Renting and Mold (Portland: 2013, apartments, rentals)

[soyu]

My family and I currently live in a rented house. We have a two-year-old and two-month-old. We have been having mold issues every couple of weeks at the corners where we put our mattresses; we don't have bed frames. We cleaned up the mold but they just keep coming back. At this point, our mattresses have slightly molded. Should we dispose the mattresses? We can't afford new mattresses at this moment though. We also found mold on the master bedroom window frame and closet corner. We have a year lease ending in late September 2013. Should we bring this up to the property management company? Should we negotiate with them to move out? What are our options?

[Steve Pickering]

It is likely you can get out of your lease because of the mold. Do so and get as far from it with your kids as you can.

Tenant Rights, Laws and Protections: Oregon - HUD

Community Alliance of Tenants | Renters’ Rights Info

[AndyAMG]

As the resident jerk here and a landlord.

A few questions come to mind.


1. When you realized there was mold why didn't you pull the bed/mattress away from the wall and call your landlord immediately? And yes, get rid of your mattresses, they are damp if they are growing mold. Get new ones and keep them away from the walls and use simple rails to get the box spring/ mattress off the floor. In MY experience mold likes to hang out down low. If you cant afford new matresses then try to use a rag with some bleach (not a lot) on it to knock the mold of then use a hair drier in the affected area to get all the dampness out. then do it again. The key to preventing mold is get rid of moisture.

2. What is the heat set at in that one room? Does it have a bathroom affixed to it where a shower can make condensation? My son was taking hour long showers and keeping the heat off in his room causing our mold problems.

3. When you cleaned off the mold how did you do it? Bleach an then make sure it was dry by putting a heater near it? Or did you wipe it down and immediately put the mattress up against it?

4. It sounds to me like the landlord just needs to fix the window, you should have contacted them at the first sight of any mold. Do not just sit on problems until they get out of hand. Your landlord is just as interested in mold as you are. Remember, it's their asset and they don't want a small problem turning into a major nightmare. You say every couple of weeks which makes me think you have had this problem for months now.

5. As far as breaking lease. See what your landlord/management company does. I don't understand in this day in age why people bash their landlord and make public threats about their rental when they haven't even contacted the landlord/MC or given them any time to check the problem and make amends. It is not likely you can get out of the lease if the landlord has not had a chance to fix the issue.

6. Remember in 2013 if you go to another place all the fees and deposits you'll have to pay for a new place not to mention a new lease. If you like the place and the location, give the landlord a week or two to fix the problem.


from Oregon Tenant Law about breaking lease.

• The law requires the tenant to give written notice to the landlord. There are specific legal requirements for the notice. These include details in the notice of exactly what the landlord has done wrong (or failed to do) and the time that the landlord allows to fix the problem. (The time periods vary depending on whether the problem is an essential service as defined in the law.)

Do your best to mitigate your mold problems in the meantime. Clean up the mattresses and pull the mattresses away from walls. Keep the heat up. Limit shower time if your fan is ineffective. Don't boil things for hours on end. Don't use humidifiers. It's all about getting rid of moisture.

[soyu]

@AndyAMG

Thank you for your detailed reply and questions.

1. When I first found mold, it was on the window frame (plastic) in the master bedroom. There were condensation so mold seems reasonable and didn't think it was construction problems or any major issues. That was maybe three months ago. Then two months ago, after my daughter was born, I found mold in the corner of the master bedroom closet. It was just a little like six inches along the base molding. About two weeks after that, we found the entire corner of the base molding in the second bedroom covered in mold and even got on the mattress. We thought it was the humidifier that we were using aka our fault. So we cleaned up the mold and stopped using the humidifier. Two-three weeks later, we found mold again. We thought maybe we didn't clean it well enough. Cleaned it up again. Used cardboard boxes to separate the mattress and the wall. Two-three weeks later, we found a ton of mold in the mattress corner in the master bedroom. A big area of the bottom of the mattress were molded. Now we are really starting to wonder if it's the house and something we should talk to the PM company. We didn't bring it up immediately because we weren't sure if it was something we were doing or something with the house. We just didn't want trouble or have the PM co think we're bad tenants. This house is newly converted from a garage. We are the first tenants to live here. Therefore I think there were just a lot of kinks that never got worked out so we've had to talk to them more times than either of us want to already. It sounds like at this point we are due for another chat.

2. The thermostat in the two bedrooms are set to 65. Actual temp is unknown but it feels awfully uncomfortable when the heater is running and awfully cold after a while when it's not running. The living room/family room/kitchen (just one area) is set at 70F. The bathroom is located between the two bedrooms and there is a fan. The mold is forming at the opposite side of the bathroom. The mold is found along the base molding in the corner where we put the mattresses.

3. We wiped it with vinegar then aired it out for a few hours with the windows opened -- stinks awfully bad.

4. Sort of. Not really. (See answer #1)

5. I will contact the PM manager. I am not bashing my PM company though I would say they could use a couple more managers. We just don't want trouble. It would totally suck to kindly let them know and request for repair to have them say it's our fault and we ruined their property.

6. We're not really interested in moving. It's such a hassle and it's even more of a hassle with a newborn. Just we've been having too many little issues at this place every couple/few weeks. We have two young children so ultimately we are most worried about their health.

Thanks for the tips. I already find the air too dry. My two-year-old's skin has been dry and somewhat scaly. Mine is cracked and itching. If we could, we would've kept using our humidifier. How would this work if we have to keep this place dry dry dry?

[Twilighter]

I'm going to be a jerk, too.

You don't want your children sleeping in mold. Neither does the child welfare agency. A case could be made that knowingly exposing them to a health hazard is neglectful. If you truly cannot afford safe bedding for your children, contact a social servies agency for help. There's a place called Community Warehouse that works through service agencies that can match you up with household goods you need, including mattresses. Make sure to let them know you also need basic frames.

Also look up mattresses and mold online. People have found the inside of the mattress full of mold even when the outside looks ok.

[soyu]

@Twilighter

No you're not a jerk at all. I don't know these things or rather the severity of these things. The only mold I've ever had to deal with were occasionally the ones on expired food which I promptly disposed. I appreciate you informing me. I don't want my children harmed either. I will contact those places right away.

[hamellr]

Just FYI, I had to deal with mold in a previous apartment too. The landlords wouldn't fix it, they just kept spraying this "stuff" (wouldn't tell me what it was, suspect Lysol,) to "cover it up and keep it from spreading."

Couldn't break lease as they threatened to take me to court for it. So had to live with it for a while.

[soyu]

@hamellr That would suck terribly. Did you get sick?

Should I take my kids somewhere else while we figure this out with the PM co and social services? I don't want my kids to get sick. Am I just freaking out?

[AndyAMG]

This house is newly converted from a garage? as in the garage of a home? or like a maintenance garage. or like a old industrial building turned loft...... that is key info. It might not be up to code? I have had a lot of friends with older houses do garage conversions that were never up to code, but assumed they knew what they were doing. They ended up finding out the previous owner had done some stuff in the past himself that were not up to code, and ended up with damp ceilings in the monsoon season.

Get with your landlord see what they say/plan to do. Mold in multiple rooms IS bad. I dont know what this place is like but its sounding more and more like the company/landlord is not reputable and building never should have passed inspection.

If they don't want to fix it. Then you get a third party involved. Why? You can threaten lawsuits all you want but until they know an advocate with lawyers on retainer will step in on your behalf, they won't take it serious.

Also it sounds like the mattresses need to go anyway, especially if they are older than 5 years or are used, or second hand in anyway.

I'm of the thought that the fear of mold is a bit over reactionary. My wife was scared to death when it showed up in my sons room. But he never got sick. An infant and toddler are different, I guess. If you have family to stay with it could be good to have the kids stay there. But. I have been places where there are families with infants in appalling living conditions that would instantly disgust and frighten an American or European. Not saying you should lower your standards, what I'm saying is I have personally seen Children drink water with waste in it. I think a lot of people instantly see mold and freak out, then if they feel a little under the weather the instant scapegoat is the mold. Don't spend a bunch of money, if you don't have it. Mold is not that serious.

Here is what the CDC says about mold. I'd read it if you get a chance, it's what I used when mold appeared in my sons room, it solved the problem. CDC - Mold - General Information: Facts about Stachybotrys chartarum and Other Molds

My wife manages apartments. Some of the complexes bottom floors are below ground. When they get a mold call they cut the wall out seal and tyvek the backside and replace the sheet rock. It's a common occurrence.

The problem, your going to have here, is even a nice new place can get mold if you get it too moist moist in the house. Portland is just one of those places where mold and mildew can be a problem.

Sounds to me like your windows are old/ not properly sealed.

[soyu]

@AndyAMG

I really appreciate your detailed reply and tips.

This house was converted from a garage of a home. I think it was completed in the summer of 2012. We moved in in late-September 2012. On the surface, it looks very decent. My aunt is supposedly friends with owner of the PM co. so we figure they wouldn't rent us a bad place and if anything happens would be easy to work with. But the owner is not involved with the management of the rentals at all. They have one manager who manages supposedly hundreds of properties in the Portland Metro area. She's a nice lady but often not responsive because she's so slammed. We have notified her about the mold so hopefully we will hear back from her on Monday.

We've had our mattresses for less than a year. We bought them brand new. So sad.

I've also contacted Community Warehouse to see if they can give us two replacement mattresses. So right now I'm just hoping they will get back to me on Monday too. Never wished Monday could come sooner...