tenant complaining about damaged window, claims mold, not paying rent

[Ryan F.]

Tenant started to paint apartment walls (I gave permission), peeled back some old paint around a window, and noticed the wood window frame was rotted. It appears to have been damaged by water some time ago, but the area is completely dry now and no leaking presently. I am doing everything I can to repair/replace the damaged wood as soon as possible, but he is claiming there is mold and refuses to pay anymore rent until it is fixed. If the window did leak years ago, and the problem was fixed on the outside but the interior wood frame was left, is there any possibility at all that there could be mold? I always thought that if there was no water, there is no mold. Even if there was mold on the frame at one point, if it has been completely dry for years, is there any chance it could be dangerous and/or show up positive on a mold test?

[Lynn Currie]

To have active mold you'd need moisture. Get a moisture meter and test the wood. If your wood is wet, you have an active leak, you need to get this fixed. If not (or after you get the leak fixed), replace ALL of the areas where there is any sign of any mold (this means wood, drywall, insulation, everything that possibly has any mold on it) and go test after the next few rains to verify that there is no active leak.

Here's is a long list of meters at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=searc...

This is my goto moisture meter. I bought a nice one with advanced features and check all my properties obsessively while in construction:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ZHZQF0/ref=sr_ph?ie=U...

I also have and like this one. The biggest downfall is that you have to poke holes in the material to use it. In your case you'd need to poke holes in a couple pieces of wood that you know are dry to determine the normal readings, then poke the holes in your rotted wood. The holes are pretty small and you could simply putty them to fill them in:

http://www.amazon.com/GE-Protimeter-BLD2000-Moistu...

There are cheaper versions with good reviews that also might work. I just don't have any experience with them.