning the cause, detection and
prevention of toxic mold contamination, must be addressed. And this time,
they must be answered.
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Cobarruvias is president of the Houston chapter of HomeOwners for Better
Building, a volunteer organization dedicated to assisting homeowners
with
constructiond defects. The group's Web site is www.hobb.org.
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