‘You pay for what you don’t fix': Landlord refuses to fix mold infestation for college student, leading to $50,000 in fines due to discounting code enforcement citations

Eleonora Bader

Jul 25, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

Your landlord either constantly pesters you, or you see them once a year when they come to collect the checks; there is no in-between.

This landlord in particular was renting out a room to OP (who was in college at the time) among a few others, which happened to be in a wooden house. I'm purposely describing the material of said house, as it becomes an important factor later in the story. Now, when OP initially toured the house, she didn't find anything out of the ordinary. After OP moved in though, she quickly became aware that there seemed to be a problem. OP's allergies were acting up, and her cat was acting weird.

First, OP took her cat to the vet, who told her that the cat had ingested a large amount of mold, which OP found bizarre. So, OP did a bit of investigating when she got home, and sure enough, she found out that there was an underlying issue with this house… and this issue was hiding behind the wood. There was an overgrowth of mold, and it wasn't pretty. OP immediately contacted her landlord, who laughed it off and didn't take her seriously.

OP then contacted the municipality after he continued to do nothing about it, and petty revenge soon ensued. For more, here is a landlord who paid thousands in electricity after his tenant got even with him.