Landlord hid black mold we found after signing the lease

by Jennifer
(Indiana )

My fiance and two small children came with me to view a rental property. We saw cosmetic issues with holes in the walls and painting was a must. The previous tenant left a couch which conveniently was covered the mold. We signed the lease and discovered the mold immediately.

I called the landlord to tell him we found a leak that caused mold to eat away holes in the drywall. He said he would fix it. In the meantime I completed the cosmetic holes and painting as well as cleaning top to bottom and pressure washing both porches that were all left filthy by the previous tenant. Time passed and we even used our own money to fix the leak to no avail.

For ten months I begged the landlord to fix the mold problem and informed him that i was diagnosed with asthma. My boys were having nose bleeds and suffered also with asthma while my fiance battled chronic fatigue and coughing/vomiting up blood.. the landlord told me that it was my place to fix it. I told him i'd been patient long enough and that id have to call the health inspector. Within ten minutes of me saying that he had two joe shmoes come over to "nigger rig," his words not mine, knowing my son is biracial. I was home with my small children with no car and they gave me ten minutes to evacuate. I told them not to pull out drywall till my kids were out but they started anyway using all of my material. They merely covered it up before the health inspector could come over.

The same day the health inspector came and ruled the home uninhabitable for human housing the landlord served me an eviction notice. This is a retaliatory illegal eviction for requesting the health inspector. To add insult to injury he is suing us in small claims for rent and trash which we have every receipt for. We have to counterclaim and have nowhere to go. I am desperate to find a new home.

The exposure to airborne mold spores from being present during the "removal" has caused my whole family to suffer memory loss, chest pains irritable bowels, internal lesions (bruising without injury), rashes burning ears eyes and throat and my ankles are more swollen than during pregnancy on top of hair loss. The symptoms go on and on. Its a living hell and we are still stuck in this health hazard with no place to rent. We just get sicker and sicker.

This guy is a total slumlord! Good thing I documented EVERYTHING. Even the stagnated sewage in the backyard he had illegally ran. He denied my family our rights and my fiance enrolled in the military to protect those rights and freedoms even being deployed to Iraq. We remodeled his home and he screwed us over severely! My babies getting sick was the last straw. I'm now in momma bear mode panicking on how to get my babies in a safe home. I wouldn't wish mold or our landlord or my worst enemy...