Can I break lease/get paid for black mold in my apartment?

Originally Posted by Unregistered I am 19 with two room mates my age and we have mold in our apartment. Of course we aren't sure what type of mold but we are sure of that fact that it is making us sick. They didn't seem affected as quickly as me. We signed a year long lease and noticed the funky stuff a few weeks in and immediately notified the office and maintenance. They ignored us. Finally, a few months later my room mate hunted down a maintenance man and asked him if he could come do something about it. He came in, looked around, checked under the sink(where there was nothing), told us it was only mildew, cleaned the area with bleach and ripped the padding out from under our carpet never to return and check on things. A few months later after being ignored by maintenance for quite some time again, we noticed that it had spread to under the sink where he had checked before and it was bad!! So they cleaned it with bleach. There are no visible signs if mold at the moment but it's safe to assume it will be back since it has already returned once. I refuse to believe that they are handling the cleaning properly because I am staying sick but our lease is almost up. I am low on funds but is there anything else I can do? Since the lease is almost up I do not care about the apartment, I'm worried about my health. Since we lived here I've had a permanent cold with permanent phlegm, I've lost about 20lbs, I have trouble breathing, random vomiting and diarrhea pretty much every single day. This has been going on for months!

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I Live in Indiana and I went to Menards and bought aMold Test Kit because ever since I moved in this Apartment 4 Months ago I havent been feeling good, Im always Tired and Fatigued and my Sinuses have been bothering me which I have never had a Problem with, Im always Sneezing when I go into my Apartment, so I did the Mold Test which in less then 48 hours Mold Stated Growing in it, I sent it of to the company Lab for testing and went to my Doctor and had Blood Tests done, and I had Histoplasmosis in 1996 and My Doctor said that I was more apt to getting Mold growing in my Lungs since Ive had that, The Apartment complex Denies that they have never had a Mold Issue in any of thier Apartments but I was told by one of thier old Cleaning Ladies that they had one Unit a few Months ago where a Lady got really sick and they had to go in the Apartment and wear resporators and one of the Maintanance guys got Rashes on his arm from it, Do I have to live in this inviroment or can I get out of my Lease because of this.

Originally Posted by Unregistered I am 19 with two room mates my age and we have mold in our apartment. Of course we aren't sure what type of mold but we are sure of that fact that it is making us sick. They didn't seem affected as quickly as me. We signed a year long lease and noticed the funky stuff a few weeks in and immediately notified the office and maintenance. They ignored us. Finally, a few months later my room mate hunted down a maintenance man and asked him if he could come do something about it. He came in, looked around, checked under the sink(where there was nothing), told us it was only mildew, cleaned the area with bleach and ripped the padding out from under our carpet never to return and check on things. A few months later after being ignored by maintenance for quite some time again, we noticed that it had spread to under the sink where he had checked before and it was bad!! So they cleaned it with bleach. There are no visible signs if mold at the moment but it's safe to assume it will be back since it has already returned once. I refuse to believe that they are handling the cleaning properly because I am staying sick but our lease is almost up. I am low on funds but is there anything else I can do? Since the lease is almost up I do not care about the apartment, I'm worried about my health. Since we lived here I've had a permanent cold with permanent phlegm, I've lost about 20lbs, I have trouble breathing, random vomiting and diarrhea pretty much every single day. This has been going on for months!

Cleaning with bleach is NOT enough.. It is not the correct way to clean mold, all that is doing is bleaching the mold, pretty much hiding it.

[tonja]

I'm living in Lincoln Nebraska. I have lived here for 9 months now. First he want fix air conditioning ,we have boiler system in our apartment, and he controls the settings for our apartments for how cold it gets. The apt want get no colder than 75 . I told him i have copd and enfzma and need air to keep it in control . Now i have mold in my air conditioning unit, and he has been told verbally serverl times when he comes for mantnce. What can i do ?

[bicelaw]

You have mold that is black in color. The term "Black Mold' is a specific strain of mold. Not all molds that appear to be black in color are Black Mold. Many are other strains of mold. Be careful in using the term "Black Mold". Only 1% of all molds are Black Mold. The other 99% are other strains.

i live in indiana.. my fiance' and i moved in to this apartment in january and the ceiling in the bathroom has yellow spots and it is bowing. then part of the ceiling fell out. there was mold in there. i told the management about it and it took them a month to finally get back to us and they just put a drop ceiling over the hole and mold expecting it to be fixed now. so i called health inspector and he said yes there is mold so he went to management and told them to fix it. they tore out my ceiling. and now im pregnant and there is still mold up there. and my pipes under my kitchen sink ruptured about 2-3 weeks ago. it ruptured in 3 holes and 2 of the 3 holes were behind the wall and no telling how long it was leaking and since then my apartment reaks badly. and so ive had to move in with a friend because since about 2 months ago ive had headaches and they've gotten worse and management wont do anything about it.. what can i do?

[sandyclaus]

Originally Posted by Unregistered i live in indiana.. my fiance' and i moved in to this apartment in january and the ceiling in the bathroom has yellow spots and it is bowing. then part of the ceiling fell out. there was mold in there. i told the management about it and it took them a month to finally get back to us and they just put a drop ceiling over the hole and mold expecting it to be fixed now. so i called health inspector and he said yes there is mold so he went to management and told them to fix it. they tore out my ceiling. and now im pregnant and there is still mold up there. and my pipes under my kitchen sink ruptured about 2-3 weeks ago. it ruptured in 3 holes and 2 of the 3 holes were behind the wall and no telling how long it was leaking and since then my apartment reaks badly. and so ive had to move in with a friend because since about 2 months ago ive had headaches and they've gotten worse and management wont do anything about it.. what can i do?

Have the ruptured pipes been repaired yet?

If the mold is behind the walls, then they shouldn't be causing your issues at the present time. Those headaches could just be a side effect of the pregnancy or stress you are experiencing.

I rented a 4 bedroom home 5 months ago. From day one, I've had one plumbing problem after another and the 87 year old owner comes over and puts patches on the problems - he will not hire a plumber. I've had to hire a plumber a few times as well since I moved in. Anyway, last week plaster started falling off the wall next to the shower, huge pieces, and underneath there is black mold. I immediately called the owner and was told that they were going to come over and put duct tape over the mold, re-plaster and paint I explained that this could be a deadly health hazard and they needed to hire a professional contractor to test for mold. I have 3 children living here, one with type 1 diabetes and all three have been getting headaches, coughing and so forth. The explained to the owner that I understand their old and don't want to spend the money, but this is serious and putting us at risk. I was informed last night that they did not have the money to pay the $2,500 homeowners insurance deductible to repair it, so they'd let me out of my lease, fix it and rent it to someone else. Frankly, I think there was mold there prior to my leasing the house and they've covered it up before. I need my security deposit back immediately to rent another house, $3,000, and moving expenses paid for. This is honestly ridiculous and criminal if they are knowingly going to repair a possibly deadly mold problem with duct tape and rent it to someone else. Isn't it LAW that they have to hire a professional contractor to test it and fix it?

I have been complaining to my landlord for over a year now due to a leak in the kitchen which was just fixed in July there is now black mold growing it has been growing since September of 2011 I have called the real estate agent numerous times they have never sent someone to look at the ceiling it was just the roof, when they told me they were reparing the whole roof puttng on new roof and then going to fia ceiling in kitchen we decided to.sign another year lease after that only patched 20+ year roof now 3 more leaks which they are aware of I want out now oh and I was diagnosed with asthma last October 38 Years old

I am currently having similar issues with my apartment. We have lived here for 3 years and for 3 years everytime it rains, it floods the outside hallways and comes thru our front door. Everytime i tell them, it takes them days to fix the problem. (leaking or overfilled rain gutters) they clean them and it seems okay, they put a fan in the apartment and have the water extracted. The problem is that they are just now TRYING to fix it, there is visual damage to the walls where the water came thru. I suspect mold under the outside carpet, that has never been cleaned or water extracted, also i suspect mold in the walls by my front door, we are currently awaiting a lawyer phone call to see what we can do.I have 3 kids who have had alot of health issues lately and i just found out the could be from the mold, now i have to get them tested. Their symptoms range from, upper resp. infections, sore throats coughing, one of my 9 year olds has unexplained vomiting out of nowhere issues and the same child is battling ringworm on his scalp....all my chilgren an myself have gotten ring worm and we dont own any animals, i thought they may have gotten it from a child at school or from a dog or cat somewhere but i was told mold can cause it. Anyways Im fed up with it and i dont really have the money to move so i have to find another way to deal with this....goodluck and your not alone...