So, been living here for over 1.5 years and Friday night I come home and there's a freaking shroom on my wall! I immediately called the super that night at 2330 and he tells me "I'll check it out first thing on Monday". I told him that was unacceptable and there must be a huge fungus/mold infestation in the wall that has been there for a while. He kept insisting that he needs to come on Monday and I told him "No, you NEED to come up tomorrow, that's it." So he came up at 0930 and as soon as he walked into the room he said, "I know the problem, your A/C is causing water to go down the wall. You put it in the window with not enough tilt, and the tenants are responsible for their A/Cs."
I saw his game from a mile away.... Get the tenant to pay to fix the problem and you'll have a repaired wall with no money out of the buildings budget... What I REALLY think is causing it is probably the way they sealed the hole in the wall, and maybe the window seal.... But its not coming from my A/C.
So I told him I've never seen any condensation on the window and you'd see surface mold way before any kind of damn mushroom popped out. And then he kept coming up with stupid crap and contradicting himself and I told him that my girlfriend's asthma has been acting up and it is probably because of poor air quality in the apartment, and he didn't say anything. He just said, "I cannot have anybody in here until Monday morning when the building manager can come in and inspect it. You're good at your job and I'm good at my job, and I will bet my job that the A/C is causing that." I said, "Monday? What about my girlfriend's asthma?" He goes, "If I bring in someone this weekend without the manager knowing, who's going to pay for it? Me..." I said, "Ok, so if my girlfriend goes to the ER who's going to pay for it? I'll send you the bill is that ok?" So didn't answer me, he just told me to have a nice day (basically f-off), and left and I called 311 and complained. Someone from HPD (Housing preservation and Development) is supposed to call me within 72 hours of Saturday morning. Haven't yet.
Fast forward to today, the stupid rude woman (manager) comes into the apartment with the super this morning just after 8am, doesn't even greet us (And I'd never met her before), looks me up and down, walks right into the bedroom and just like the super, says, "You know what's going on here?" I said, "What's going on here?" (already knowing what she's going to say)... She goes, "Its the A/C... Yeah there's condensation building up....." And I was so pissed. I said, "Even if that were the case, if it were coming down the surface of the wall, there should be surface mold way before something like this.... So its coming from inside the wall, and the experts I've spoken have said that for mushrooms to sprout like that there has to be a whole lot of fungus/mold inside the wall and it would have had to have been there for quite a long time. Just month or so of A/C on only at night will not cause this." She went on to tell me that I'm wrong and progressively raised her voice to try to subdue me.
She went on to say how I didn't have my A/C in right, yadda yadda yadda (and I had it in right this whole summer so far, but last night I took it out and tilted it around to see where the water was dripping from and put it back in the window with more of a tilt than usual for their liking when they came today, so TODAY it wasn't in "right"), and how I should have told them the first time I saw condensation on the wall.... I told her that there was never any kind of condensation on the wall EVER and she didn't listen to me.
She told me that the building would take care of it, but if the guys that came in to fix it found it to be my fault, I'd have to pay..... I flipped... I said, "There is NO WAY I'm paying for this.... You can say whatever you want, but if I have to I'll call the DOH, Code Enforcement, and seek legal aid and you won't get a cent. *IF*.... *IF* I end up paying for this, the receipt of payment for the bill will be submitted to you as my rent. I'm not paying a dime, and I want you to be clear on that."
She got more mad and raised her voice even more..... So she said, she would get in contact with me at some point to get someone in here to open the wall. And I asked, "A mold specialist?" She said, "No." I said, "Well I've researched on that as well, and I know that there are precautions that need to be taken so that when the wall is opened, spores don't get airborne and spread throughout the house and go everywhere and contaminate everything, so NO.... Some guy is not going to come in here and kick my wall in.... You need to get a mold specialist here that will do it right." She goes, "Ok" and basically rolled her eyes at me and walked into the living room on her way out. She then tried to tell me that my living room A/C was in improperly as well and then ate her words when she walked up to it and saw it was good. I said, "Give me a break, that's your default answer huh? A way to take liability off the building. You'd think I live here for free to get treated like this." Then as she walked out the door she started raising her voice again, and I simply told her, "You have 24 hours to get a certified mold specialist here or I'm involving the city" and I slammed the door on her...
30 mins later the super calls me and tells me that the manager will have someone here between 6:30PM and 7:00PM tonight to get at the wall in the bedroom. So I asked him what company they were from and if they were mold specialists. His answer? "I don't know the company and I think they are specialists." So I asked him to find out. He told me he didn't know if he could, but if he could, he'd call me back... So BS, he's not calling me back..... But if they come here tonight, and they don't have any credentials, I'm kicking them out of my apartment and talking to a lawyer. And even if they DO provide credentials, how do I know the manager didn't throw him a few hundred under the table to "find" that the problem is coming from me and save them a few grand? I'm going to talk to a lawyer anyway because it will cost $600-$900 to get an environmental hygienist to come in and test everything and recommend to a mold specialist like ServPro the best way to open up the wall, and then for ServPro to come in and do everything it will cost up to $2000. So just for me to get an independent non-biased party in here to try to determine the cause of the mushrooms, it will cost me $3k.... I wish I knew a mold guy personally to hook me up but I don't. I don't even know what my rights are in this situation, and 311 was really no help either. My building is rent controlled so the city is supposed to be on top of what goes on here, but it doesn't seem that way.
I'm very frustrated and I'm not sure what to do here. Anybody have any advice??
Thanks
That is the craziest thing ever.
