Need Help!! Landlord mold issue

I owned a small boutique in Greensboro, Ga. We moved into a beautifully restored historical building in October 2006. Almost immediately after moving in we noticed some discoloration on the brick wall in an area that was approximately 2 sq. feet. We contacted the landlord via email immediately and for a few months nothing was really done until the wall started crumbling. Then the landlord had a painter come in to revarnish the affected area. A few months passed and the area grew, the discoloration became more visible spores of white fuzz and more of the wall crumbled onto the floor everyday. Finally the landlord acknowledged that it was mold by bringing me a print out of a chemical which he had purchased on the internet which was used to treat "dangerous mold". He intended to have a local handyman do this repair who had no previous mold experience. The area was treated but the problem had spread to various other parts of the wall and the chemical did not seem to work. I decided at that point that I was not willing to stay there any longer and asked if the lease could be terminated and if I could have one month to move all of my merchandise and find a new location. The landlord insisted that I move within two weeks, which was by December 31st 2007. I did not pay him for my final two weeks in the location and now he is suing me for the balance of those two weeks. What should I do?

Pay the man for the 2 weeks that you were there. You owe him for the time you used his unit. You are a commercial tenant and are not covered under the residential LL-Tenant laws. Your only rights are what was written in your lease. You have no other rights unless your state has commerical rental laws. (And few states do.)

The fact that the LL allowed you to terminate your lease without written lab results to prove mold (and no proof of any dangerous strain of mold) are advantageous to you. (Mold is not identifiable by sight. You must have lab result tests to prove mold in any court.) He allowed you to terminate early and have no further obligation. Pay him and get a letter stating you have no further obligation. That is a better result than you would get anywhere. Be glad he is not suing you for more than just those 2 weeks.

Again, tenants: Make all repair requests by written, old-fashioned, snail mail, deliver it by some method that proves delivery, and keep a copy. E-mails and phone calls are not proof that you reported problems. They are not admissable in court. Without proof of asking for repairs, the LL can claim he knew nothing of the problem and that he had no chance to repair. Thus eliminating your right to use any legal remedies available to you. WRITE the problems down!