[crashtd]

so i'm finally unpacking my stuff I had stored in my apartment's basement. Low and behold the bottoms on all the boxes that were on the ground fell out when i picked them up. Mold and water damage everywhere. The better part of my wardrobe and all my law books. If I had to guess $2-3k. :thumbdown

It smells big time of mold down there too. Here's the kicker, my bedroom is right above the basement and is old hardwood floor...so old that when you're in the basement and you look up you can see the light coming through the slates. Suddenly it makes sense now why i'm constantly sneezing when i'm in my room, and my g/f who's VERY allergic to mold could barely breathe in my place :banghead

I seriously resigned my lease like 10 minutes before i discovered this, and now it turns out my landlord has had problems with mold in the past in my unit. Grrrreat. First i've heard of this. So i'm one pissed law student right now.

I think my stuff is covered under my insurance policy, and i'm confident I can get out of my lease, but the hassle of having to replace all that stuff (especially when i'm broke as **** waiting for my student loan), but I also have to find somewhere else to live. Uggh.

Anyhoo, had to vent. Anyone else been through the mold awesomeness also? What did you end up doing?

-:banana

 

[crashtd]

on the plus side....my R1 is fine. :bounce

-:banana

 

[jmp781]

One of my old managers had the same problem in a condo he was living in. They moved from one condo to another once the lease was up and his kids became very ill within the first week. One of them was hospitalized and that is when they found out he was poisioned with the mold spores. They called in a specialist and found the pipes under the kitchen sink were leaking behind the wall and the was some type of black mold and mushrooms growing. They took samples back to the hospital and once back from the lab the stated if the kids had been exposed long enough they would have died due to the high toxicity. Needless to say they got out of the contract and the landlord picked up all hospital bills to avoid a lawsuit.

On a side note good luck with your replacement, home owners should come you.

 

[Duken4evr]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I imagine you will have no trouble getting out of the lease.

Regarding coverage for your stuff, it depends what the source of the water is. If the house has a plumbing problem, you have no problem, there will be coverage under your policy.

On the other hand, if the water is "subsurface" or "surface" naturally occuring water from rain, or it is simply a damp basement, you will likely have a problem finding coverage under your renter's policy.

If this occurs, as a law student, you know what comes next, a property damage claim against the landlord's liability policy. The bummer there is they only owe depreciated "market value" for your stuff. If they are smart, they will not hassle you too much on that, as you and your girlfriend also have potential injury claims from the mold exposure.

Mention mold to any adjuster who has been around for awhile like me and they will cringe. The two toughest years of my 18 year career involved a spate of mold claims in SoCal. We paid an ABC TV VP (how's that for some acronyms?) over 700K on one of my files to completely rebuild his house and for loss of use due to mold. The policy got re-written after that one.

Good luck and let me know if you want any more input from an insurance industry insider's view!

 

[chraika1]

well as long as ur bike is ok then all the sneezing coughin and GF's PMSing will go away once u hit the first twist on a nice twisty road u and ur R1. treat it or get out of there . mold will cuz azma..

 

[crashtd]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I imagine you will have no trouble getting out of the lease.

Regarding coverage for your stuff, it depends what the source of the water is. If the house has a plumbing problem, you have no problem, there will be coverage under your policy.

On the other hand, if the water is "subsurface" or "surface" naturally occuring water from rain, or it is simply a damp basement, you will likely have a problem finding coverage under your renter's policy.

If this occurs, as a law student, you know what comes next, a property damage claim against the landlord's liability policy. The bummer there is they only owe depreciated "market value" for your stuff. If they are smart, they will not hassle you too much on that, as you and your girlfriend also have potential injury claims from the mold exposure.

Mention mold to any adjuster who has been around for awhile like me and they will cringe. The two toughest years of my 18 year career involved a spate of mold claims in SoCal. We paid an ABC TV VP (how's that for some acronyms?) over 700K on one of my files to completely rebuild his house and for loss of use due to mold. The policy got re-written after that one.

Good luck and let me know if you want any more input from an insurance industry insider's view!

thanks guys :thumbup

duke, i have no idea what the source is, i know PA had bad flooding but supposedly our place was fine. Its definitely poorly ventalated, but I suspect the water is from rain and not pipes. Unfortunately my mom's place is having MAJOR mold problem right now too, what can i say? mold likes our family :O

-:banana

 

[chraika1]

i say buy 2 10 dollar fans from wallmart and turn them on in the basement 24/7 and open any windows or vents and that should fix the problem... use some air refreshners that kill bacteria .. they have them in a powder form.. and get rid of any rotted pies of junk in there.. good luck

 

[BikePilot]

:doh that sucks. I had a similar issue when I got back from Oxford. Turns out a pipe had sprung a pinhole leak and soaked the floor/carpet in my room and went unoticed for months:banghead

Mold is nasty stuff, can cause all sorts of health problems and be really expensive to get rid of. My dad owns a home inspection company and often finding mold in a house kills a sale. Anyway, if you end up needed details/references as to what dangers mold can present (health wise) I can call my dad and get references and such on it.

good luck

 

[pmmonster]

As a California boy I would expect you have little experience with basements. Let me summarize one fact of life when it comes to basements (which I love, btw) ... dehumidifiers are your friends.

Telltale signs of past water damage include water stains and an obvious mold/mildew odor. If you're storing things in an unfamiliar basement I suggest finding a pallet to store your boxes on to get them off the floor. Even basements without any real leaking can pass dampness from a concrete floor to your box of expensive books and spandex pants :dowhat At least the spandex should be relatively safe from mold :laugh

 

[Duken4evr]

I second that on the dehumidifiers.

One thing you actually don't want to do is blow fans as doing so can make the health repercussions worse by spreading the spores around from the affected area to unaffected areas.

On the heavy duty mold cleanup jobs I have seen, the contractors typically plastic off the area and use HEPA filtration and negative air machines that push the air outside. Drywall gets pulled, the underside of the flooring gets scrubbed and sanded or removed if there is water damage. Industrial hygienists come in with their white suits and take air and surface samples. It is a real scream.

My advice is to get outta there and find a good restoration dry cleaning company to look at your clothing. Mold can actually be removed from some items with proper laundering. It depends how bad it is. The value of the clothing determines if it is worthwhile or not to do that.

Here is a link to the restoration drycleaning network I use. I have had amazing results getting smoke and mold out of clothing with these people.

http://www.crdn.com

They can refer you to a member company who is local to you.

 

[tls-moose]

............Anyhoo, had to vent. Anyone else been through the mold awesomeness also? What did you end up doing?

-:banana

A gallon of gas, a candle, and a night at the pictures :devious :dowhat :laugh :laugh

 

[1eviltwin]

mold is no joke..i had a toliet go a few months back in my townhouse flooded everthing..good thing i only rent the place..the insurance company was there right away and also had a company that deals with water/fire damage come out that day..the had to spray a chemical that prevents mold and pull the all the carpet padding ..the drywall had fallen do to the water so all that got remover..they had huge dehumidifiers and blowers all through my hose for over a week..i couldnt stay durning that..they came back did mold test and when it was all clear installed new carpet and drywall..5 months later they still come and check for mold..they ended up pulling over 100 gallons of water out of my house before they got there me and my roomate got atleast 60 to 80 gallons up..the place was soaked but there was not furniture or close damaged...

landlord was more than willing to let us out the lease or give us a free month of rent...Since the people that lived there before shoved a bottle of baby powder down the toilet and that was the cause of this..

 

[tl1000lasse]

damn that suck´s man :banghead only tip i have is when storing stuff in cardboardboxes is never put them directly on concreat floor always put something under so the air cab circulate but thats to late now.

hope u get it sorted and that the incuranse covers it and as far as the landlord isent he responsible to take care of the problem :dunno

 

[Elreq]

one other issue is with insurance companies is when they hear about mold they will look for y there is mold and if it is due to neglegence on your part in there eyes they will not cover it. it takes mold 3-5 days to even start growing in the best conditions so when the ins. hears mold they believe already that there was neglegence. or you should have found it sooner and therein protecting you property from mold. good luck sorry to say but you probably arent going to get anything out of this unless you put up a BIG stink. insurance companies like your money, they dont like to give it back.

 

[Guest]

i guess you need to wash up more, especially between the toes and stuff :devious :laugh

seriously: that sucks! a few years ago i saw all my university books rot up like that too :banghead