Which Texas Mold Licenses a Commercial Property Job Needs

Which licenses does a commercial mold job need?

A commercial mold job needs a Mold Assessment Consultant for the assessment and a Mold Remediation Contractor for the removal, each licensed by TDLR. The company that performs either part also holds a company license.

The licenses are the same for a commercial property as for a house. An office, a shop or a storeroom is not a different category under the Texas rules, and the individual and company checks apply in the same way.

The table below sets out how the separation applies to common kinds of building. It is a guide to the rule, and the licenses themselves are checked with TDLR for each job.

How does the school district exception work?

On a school district project, one party may do both the assessment and the remediation. The exception does not apply to other commercial buildings, even if they are used by children or by the public.

A school district must confirm that its project qualifies before relying on the exception. The qualification is about the project and the district, not about the type of building alone, so the question should be settled in writing before the work is agreed.

The exception does not remove the licensing requirements. The party doing the work must still hold the license for each part it performs, and the company must still carry the insurance TDLR requires.

What does a commercial owner need to check?

Check the assessor's and the remediator's license numbers with TDLR, confirm the two are different companies on the project, and ask for the company's liability insurance certificate. Ask for the written assessment before any removal is priced.

Ask each party to name the person who will carry out the work and the license that person holds. A company that sends a different person to the site from the one you checked should be asked to confirm that person's license before work begins.

The commercial owner should also check the lease and any building rules, because they may set who must be told about the work and how the space is to be cleared. Those are matters between the owner, the tenants and the building, and this guide does not set them.

How should a property manager keep the records?

Keep the assessment, the scope, the license checks, the insurance certificates, the remediation records and any post-removal check in the property file. Each record should show the party that prepared it and the license it was prepared under.

A property manager with several buildings should set the same list of checks for each job, so the records are consistent. A standard checklist also makes it easier to show a tenant, a lender or an insurer what was done.

The records should be kept where the owner can find them and should be copied to a second place. A file that exists only on one person's computer is not a reliable record of the work.

What about water work in a commercial building?

Water work in a commercial building, such as extraction and drying, is a separate question from the mold licensing. The firm should say which license, if any, it holds for that work, and the mold rules apply only once mold is found or suspected.

A drying crew in a shop or office will stop work where growth is seen and refer the question to licensed parties. It should not carry out the mold assessment itself on the same project, and the owner should expect that stop to be recorded.

Commercial water work often runs alongside tenant needs, so the owner should agree a plan with the crew about which areas stay open and which must close. The plan should be written and shared with the tenants where the lease requires it.

What affects the cost of commercial mold work?

The size of the affected area, the number of rooms or zones, the containment needed to keep the building working, the removal, and the post-removal check. Each licensed party sets its own written price, and this site publishes no figure.

Work that has to be done around occupied rooms costs more to plan, because the containment and the timing take more effort. The owner can ask for a plan that keeps disruption low, and each licensed party should explain how it will do that.

Ask each party for its written price separately, so the assessment and the removal can be compared on their own scope rather than as one lump sum.

What should a tenant be told?

A tenant should be told which areas are affected, which are closed, when they will reopen and who to contact. The owner or manager should give that notice in writing where the lease or the building rules require it.

Tenants are often most worried about health and about whether they can keep trading. A clear written notice with dates, the areas affected and a named contact answers most of their questions before they are asked.

The notice should not make claims about the mold that the assessment has not confirmed. Describe what is being done, and let the written assessment speak for what was found.

How does this work in a shared or multi-tenant building?

In a shared building, the owner, the tenants and the licensed parties all need to know which areas are affected and which are closed. The mold rules apply to the project in the same way, and the separation of assessment and removal holds whoever occupies the space.

A multi-tenant building often has shared walls, shared ceilings and shared service runs, so water and mold can move between units. The assessor needs to look at the shared spaces as well as the unit where the problem was first seen, and the scope should say which spaces it covers.

The owner should decide, with the licensed parties, how the affected areas will be cleared and how tenants will be told. A written notice that names the areas, the dates and the contact person is the simplest way to keep the work and the occupants aligned.

Who should be on the written scope for a shared building?

The written scope should be agreed by the owner or manager, and it should name the spaces covered. Tenants are not parties to the licensed work, but they are entitled to be told what is happening in the spaces they use.

The owner or manager is usually the person who engages the assessor and the remediator, and who receives the written documents. The scope should be given to the owner in writing, and the owner should keep it with the property file.

Whether a tenant needs to see the assessment is a matter for the lease and for the owner to decide. The owner should avoid sharing conclusions the assessor has not confirmed, and should describe the work plainly.

Keep a single contact at the owner's side for every licensed party, so that questions about access, schedule and tenant notices come back to one person and are answered in writing.

Where a commercial building is owned by one party and leased to another, agree in writing at the start who engages and pays the licensed parties and who receives their documents. That agreement is the record both sides will look back at if a question arises about who ordered which part of the work.