Defending Landlords Against Habitability Counterclaims and Mold Injury Suits: Reading the Sampling Report and Capping Exposure

Alexander P. Johnson, Attorney | Alexander Patrick Johnson PLLC

Alexander P. Johnson is an eviction attorney in Fort Lauderdale whose firm, Alexander Patrick Johnson PLLC, serves Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties. His practice is limited to Florida real property and landlord-tenant law, including landlord-tenant disputes, real property litigation, deposit disputes, closings, title insurance, trust formation, and mortgage foreclosures. He is especially well suited to this program: 37 years of practice centered on evictions, 250 articles on landlord-tenant law, and courses taught on Florida residential evictions, bringing the day-to-day perspective of a practitioner whose work centers on landlord-tenant disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Johnson earned his Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois, in 1989. His practice is limited to Florida real property and landlord-tenant law.

• Recognition & Leadership

In 1995, the South East Chicago Commission gave Mr. Johnson its Special Services Award, presented each year to one public service attorney at the University of Chicago. He moderates the Florida Landlord Tenant Blog, a searchable digest of hundreds of Florida landlord-tenant court decisions.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Johnson is a member of the Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar and the Real Property Section of the Broward County Bar Association. He volunteers as a pro bono attorney for Broward Lawyers Care and for the Disaster Legal Services Program run through the ABA, FEMA, and The Florida Bar. For Lorman Education, he has taught Fundamentals of Florida Residential Evictions (2016), Evictions: Residential and Commercial in Florida (2013), and Landlord-Tenant Law (2007).

• Experience

Mr. Johnson began his career as Assistant Corporation Counsel in the City of Chicago’s Department of Law, working in Special Prosecutions, Zoning, Building and Housing, and Municipal Prosecutions. His firm was established in Fort Lauderdale in 1996, and he has written 250 articles on landlord-tenant law. He has spoken on Florida residential landlord-tenant law to the Fort Lauderdale Rotary Club and on changes to the Florida residential landlord-tenant statute to the Real Estate & Business Network.

Edwin N. Schwartz, Partner | Tressler LLP

Edwin N. Schwartz is the Managing Partner of Tressler LLP’s San Diego office, where he handles real estate, business, and employment matters across California. His practice centers on insurance defense, including landlord-tenant habitability claims, premises liability, commercial tenant claims, employment matters, personal injury, wrongful death, trade secrets theft, and general civil litigation. He is especially well suited to this program: insurance defense of landlord-tenant habitability claims, trial work in residential habitability cases, and training at the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College, bringing the perspective of an insurance defense trial lawyer.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Schwartz earned his J.D., cum laude, from California Western School of Law in 2013 and his B.S. from the University of Southern California in 1992. He was admitted to the California bar in 2013 and is admitted before the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Southern, and Northern Districts of California. In law school, he received American Jurisprudence awards in Business Planning, Workers’ Compensation, Negotiation, and Advanced Mediation, along with an Area of Concentration award, with honors, in Labor and Employment law.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Schwartz was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2018 to 2023. He received the Andrea L. Johnson Business Law Award and the Advanced Mediation Award, and he is a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Schwartz is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and an alumnus of the Louis Welsh Inn of Court. During law school, he externed for the Honorable Peter C. Lewis, a Federal Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of California.

• Experience

At trial, Mr. Schwartz successfully defended a $6 million federal trade secrets crossclaim, and he has both prosecuted and defended residential habitability cases, business contract disputes, and civil battery cases. Before law school, he worked for BMW, Lexus, and the Penske Automotive Group, earning national recognition in sales and sales management, and for several start-ups, two of which were later acquired by Symantec and Google.

SESSION 1 – Where a Tenant’s Mold Sampling Report Fails: Moisture Evidence, Spore Comparisons and the Defense Case Built Around Them | Edwin N. Schwartz | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session walks through a tenant’s residential mold sampling report from the defense chair and follows it through the life of a habitability case. Attorneys will learn how mold allegations are packaged with other habitability claims, how to document the moisture source and spot outdoor-control, genus-level and dust-test defects in the tenant’s report, how to use the report in discovery and expert strategy, and how to turn its defects into exclusion motions, cross-examination and damages limits at trial. Attendees will leave with an annotated tenant report, a defect checklist, and a model defense inspection and sampling protocol request.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Defending Landlords in Habitability Counterclaims: Notice Records, Eviction Strategy and Insurance Coverage | Alexander P. Johnson | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session takes a residential habitability counterclaim from intake to disposition from the owner’s and manager’s side. Attorneys will learn how to separate rent-leverage counterclaims from genuine injury claims, how to build the notice record from maintenance and vendor data under the new written-notice statutes, how to weigh abatement exposure against arrears and choose between severing, settling inside the eviction or facing a separate suit, and how to tender to insurers in light of fungi and pollution exclusions. Attendees will leave with a notice-timeline template, an abatement exposure worksheet, and a decision tree for severing, settling or tendering.