Mold (Jacksonville: insurance, attorney, house)

[floridaroofer]

I own a roofing company in Jacksonville Florida. 2 years ago we roofed a house for a very nice older lady. we got caught in the rain, we covered the roof with tarps. it leaked in two spots for 10 min. we went in and dried it up. the home had been abandonded for a few years and was an old home. The lady had just started fixing it up. she had just painted the inside walls with gloss paint and was re tileing the bathroom. a few days after we were done with the roof and the painters were done with the painting and the tile guy was done tileing the bathroom, Mold started growing in every room in the house. She immediately blamed us as we had the one time roof leak. We told her it was not a one time roof leak that caused her mold issues, that she already had the mold. however, she is a very nice lady so we went over and cleaned her whole house with mold cleaner and even cleaned the mold off the sidewalk for her. She then had serv pro come out and test the house. they told her she needed to strip the floors, have them clean the walls, ceiling etc. I got with a builder who is a mold expert and asked him what he thought of it. He told me that a one time roof leak would not cause the issues she has. the house setting up for years had already been filled with mold and the new paint especailly gloss paint was what caused the mold to grow. she hired an attorney, I wrote this attorney a letter and told him dont waste her money and he backed out. now she has another attorney and i cant decide wether to turn it over to insurance and let them deal with it. (1k deductible and it will show as a hit on my inurance forever) or fight a battle that i cant lose, but it isnt worth the time to fight.. ugh any suggestions??

[mawipafl]

This may not be the right/correct advice, but I think if I was in your shoes I would do the same thing with the second attorney as you did with the first. I'd be looking at the big picture, that I'd rather not get my insurance company involved and have that hit on the record forever (and perhaps incur a rate hike), but would instead take the time now to fight the fight (which, in reality, is a short time when you do look at the big picture).