Mold in Apartment

[ayaple]

My husband and I have been living in our apartment for three months. Yesterday we pulled out our bed and discovered a wall full of mold. There is water damage as well. There is a lot of moisture in the apartment from the steam heat. The mold is black and green. My husband and I have been getting headaches regularly and sore thoats. The "inspector", the guy who doesn't really do the job but just looks at it, said that they were just going to scrape it and treat it because he said he just saw green mold and it was only a surface mold. I said no, there is black mold as well. He didn't say much after that. My husband and I want out of our lease because of other problems such as a leaky ceiling that hasn't been fixed in over a month and is probably growing mold as well. And the bathroom with dusgusting mold in the window sill. We have pictures of everything. My husband and I want out of the lease. We read a part of our lease that says if the condition is immediately hazardous to our health, they have to fix it within 72 hours upon submitting our request for fixing it. If they don't fix it in 72 hours, we can terminate our lease. My husband and I are extremely angry about our situation and wondered if there is anything else we can do, in case they "fix" all these things, to get out of the lease. Thank you.

Amanda

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

You certainly have the right to have the leak in the bedroom ceiling fixed (and it sounds as if the water has run down the wall and caused the mold on the walls).

However, you need to remember that there are many, many different strains of mold and only a few pose an actual health risk to humans, no matter what color the mold. Unless it is professionally tested, you have no knowledge if this is the "bad" kind and if your headaches and sore throat is linked in any way to the mold.

You'd likely have to go through the professional testing to show this is the actual strain of black mold that can cause health issues in humans. Unfortunately, the "mold card" has been overused by tenants wanting to terminate leases and this has made landlords and judges cautious of accepting this reason to terminate the lease.

Bathrooms are notorious for mold and mildew. That's because they tend to be moist, humid places that provide an excellent environment for this. Mix some bleach and water in a spray bottle and spray this on the window sill. It will kill this mildew.

Gail