Black Mold

Misha C asked:


I have black mold in my dishwasher and in air vents, I have complained several times and they won’t fix anything or clean anything. I won’t pay rent, and no one notified me of a court date and they are trying to evict me. My 8 month old daughter has never been sick a day in her life until we moved her now she has trouble breathing and has constant congestion as well as my fiancee and I. Who do I report them to? I’m moving out regardless of my lease I just don’t want an eviction on my credit bc of a nasty apt complex. And also just so you know, dishwasher doesn’t work and won’t drain the water that’s been sitting there since i moved in in July and my rent is 1100 and that includes nothing for a 2/1 with NO amenities. Come on now need I say more? I live in Ft. Lauderdale, FL by the way.

Black Mold

SweetAdeline asked:


I live by myself in an apartment w/ negligent landlords. Noticed a few weeks ago black mold growing on ceiling of my bathroom. It seems that upstairs tenant may have had problems w/ his toilet because the spot w/ the mold is slightly warped from wetness, and located where his toilet would be. I have called landlords twice, left messages on their machine, four days apart. They haven’t gotten back to me. I plan on sending a certified letter to them so I have proof they received it.
With 4months of my lease remaining, I worry that they will not let me out of it & I will have to pay the remaining months. Do they have to let me out of the agreement by law because it is unsafe? I have no options, no place to go when they eventually come to clean it. Should I require landlords put me up in a hotel?
What shall I do in the meantime? How much of a risk does this pose? Ive been getting headaches at night but am unsure if they are related. Should I remove all my belongings from the bathroom and keep the door closed?
How can I tell if it’s affected anything else in my apartment; if the spores can travel and spread. Do I need to get rid of anything in my apartment?

Some of the people ive spoke to dont think its a real threat, but it doesnt sit well with me.
It isnt something I can clean the surface of. It looks like the drywall needs to be cut out and replaced.
No window. I ALWAYS use the fan when showering.

Black Mold

katie m asked:


I’ve been sick for two months. Even my cat sneezes pretty regularly. I didn’t think much of it until I remembered the time our apartment flooded this spring. I found some black mold in a closet under the stairs, asked that they investigate further and demanded that they replace the drywall. That was 6 months ago. Today, I decided to investigate on my own.

When I went to the store to buy a face mask (to protect myself from FURTHER contamination) I spoke with the cashier. The previous tenants in my exact unit were her son and daughter in law. They had a mold problem, and she told me exactly where it was.

Can I use this info to terminate the lease immediately? Is there any further legal action I can take against the apartment complex for knowingly renting an apartment out that was toxic?

Black Mold

katie m asked:


I’ve been sick for two months. Even my cat sneezes pretty regularly. I didn’t think much of it until I remembered the time our apartment flooded this spring. I found some black mold in a closet under the stairs, asked that they investigate further and demanded that they replace the drywall. That was 6 months ago. Today, I decided to investigate on my own.

When I went to the store to buy a face mask (to protect myself from FURTHER contamination) I spoke with the cashier. The previous tenants in my exact unit were her son and daughter in law. They had a mold problem, and she told me exactly where it was.

Can I use this info to terminate the lease immediately? Is there any further legal action I can take against the apartment complex for knowingly renting an apartment out that was toxic?

Black Mold

jambalayasoup asked:


I live in Washington state. I recently discovered that a pipe had been leaking into the wall behind the clothes in our closet and had the entire closet covered in black, fuzzy (I am assuming toxic) mold. The carpet was soaked, as well. I didn’t notice it because it was behind our clothing, and we don’t really use that side of the closet. We have only lived in this apartment for 2 months now.

I let our apartments know and they came out 2 days later (not immediately like I asked) and they ripped the entire wall out with my son and myself standing there and “fixed” the leaky pipe. They said the wall and mold needed to air out for a week before they could treat it and put a new wall back in. Meanwhile… we sit with our entire apartment reaking of mold. I am 30 weeks pregnant and we have a 2 1/2 year old already… and I was getting headaches and finally just shut the bedroom door and we haven’t entered it since they came out. I called and asked them to at least put some plastic over the closet so it wouldn’t contaminate the house and they said they couldn’t do that because it had to air out.

Then maintenance supposedly came out and “treated” the mold and said it had to dry for 4-5 more days before they would start repairing the wall. Meanwhile… still stinking the house up, still can’t enter our bedroom… they still refuse to cover the closet up. They didn’t actually clean up any of the mold, they just sprayed some “treatment” on it. I don’t know of any treatment that requires you to just spray it on and leave it for a few more days??

Everything in our bedroom is now damp and musty and probably ruined. I am very, very angry about this and I think that since they were so moronic in how they treated it they should have to pay to have our house cleaned properly, and either treat or replace all of our clothes and belongings that are covered in spores now!

My questions:
1) Who can I go to for help in making them clean our belongings that they contaminated?
2) What should I do about all of our belongings? I have all of our brand new baby clothes, the crib, etc and all of our clothes and our bed and everything in there and I don’t want to have to throw it all away!
3) What is the proper treatment for mold? I don’t think leaving it to “air out” for a week while we just have to sit and breathe it is responsible. Nor do I think spraying a treatment on and just leaving it is the correct method either.
4) I am concerned about our exposure and the headaches, etc. that I was getting. What can I do about this?

I need some help. I’m really tired of our apartments scamming us and lying to us like they have, not just about this but tons of other things.

please help!

Black Mold