Residential Lease Addenda - Mold Disclosure - South Dakota

Mold, Moisture, and Water-Intrusion Addendum

South Dakota Residential Lease

1. Document Header

Effective date: [__/__/____]

Landlord: [________________________________]

Tenant(s): [________________________________]

Premises: [________________________________]

Lease date: [__/__/____]

This Addendum supplements the residential lease identified above (the “Lease”). It records disclosed conditions and establishes practical procedures for reporting and responding to suspected mold, persistent moisture, and water intrusion. It is not a government form, environmental clearance, health diagnosis, or representation that the Premises is mold-free.

2. Controlling South Dakota Duties

S.D. Codified Laws § 43-32-8 requires a residential lessor to keep the premises and common areas in reasonable repair, fit for human habitation, and in good and safe working order during the lease term. The section excepts disrepair caused by the negligent, willful, or malicious conduct of the tenant or a person under the tenant's direction or control. The parties may not waive or modify the section's requirements.

S.D. Codified Laws § 43-32-9 addresses a tenant's remedies when, within a reasonable time after notice, the lessor neglects repairs the lessor ought to make to restore habitability and good and safe working order. Its rent-deposit path has additional written-notice, cost, account, evidence, and release conditions. This Addendum does not replace those conditions or turn “reasonable time” into a fixed mold deadline.

Nothing in this Addendum:

• waives or limits a duty imposed by § 43-32-8;
• decides whether an observed condition makes the Premises unfit for human habitation;
• establishes cause, fault, toxicity, or a health effect;
• authorizes rent withholding, repair-and-deduct, relocation, termination, damages, fees, or court relief without the facts and legal prerequisites for that remedy; or
• creates a statewide mold-disclosure form, entry-notice period, inspection deadline, remediation deadline, or automatic cure period.

3. Condition and Disclosure Record

3.1 Landlord's Current Actual Knowledge

Check one and describe all known conditions accurately:

☐ Landlord has no current actual knowledge of visible suspected mold, unresolved water intrusion, or persistent indoor dampness at the Premises, except as stated below.

☐ Landlord discloses the following current or prior condition, inspection, repair, drying, cleaning, or treatment:

[DATES, LOCATIONS, OBSERVATIONS, KNOWN OR SUSPECTED CAUSE, WORK PERFORMED, AND CURRENT STATUS]

This is an actual-knowledge statement, not a warranty about concealed conditions or a conclusion about the identity or health effect of any substance.

3.2 Tenant's Move-In Observations

Tenant may record visible staining, suspected growth, persistent condensation, odors, plumbing leaks, roof or window leaks, or damaged materials:

[OBSERVATIONS / NONE OBSERVED]

Photographs or condition report attached: ☐ Yes ☐ No

Signing this Addendum does not waive a later report or claim and does not establish the cause, identity, toxicity, or health effect of an observed substance.

3.3 Materials Delivered

☐ Inspection or laboratory report dated [__/__/____]

☐ Repair, drying, cleaning, or remediation record dated [__/__/____]

☐ Photographs dated [__/__/____]

☐ Consumer information identified here: [________________________________]

☐ No additional materials delivered

4. Reporting and Response

4.1 Tenant Report

Tenant shall notify Landlord in writing promptly after discovering suspected mold, persistent moisture, standing water, or water intrusion. The report should state:

• the location and date discovered;
• what Tenant observed and any available photographs;
• any known active leak or urgent safety concern; and
• a reasonable method and time for access.

Send an ordinary maintenance report to:

Contact: [________________________________]

Permitted delivery method(s) under the Lease: [________________________________]

The parties may select these voluntary coordination targets:

• acknowledgment target: [____ hours / days]; and
• inspection or response target: [____ hours / days], subject to urgency, access, and contractor availability.

These targets are contractual management goals, not South Dakota statutory mold deadlines. Missing a target does not by itself establish a statutory violation or create an automatic remedy.

4.2 Assessment and Work Record

After a report, Landlord shall address conditions within Landlord's responsibility under § 43-32-8 and the Lease. The person assessing the condition should document, as applicable:

• the reported and observed condition;
• the apparent moisture source and steps taken to stop it;
• drying, removal, cleaning, repair, or further assessment recommended;
• reasonable safety and access instructions; and
• the status and completion date of the work.

Assessor or contractor: [________________________________]

Assessment date: [__/__/____]

Findings: [________________________________]

Work plan and target date: [________________________________]

Completion record: [________________________________]

No party shall disturb a suspected hazardous material or undertake work beyond that person's training.

4.3 Access

The parties shall coordinate inspection and repair access under the Lease and current applicable law. This Addendum creates no fixed statewide entry-notice period, no standing consent to enter, and no emergency-entry rule.

5. Prevention and Responsibility

5.1 Ordinary Moisture-Control Practices

The parties select the following practical measures only if the Premises has the equipment or conditions needed to perform them safely:

☐ Use provided bathroom and kitchen exhaust equipment as designed.

☐ Promptly clean spills and report active leaks or repeated condensation.

☐ Keep vents and returns unobstructed.

☐ Follow written equipment or contractor instructions delivered with this Addendum.

☐ Other agreed measure: [________________________________]

These selections do not allocate legal responsibility or establish that a failure caused a condition.

5.2 Cause and Cost

No automatic presumption assigns cause or cost to either party. Any allocation must account for the evidence, § 43-32-8, the Lease, other controlling law, and whether disrepair was caused by negligent, willful, or malicious conduct of the tenant or a person under the tenant's direction or control.

This Addendum creates no indemnity, defense obligation, damages cap, fee shift, additional-rent classification, insurance warranty, or personal-property waiver.

5.3 Health Concerns

This Addendum does not diagnose illness or determine mold species, toxicity, or medical causation. A person with health concerns should consult an appropriate health professional. An urgent threat to life or safety should be addressed through appropriate emergency services.

6. Remedy and Lease Controls

6.1 No Automatic Default or Remedy

A report, stain, odor, missed voluntary target, or contractor recommendation does not by itself establish a lease default, statutory violation, right to possession, rent remedy, relocation duty, termination right, damages award, or equitable relief. Counsel must classify the condition, notice, governing lease terms, causation, remedy prerequisites, and forum before an operative notice or remedy is used.

6.2 Relationship to Lease and Law

This Addendum does not select a court, alter an arbitration agreement, waive a jury right, authorize injunctive relief, or supersede a nonwaivable duty. Any conflict is resolved in favor of controlling law and then the Lease unless this signed Addendum expressly and lawfully changes a Lease term.

Local housing, building, health, subsidized-housing, and program rules must be checked for the Premises. No local or program requirement has been incorporated unless identified here:

[________________________________]

6.3 Copies and Changes

Each party should receive a completed copy and all listed attachments. Any proposed change should be written, signed by the parties, and reviewed for consistency with § 43-32-8 and other controlling law before use.

7. Execution Block

Additional Tenant

Signature: ______________________________

Name: [________________________________]

Date: [__/__/____]

Official Sources and Verification Quotes

• S.D. Codified Laws § 43-32-8: “In every hiring of residential premises, whether in writing or parol, the lessor shall keep the premises and all common areas in reasonable repair and fit for human habitation and in good and safe working order during the term of the lease” subject to the section's tenant-caused-disrepair exception. The section also states that the parties “may not waive or modify the requirements imposed by this section.”
• S.D. Codified Laws § 43-32-9: “If within a reasonable time after notice to the lessor of conditions requiring repair” the lessor neglects repairs the lessor ought to make, the section provides the stated tenant remedies and a separate conditional rent-deposit process for repairs costing more than one month's rent.

Official current text fetched August 30, 2026:

• https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/Statute/43-32-8
• https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/Statute/43-32-9

END OF DOCUMENT