Mold and water damage help in Fordham, Bronx
A damp wall or a spreading stain in a Fordham building comes down to two questions: who owns the repair, and which licensed company the job needs. We connect you with the companies, and your first job is $100 off.
Which side of the city line
Inside New York City: the Bronx
Housing inspectors score a mold violation by the size of the patch, and every class carries its own deadline. The city also bars an owner, a managing agent and their staff from doing mold work over ten square feet in a building with ten or more apartments, so a state-licensed firm has to.
Past the line: Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Pelham, New Rochelle
Common questions
Who has to deal with mold in a rented Fordham apartment?
The owner, if the building has three or more apartments. The city's Local Law 55 makes the owner respond to tenant complaints and keep homes clear of mold. A tenant should tell the landlord first, and if nothing is repaired, or the work is done unsafely, a complaint can go to HPD.
Is Fordham a flood area?
Not at its center. FEMA returns minimal flood hazard there and only 3 insurance claims have been filed in ZIP code 10458. That points a mold problem toward leaks and cracks in the building itself.
Can one company assess and clean the same Fordham apartment?
No. Under state law the company that assesses a property cannot also clean it up, so a large job involves two separate licensed companies.
The four jobs in Fordham
Choose the job that matches what is in front of you. Each page below is written around Fordham buildings and ends at the same short form.
Local notes for Fordham
Fordham is a neighborhood of large, older rentals. The median building in ZIP code 10458 was put up in 1938, and 61.0 percent of the housing there was built in 1939 or before. Buildings holding ten or more apartments account for 80.3 percent of units. One and two family houses make up only 6.1 percent, so mold here can be a shared-building problem: a riser, a roof, a bathroom above.
With 95.8 percent of occupied units rented, the repair duty mostly lands on an owner. In a building of three or more apartments that owner answers to the city's mold rules: tenants are told to notify the landlord first, and Housing Preservation and Development issues the violation if the repair does not happen. Fordham is inside the city line, which Yonkers and Mount Vernon are not.
Flood water is a small part of the record here. Just 3 flood insurance claims have ever come out of 10458, and FEMA returns minimal hazard at the center of Fordham. Across the wider Fordham and Bronx Park reporting area, 23.0 percent of homes reported leaks in 2017, so the likelier source of the moisture behind a wall is the building itself.
- Median year built
- 1938
- Old buildings
- 61.0 percent of housing units built in 1939 or earlier (ZIP 10458)
- Renters
- 95.8 percent of occupied units are renter occupied (ZIP 10458)
- Larger buildings
- 80.3 percent of units are in buildings of ten or more apartments (ZIP 10458)
Source: American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-year estimates, US Census Bureau
Who handles it here
In Fordham 80.3 percent of units in ZIP code 10458 are in buildings of ten or more apartments, so the owner must keep apartments free of mold, the city's Housing Preservation and Development department issues the violation, and work over ten square feet must go to separately licensed assessors and remediators with a city filing. Source: American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-year estimates, US Census Bureau, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Local Law 61 of 2018, The City of New York
What makes buildings wet
Only 3 flood insurance claims have ever been filed in ZIP code 10458 and FEMA returns Zone X at the center of Fordham, while 23.0 percent of homes in the Fordham and Bronx Park reporting neighborhood reported leaks in 2017 and 23.6 percent reported cracks or holes. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP redacted claims, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Flood Hazard Layer, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environment and Health Data Portal, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene