MOLD and owner negligence

[Daniel Keating]

Hello Folks,
I look after property for a friend of mine who's absentee. I am not a professional property manager in the strict sense that I do not have limited power of attorney--I do not collect the rents and disperse funds and I have no maintenance fund at my disposal. Over a year ago a tenant wanted a ceiling fan in her livingroom. We discovered that the sheet-rock/ceiling board was "cheesy" in that it was crumbly and felt like it was a tad moist/had been wet at some time previously (not soaking wet/active leak). We were unable to attach a fan as any wobble of it moving was causing the wallboard to open up more.
I stopped at that point and notified him that this was not a "spackle job" and that we should defer to tradesmen.
I warned him that we don't know what's up behind there.
The guys put in a bid of $800 to take the affected area of the ceiling down and build back/plaster/paint. We have the bid in writing.
My friend weasled out that he didn't have the money to do it and was brushing it off as a cosmetic repair. I have emails where I have asked periodically that he try to find the money to fix it.
Fast forward to modern times and I discovered on the roof that one of the evap cooler feed lines has a slow seepage from some compression fitting dribbling on the roof. He ok'd the fix. That saturday I had a guy out to asses parts needed etc. The next night at 10pm the tenant calls & we have a sudden leak of water from the evaporative cooler float that stuck and this same tenant has water coming out the ducting.
They open up the ceiling and we have black mold--rotting plywood behind roofing material and behind the affected ceiling fan area.
He's trying to play the "I didn't know" game and had to remind him that he has a bid, in writing, for a repair of near $1000 bucks so "something" had to be going on to be a repair of that gravity over a year ago.
This guy is a lawsuit looking to happen and I don't see the insurance covering any of it....