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My wife and I discovered that the townhome we moved into last month has mold in all three bedrooms. The landlords told us there was a roof leak two weeks before we moved in, and they informed us of this the night before we moved in.
However, they said they would get it fixed and did have a roofer come out to fix the roof two weeks after we moved in.
However, we found out that there was more than one leak, and they did not tell us this. We started to inspect the place thoroughly out of suspicion, and found mold underneath the carpets.
We immediately notified the landlords, and the next day they came out to inspect.
They told us that we should break the lease and move, and that they would give us $250 toward our moving costs.
Ironically, they also said that they did not believe that there was mold present, but that they thought it would be best for everyone to just have us break the lease and move out.
We did not agree to this, simply because we had just moved three weeks prior and knew what an undertaking it would be to have to do it again.
The landlords got angry, and this started a back and forth between them and us.
All I kept asking for was to have the unit tested to verify that it was indeed mold, and they finally had that done last week.
We got the test results today, and there is indeed mold in all 3 bedrooms.
The test syas that we should not go in the downstairs bedroom at all, and we had a remediation company come out today to give an estimate of what needs to be done. That entails invasive searching in drywall of the walls to determine if there is anymore mold that is unseen, as well as replacing carpet tack strips, padding, and carpeting itself.
I informed the landlord today that we are withholding rent until the repairs are done, as we have in our opinion a habitability issue.
Are we in the right to do this?
The landlord has told us that if we do not pay rent they will start the eviction process.
This sounds like a legal issue that must be addressed with an attorney, unless someone here is an attorney and wants to offer professional advice. However, I do find it a bit disconcerting that just because the renter discovered something the owner did not know about, doesn't make the owner fraudulent in a cover-up. Based on your comments, it sounds like they are trying to address the issue. The problem here is, in fact, habitability and the house is inhabitable if, in fact, the mold is toxic. So, why are you staying and subjecting your health to a potential hazard? You know it's there. Your landlord knows it's there. You can't inhabit the rooms that must be worked on. I don't see the logic other than the financial and legal end. And really, it sounds like the landlord is not ignoring the issue, but is facing resistance from you to go forward on the repairs. But, you probably have your reasons.
Me, I would consult an attorney and find out what you can do legally to protect your right to the lease. It may be that the landlord would be required to pay for your offsite accommodations above and beyond the amount you are currently paying until the repairs are made. It may be that by you are creating a liability for yourself by putting your health at risk for the sake of the lease (if you owned the house yourself, would you still want to stay while they were working on the widespread infestation? My neighbors did not). Even if you owned the place, if some local agency deemed the home inhabitable, you would be forced to leave.
Lease or not, subjecting yourself to further health risk is foolish, for you and your family. But the best bet is to consult an attorney, immediately, find out your rights, and possibly discuss options with your landlord. Legal stuff can be managed since all that stuff is outlined in law. Your health, and subjecting yourself to further risk, is your responsibility now that you know the problem.
several people in this thread seem to be using the word "inhabitable" (which means suitable as a dwelling) when they mean UNinhabitable. i think you are going to confuse the OP.
several people in this thread seem to be using the word "inhabitable" (which means suitable as a dwelling) when they mean UNinhabitable. i think you are going to confuse the OP.
Doh. Even more of a reason not to listen to us knuckleheads and seek the advice of an attorney. Good catch katenik. I even thought I had written the 'un' in my text.
This is a complicated issue since both parties have responsibility and both parties could have come to a nice temporary resolution until the repairs were made. Unfortunately, this is not, apparently, the case and the only courses of action would be to leave the dwelling as asked with a few bucks in hand, or seek the advice of an attorney. Either way, it's gonna cost money. When it's all said and done, both parties will end up losing anyway. Guaranteed.
My wife and I discovered that the townhome we moved into last month has mold in all three bedrooms. The landlords told us there was a roof leak two weeks before we moved in, and they informed us of this the night before we moved in.
However, they said they would get it fixed and did have a roofer come out to fix the roof two weeks after we moved in.
However, we found out that there was more than one leak, and they did not tell us this. We started to inspect the place thoroughly out of suspicion, and found mold underneath the carpets.
We immediately notified the landlords, and the next day they came out to inspect.
They told us that we should break the lease and move, and that they would give us $250 towards our moving costs.
Ironically, they also said that they did not believe that there was mold present, but that they thought it would be best for everyone to just have us break the lease and move out.
We did not agree to this, simply because we had just moved three weeks prior and knew what an undertaking it would be to have to do it again.
The landlords got angry, and this started a back and forth between them and us.
All I kept asking for was to have the unit tested to verify that it was indeed mold, and they finally had that done last week.
We got the test results today, and there is indeed mold in all 3 bedrooms.
The test syas that we should not go in the downstairs bedroom at all, and we had a remediation company come out today to give an estimate of what needs to be done. That entails invasive searching in drywall of the walls to determine if there is anymore mold that is unseen, as well as replacing carpet tack strips, padding, and carpeting itself.
I informed the landlord today that we are withholding rent until the repairs are done, as we have in our opinion a habitability issue.
Are we in the right to do this?
The landlord has told us that if we do not pay rent they will start the eviction process.
Oh this could get ugly. There are less hostile ways to get what you want... withholding rent is the shortest path to an uncomfortable, hostile existence with your landlord. He wanted to break the lease so he can gut the house... he has to gut the house... drywall, carpet, anything that has mold on it. Your furniture will most likely have to be removed anyway and this is not a process that is quick... it's most likely not going to be done in a few days or a week for that matter. Now that you've withheld your rent, I don't think that him helping you is going to happen anymore. I don't believe townhomes are covered under rent control either so relocation assistance is out???? He may have grounds to evict you since you are, in fact, not paying your rent. If the mold company says you can live there but just not go in certain rooms then you may be able to withhold a portion of the rent but not all. So, the unhabitability argument may not fly in court. Ask for a rent reduction for your inconveniences at least but keep paying your rent... Good luck.
Last edited by mommabear2; 04-07-2008 at 09:56 AM..
Reason: spelling :-)
You cannot be evicted for withholding rent for an uninhabitable dwelling. Especially if you put your rent in an escrow account with the court and you have a complaint on file with the city as proof of uninhabitability. As for the health issues, if you go to a hotel, to stay until the landlord fixes the issue s/he will be responsible for the bill. But you do have to give the landlord reasonable access to fix the problem.
Again, thanks for all of the replies.
In my vast research I have done, this mold topic is such a gray area with the law and it really needs to get more attention because a lot of families have health problems due to mold and no one sems to take it seriously.
Just to clarify, when I initially told the landlords of the problem, at that time, we all got along very well.
Then when they suggested we leave instead of them fix it, things got strained. We had just moved 3 weeks prior: How many people would want to move again and start the whole process of looking for a new place, packing, changing utilities and bilss, etc.?
We asked them to just fix it as soon as they could.
Then they started yelling at me on the phone for an hour telling us that this was not their fault and that they don't think they should be responsible it.
That is what broke the camel's back so to speak.
Ever since then, it has been a fight every step of the way.
I ask them for updates on how things are going, and they tell me that they don't have to tell me anything, I just have to let them or a contractor in whenever they tell me and for any reason.
They served us with a 3 day notice to pay rent or quit last night.
We hadn't heard anything from them since last Tuesday when we let a contractor come in to give them an estimate for the repairs to be made.
I have the health inspector coming out today, so I will give everyone an update later tonight.
Again, thanks for all of the replies.
In my vast research I have done, this mold topic is such a gray area with the law and it really needs to get more attention because a lot of families have health problems due to mold and no one sems to take it seriously.
Just to clarify, when I initially told the landlords of the problem, at that time, we all got along very well.
The issue with mold is that NOT all mold is the toxic kind that causes health problems. Though, in my opinion, if mold is literally growing out of the woodwork in abundance, even if it's not the harmful kind, I really don't want to be around it. Arguably, the whole mold issue has been blown out of proportion and there are threads and information out there that supports that. I know of one particular mold remediator that says that the business is so good for him, it's not in his best interest to determine if mold is toxic or not. He'll just bill the same way either way. However, you can find at-home mold kits to send off to determine the mold you have here, or anywhere, is of the toxic kind. Again, arguably, all homes have some sort of mold issue at one time or another.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strawberry1
Then when they suggested we leave instead of them fix it, things got strained. We had just moved 3 weeks prior: How many people would want to move again and start the whole process of looking for a new place, packing, changing utilities and bilss, etc.?
We asked them to just fix it as soon as they could.
Then they started yelling at me on the phone for an hour telling us that this was not their fault and that they don't think they should be responsible it.
That is what broke the camel's back so to speak.
Ever since then, it has been a fight every step of the way.
I ask them for updates on how things are going, and they tell me that they don't have to tell me anything, I just have to let them or a contractor in whenever they tell me and for any reason.
Definitely a touchy subject, but no need for the landlord to be rude either. Considering how litigious America has become, people (both tenants and landlords) are overly defensive thinking they might get sued for something they weren't even aware of. Though I would like to guess that your landlord did not know the issue existed, the way it sounds like it was handled is less than desirable. Unfortunately. Too bad things could not have been worked out, but I do agree with the landlord that I would not want my tenants exposed to any further risks and would want them to vacate... at least until the problem was resolved. The idea that townhomes would fall under a different set of rules is sort of disconcerting... a rental is a rental imo. But ultimately, this is one of those situations that nobody really wanted to have happen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strawberry1
They served us with a 3 day notice to pay rent or quit last night.We hadn't heard anything from them since last Tuesday when we let a contractor come in to give them an estimate for the repairs to be made. I have the health inspector coming out today, so I will give everyone an update later tonight.
Again, the best bet here, since this is all about to escalate further, is to consult an attorney. At the very least, go to your local bookstore and library and find a current edition of CA renter's rights. I owned one and it helped clearly spell out everything for me when I was once a renter (a book like this also exists for landlords too). At least you'll feel a little better being informed and having such a resource is good to have in your library.
Thanks for the response caliboy.
We know that they did know about water damage becuae in the garage, there is a bookshelf that has a bunch of different paints on it that were used by the landlord to paint the interior (he does the work himself).
Ironically, there are 3 1 gallon cans of primer that says "for fire, water damage or water stained areas".
So he primered the areas where the water had leaked, then painted over it.
That is why there are stains that are now coming through the paint.
We have only been here for 6 weeks, and these stains started coming through after we had been here only 3 weeks.
We also informed the landlords when we submitted the rental application that we were moving from our house at the time due to sewage backups and roof leaks that the management company would not fix.
So why they knowingly rented to us with that being said is very deceitful in my eyes and really just put us in harm's way on purpose so they could make sure they didn't lose another month's rent with the unit vacant.
Since reading your first post I see that you guys have decided to stick it out. Are you paying the contractor any money to come out? You say its not economically feasible for you to move but you have a contractor coming out? Mold can cause serious health problems. I remember a pipe busting in my family's apartment when i was little and I always remember the SEVERE bronchitis that it caused me when I had never had that problem. Health comes first period. If they sent you a 3 day notice they mean it. While I admire your tenacity in withholding rent in gettng what you want I would encourage you to take this one as a "loss" and get the heck outta there. Mold is nothing to play with. I am not sure if you have any kids but mold can cause damage even to your animals you mentioned. I have two cats...they get upper respiratory infections just like the rest of us. I wish you guys the best. Take care.
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Even more of a reason not to listen to us knuckleheads and seek the advice of an attorney. Good catch katenik. I even thought I had written the 'un' in my text. 
