Moldy Mold II.
April 27, 2012 § 2 Comments
Almost two weeks had past since our initial Moldy Mold discovery. Trever had taken three mil plastic and blue painter tape and covered the majority of the wall behind the couch. On Monday, we called our property managers cell phone, emailed, and called the main office line to notify them of the mold in the living room.
After receiving no response, I tried again on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Our request, we felt, was simple: send a mold investigator out to test the mold. We figured we would move out because we didn’t want our children breathing in the mold. At the very least, we desired the property management company to test for levels of toxicity. That would determine how much we would keep depending on the quality of air.
Wednesday afternoon rolled around and my property manager rang me. In a five minute conversation I was told to clean the mold with bleach at least six times. Her way of fixing the issue was to clean it off but the maintenance guy was on vacay, so I would have to wait until Friday to find out “which testing company they used” when said guy came back.
“He’s out of reach completely. I can’t email him or call him. His cellphone doesn’t work where he’s at, so you’ll have to wait. Just clean it with bleach.”
“I already told you, I don’t want to clean it with bleach.”
Monday rolled around and I called her. Tuesday. She left a message around one saying she was in the area. I was out and about. She was “disappointed” that she couldn’t see the unit, stated in an email later that day.
Wednesday morning, she called again to say she’d gotten ahold of the maintenance guy. Apparently bleach isn’t the best thing to take off mold. Honestly I wasn’t listening when she told me what was.
“I don’t think you’re hearing my concern. It’s much more than just cleaning. I want someone to test it so I know what to throw away,” I calmly responded.
“Just clean it off!!! That unit has always had mold issues!!!” she replied with much verbosity.
“Let me hand over the phone to Trever. He can explain it better.”
And that he did.
To Be Continued…
You are on part two.
Read part one.
Read part three.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mold issues…my family was living in mold for a very long time and didn’t know it because it was in the walls. You need to go online and look up fair housing laws and what your rights are as a tenant. I suggest you do all communicating in writing and document all of your calls so far. Serve them with a notice regarding the mold and tell them that it is there responsibility to pay for your relocation whether it’s to a motel or another unit. You should also charge them for cleaning all of your furniture and clothing…especially since they rented you a unit knowing that there is a mold problem. Mold has very serious side effects…i can attest to that.
Oooh, you were?! That’s so scary. Now I’m super paranoid about old buildings even though I love them to bits. Not that it has to be an old building, it just is more often than not. Those are great tips. We still haven’t been able to get ahold of a lawyer just to figure out what we can do. We are keeping track of what we spend, but your advice is very helpful! I’ll call you soon! Xx