‘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

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    Font - Posted by u/condiments4u 2 days ago Cost Ignorant Landlord Over $50k
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    Font - This story is from a while back when I was in college, which was situated in a rather large city, so rent was not very cheap and landlords thought they could cut corners. Unlike many of the buildings in the area, the room I rented was within a wooden house. When I toured the house, nothing
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    Font - stood out as unusual - the room was small but cosy, there were rather large common rooms, and the roomates seemed nice (one of whom was the landlord's daughter). Another plus was that they were okay with me brniging my cat and not putting down an obnoxious deposit.
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    Font - Cut to two weeks later, I'm moved into the room and everything seems fine, except my allergies begin to act up. I figured this was just due to allergy season being in full swing, despite not usually having allergies act up. One month in and my allergies are worse, and I start to notice small things around
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    Font - the house that seem to just be MacGyvered - for example, sink piping is duct taped and the bathtub had a crack, which seemed to be glued(?) together. At 1.5 months, allergies are again worse and my cat beings acting really weird - they start running into things, acting confused, and having
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    Font - what looks like muscle twithing. I took her into the vet and was told that they believe she's ingested a large amount of mold. Dr. Google confirmed that this is a possibility given her symptoms and fully explains how I've been feeling. I end up asking my friend to watch
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    Font - my cat for a couple days while I look for the source of mold in the house. Remembering the weird performed in the bathroom, I removed the little piece of wood that covered the area between the bathtub and ground (it was elevated on some plastic feet) only jobs
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    Font - to find it covered in fuzzy black growth! I immediately replaced the wood (which had growth on the back side of it too) and checked under the sink. It looked like there was old water damage no the bottom of the cabinet, but no mold - that is, until I shone a light into a small hold cut out in the back of the
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    Font - cabinet. Again, the entire area that I could see in that whole was covered in black fuzz. I don't know if it was psychological, but I ended up getting watery eyes and sneezing a bunch while on the hunt for mold. I immediately showed my roomate who then called her dad about the mold. The dad essentially said it's
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    Font - nothing serious and he'll get to it when he has time. Well, 1 week later and he's done nothing about it. Wanting to bring my cat back, I called to ask him for an update, and he said that he consulted with a professional who said it didn't sound like mold and that I should just keep it covered. I was pid but this being my first rental I had
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    Font - no idea how to handle it; and for as nice as the landlords kid was, she really didn't try to help pursuade him. After some research, I found that in my area mold is a hazard that landlords are required to take care of. While this wasn't stated in my contract, it was a contractual
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    Font - obligation he had. I called the landlord with this information and told him that I'll be witholding my rent until he sends someone to look at the issue. He flat out laughed and said I can't do that, and that he wouldn't allow me to break my lease early. I was pi d, and too nervous to bring my cat back into
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    Font - the house. After reviewing some more local codes, I decided that instead of witholding rent I would report the issue to the municipality in hopes of them taking action. Within 72 hours, they sent an inspector out to not only check the areas I mentioned finding mold in, but also doing a fill inspection of
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    Font - the home. They spent at least 2 hours walking around the interior and exterior, looking under every applicance and into any accessible space. After the review was done, they told me that the mold damage was far more extensive that I thought.
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    Font - Essentially, the entire house had become infested due to moist conditions and poor ventilation. He said that this would require extensive work and that I would not be able to stay in my room during this time. But that's not all - the inspector also found over a dozen code and permit violations, each of
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    Font - which would have to be remedied or else a huge fine would be levied. The inspector sent a letter detailing his findings to the landlord, and I got an angry call with him screaming about how I shouldn't have gotten them involved and how he was actually planning on coming out that weekend. I was too timid to
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    Font - boast about this win, but I did state that, per the inspectors findings, I will be moving out, as I am leagally allowed to break the lease if conditions are unlivable; he said I'm not allowed to, and I told him to take me to court in that case. I moved all my stuff out that day with some help from friends and
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    Font - crashed with the friend watching my cat during this ordeal. I was able to get a room in a much nicer house rather quickly, and kept in contact with one of the other roomates from the previous home. Apparently, the landlord tried to rent out my room again and didn't take the inspectors letter seriously -
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    Font - even the part that stated that they have (I believe it was) 1 month to take care of all code/permit violations before they would be fined daily per violation, some amounting to over $1000 per day. Things got real for him after about 5 weeks, when he got multiple letters from the municipality
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    Font - detailing all of his fines, and how the rates will go up if he continues to ignore them. Last I heard, he scrambled to respond to correct all of the violations, but not before his fines amounted to $50k and he was forced to have all tenants move out. I noticed the house for sale a few months later.
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    Font - Edit TL:DR-Landlord wouldn't fix mold overgrowth. Code enforcement found mold and many other violations. Landlord ended up with at least $50k in fines after ignoring code enforcement citations.
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    Font - Forsaken-Yak-7581 edited 2 days ago 2 days ago. It's such a shame that there are so many bad landlords that do cp like this. They would rather affect their tenants health, than spend any money on fixing an issue like this. I salute your revenge. Well played. Glad you
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    Font - looked after your cats health. ✩ 1.4k Reply Share scooby946 2 days ago. edited 20 hr. ago And, their own daughter! ✩447 Reply Share
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    Font - rjhucks 2 days ago Am I the only one who noticed that this guy is ok with his daughter living in a black mold infestation? 4468 Reply Share
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    Font - Due_Smoke5730 2 days ago Great job!! You saved yourself, your cat, and all the roommates! I'm surprised that the landlord did not even care that his own daughter was living there. 170 Reply Share

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