Need advice about mold/mildew in friend's house (long story).

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

I have a friend who bought a house ap 2 1/2 years ago, from the heir of the estate. When the inspection was done, it was stated that there was a drainage problem under the house and no vapor barrier. My friend made her offer contingent on the drainage problem being corrected and a vapor barrier being installed, and had it written into the contract.

My understanding is that someone who was acting as POA for the heir signed a form to the effect that the work had been completed, and presented it to the realtor, who provided a copy to my friend's loan officer. The sale went through, and my friend moved in and started working on the house.

We've had a very wet and humid summer, and my friend's house had a mold/mildew bloom. She had it inspected by a different person who said that it is a common mold that's present in every house, but it needs warm temps and high humidity to grow. **The inspector also told her that there was no vapor barrier in the crawl space.** Which made sense, because the mold was thickest at floor level, and on items stored within a few feet of the floor. My friend contacted the realtor, who told her that she had a copy of the repairman's bill for correction of the drainage problem, but there was no mention of a vapor barrier, and my friend could probably sue the heir's POA, for stating that it had been done, but the person didn't appear to have any assets, and in the meantime, the heir/seller had passed away.

My friend's insurance agent inspected the house, and told her that it wouldn't be covered by her homeowner's policy. She consulted a lawyer who advised her that a lawsuit wouldn't be worth pursuing (I don't know any other details of the meeting).

My friend paid to have a vapor barrier installed last week, even though it was supposed to be paid for by the seller. The realtor sent the original repairman to check the crawl space, but he was so unpleasant that my friend asked him to leave, and hired someone else.

A professional mold remediation company wanted $11,000 to clean the house, furniture and possessions, but my friend, who is on a fixed disability income, cannot afford that. Relatives have been helping her sort and clean her possessions--every item that was made of organic material--wood, wicker, leather, paper, etc. was covered in mold, and had to be tossed or cleaned (mostly tossed). All other items and surfaces in her house had to be cleaned--I spent last Saturday helping her wash walls, woodwork, and windows. The mold is not toxic (according to her inspector), just musty-smelling and gross.

My friend went to dinner with her son tonight, and when she returned, she said they both noticed that the house smells musty again. She lives an hour east of me, and as we were speaking on the phone, my area was experiencing a heavy downpour, which was heading her direction. She was already upset about the musty smell and depressed that the mold might be growing again.

She purchased the house in good faith, followed all the rules, and has run into nothing but dead ends. Right now she wants to close the door and walk away, but letting the bank foreclose will ruin her credit, and she will have lost her down payment, closing costs, and 2 1/2 years of payments. She'd done a refresh of the kitchen earlier this year--new cooktop, hood, DW, lighting, and island, and I'd helped her repaint the walls and cabinets. She just had her front door replaced, and siding on the front of the house replaced. She and her sons had pulled up carpet and repainted the rest of the interior. She's just sick at every thing she's lost, and I'm so upset for her. And it's raining again.

My question is: Does anyone know of a group or organization who can help her? Any ideas at all? Thank you for listening.

Featured Answer

User

11 years ago

It's hard to say where the failure is here. If the drainage problem was remedied, that should have taken care of dampness from the crawlspace. My house had no vapor barrier in the crawlspace and had no mold.

The house should have been re-inspected by you after the drainage problem was fixed by the prior owner's estate to make sure all was done as they said it was. In addition, it's very, very possible that there is dampness in the walls. It would also make sense that mold would be heavier lower to the ground because of gravity, i.e.; water falls.

How big is the house? I'd suggest getting a auto-draining dehumidifier for both the crawlspace and the main floor of the house. She can drill a hole through the wall through which to slip the drain hose and then she doesn't have to bother emptying the bucket every day. Unfortunately, with dehumidifiers, you also need to have the windows closed, so it can be hot and uncomfortable..but dry.

Also, she can look into adding central air conditioning, which will keep the house cool and dry, but that is also an expensive undertaking, including the impact on utility bills.

Sounds like this house needs to be re-wrapped and resided.

I would not, though, worry about health effects. Most mold is harmless, other than to the house itself. A lot of people are making a killing right now by scaring homeowners about mold. The dangerous black mold is rare. Penicillin is made from mold!

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Comments (16)

party_music50
11 years ago
Run a dehumidifier!
Hellion
11 years ago
Black mold is toxic! Why would anyone tell her not? When mold was found in our kitchen cabinets from a leaky dishwasher, insurance took care of it, but it had to have mold remediation company come in and clean everything with a special solution. Also all those cabinets had to be removed and the drywall checked and replaced in any area that had mold. You cannot just clean mold from drywall. I feel bad for her and wish she would have gotten some better advice before purchasing this home.
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Update: The repairman is correcting drainage in the back yard, although my friend says that he's convinced that water infiltration was not the issue, and the vapor barrier will correct the problem. I don't think the window/wall AC was allowing water to infiltrate, or at least it didn't appear to be when I cleaned it, but it was letting in humid air and mold spores from the outside. I'm not totally convinced about the AC, though. We have two small rooms on the south side of our house, which are not air conditioned (or heated unless temps are consistently below freezing). Both are used as air locks to exterior doors in the winter, with a window kept open in each during the summer. In the larger of the two, the mudroom, I keep a window fan running most of the time in the summer, but I know that humid air enters when the fan isn't running, and I've never had mold in that room. However, it's an enclosed, glazed brick porch on a slab, so no crawl space. The smaller room is at the end of a new addition, is framed on three sides, joins the glazed brick on the other side, and is over a crawl space with a sump pump. It will eventually be two smaller areas--a 5x7 bathroom and an air lock entry, but it's currently being used as a tool room. No mold issues there, either, so experience tells me that it's not just humid air that's causing the mold bloom in my friend's house.
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maire_cate
11 years ago
We never had a musty smelling basement until 5 years ago after an extremely hot, humid, rainy summer. I noticed we had little white mold spots on the pegboard in the storage room which has little to no ventilation.

We ripped out the pegboard and bought a dehumidifier. We also installed an air exchanger which removes air from inside the entire basement and storage room and brings in fresh air. We haven't had a problem since.

I think your friend needs another inspection to identify the mold and what needs to be done to remedy the problem. Unfortunately there are some dishonest contractors who try to scare homeowners and advise them to send lots of money. If she decides he doesn't want to do anything maybe she could sell the house 'as is' for a low price. That would be better than walking away.
OklaMoni
11 years ago
I lived in a house with a damp basement. We bought two dehumidifiers, and ran them 24/7 all summer and most of fall. When the temps dropped they would freeze up and we turned them off. Never had any mold, just musty smell would tell us when to turn them back on in the spring.

I would advice her to get a couple of BIG dehumidifiers.

Moni
mama goose_gw zn6OH
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all. I should have made it clear that it is not black mold--it's been identified as the greenish mold which is very common, and powdery mildew, also common is older houses. Her house is a small ranch, built in the early 1960's. As soon as she smelled a musty odor, earlier this summer, she started using a dehumidifier, but it never occurred to her to check the crawl space for a vapor barrier. There was no apparent mold/mildew problem last summer.

She's been living in chaos, with all her furniture pulled into the middle of the rooms, everything out of closets, most small items packed in boxes, and with her AC so low that she's been wearing a jacket in the house.

I can't imagine needing to clean every item and every surface in my house. I spent the last couple of days cleaning my front porch and scrubbing bright green algae off my white porch rails--a whole house of the same stuff would be overwhelming.

I'll suggest that she get another dehumidifier, and look into purchasing an air exchanger--another expense that she should not have to bear, IMO.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
Original Author
11 years ago
tibbrix, you and I were cross-posting. Although she's been assured that it's not a health hazard, her son and daugher-in-law are not allowing their 7 month old daughter inside the house--which my friend understands and agrees. My friend babysits several times a week, mostly when her DIL is home, in order for DIL to rest. She's been going to son's house, and will continue until she's sure that the problem in her house has been corrected.
chisue
11 years ago
Gosh, this makes me mad! Is there nobody to go after in court? If the POA was acting *for* the seller, didn't the seller misrepresent the property? Whoever inherited from the seller assumes debts and obligations, right?

Homeowners' insurance stopped covering mold shortly after they paid $17K to clean the basement of our teardown/new build. Mold was due to (illegal) stop work order issued by our town that left the basement open to weather in winter.
User
11 years ago
The response from the attorney seems odd. I don't know what state you're in but where we are a homeowner has the legal responsibility to disclose any known flaws with the property and to complete any repairs negotiated during sale to the buyers satisfaction. If they provided false documents to show the repairs completed that is fraud. I would suggest your friend talk to another attorney or two (A Real Estate Atty) and see if the responses are the same. I would think that she needs to see how the laws are worded in your area as well as how they are pursued when they're broken. I mean why have them if no one is held accountable if they're broken right? At the very least, she could present her case in small claims. I know laws for small claims varies depending on where you are and there are limits as to how much you can sue for but at least she could recoup some of her damages. Ask the court clerk if she can split the circumstances maybe? Sue for the repairs of the property. Then in a separate claim go back and sue for the loss of her personal possessions.
chisue
11 years ago
I'm not sure you can sue an estate in small claims court.

Would title insurance have any bearing here?
User
11 years ago
Oh, but wouldn't the executor be responsible?
mama goose_gw zn6OH
Original Author
11 years ago
My friend lives in WV. Title insurance was in effect for only the first year post sale, but I don't know if it would have covered the problem anyway. According to the RE agent, the POA will argue that she believed the requested work to have been completed, when presented with a bill from the repairman. The repairman told the RE agent that he was not instructed to install a vapor barrier, and his bill does not itemize a vapor barrier. The heir/seller has since passed away. Of course, the RE agent takes no responsibility. The lawyer told my friend that since the mold/mildew is not considered toxic, or to cause health problems, most lawyers will not take the case on a contingency, and any lawyer who bills hourly would quickly surpass any personal property value. I don't know if my friend has considered small claims court--I'll mention that to her.

No one wants to step up, and in the meantime, my friend's life is turned upside down.
chisue
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
No matter what the POA 'believed'. No vapor barrier was installed when the contract was contingent upon that.

Is there a free legal 'hot line' she can call to ask what her options are? (Granted, there's no blood to be gotten from a turnip, but there may be money available from the estate.)
cat_ky
11 years ago
Mama Goose. I wont make any comments on legal aspects of this, because, I just dont know. I do know that when there is an estate sale, and the sellers are not living in the house, usually sales are as is, since the seller would have no knowledge of any problems. That said, I have read your other posts, and I know you are one hardworking, very knowledgeable homeowner, who has done a lot of beautiful remodeling on your own. I suspect, that if you take a good look around, you may figure out why she has a water problem. A well vented crawl space, should not have water problems. Are all her gutters cleaned and draining properly away, from the foundation of the house? Is the ground around the house sloped away from the house, to allow water to run away, rather than into the crawlspace? Has her roof, been totally inspected to make sure that water isnt leaking through the roof, down inside walls, and into the crawl space. My personal thought is that this has been an ongoing undisclosed problem with this house. Heirs, or executors etc, probably wouldnt have a knowledge of any of that. There shouldnt be problems with mold from rain, if everything is draining away properly, and nothing is leaking inside the shell of the house. Good Luck to your friend, and I feel very sorry for her and hope she can get this problem solved.
chisue
11 years ago
This would be a good post for the Buying and Selling A Home forum.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thank you all for your advice and kind words. Cross-posting this thread in the buying and selling forums is a good idea.

I spoke with her
this afternoon and she still sounds as if she's given up hope, which is
why I posted after speaking with her last night--I'm grasping at any advice.

She chose her own
inspector, and all the structural inspections were done to the bank's
satisfaction when the house was purchased. She was told that an older
couple had lived in the home, and had done no maintenance for some time
before they passed away, which is why she had her stipulations written
into the contract.

The man who installed the vapor barrier last
week is returning to check the crawl space for other problems. When I
was cleaning walls and closets I didn't notice any ceiling issues, or
any problems with discolored or crumbly sheet rock. There was some mold
on the window seals, but it was the kind you get because of condensation
in cold weather--also common in bathrooms, on caulk around bathtubs and
showers.It was colder weather when we worked on the kitchen--I
think it was about the time that Houzz and GW merged, and I didn't
notice any mold, mildew, or mustiness.

She said today that she's borrowed two dehumidifiers and so has three running constantly, and is emptying them several times each day.

Need advice about mold/mildew in friend's house (long story).

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