When landlords won’t deal with mold, renters have few options

In May 2021, Sheri Kennedy moved into a gated apartment built less than 10 years ago in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. A website for the property boasts features like keyless entry, a dog park and a fishing pond.

“I rented what I thought was just an amazing, wonderful, gated little apartment, and once I moved in, I just kind of slowly started getting sicker and sicker,” said Kennedy, who has a disability and describes herself as semi-retired.

In late August, an alarm sounded in her hot water tank, and a maintenance worker found a leak in the tank. He didn’t have the tools to fix it at the time. Instead, he removed the battery from the alarm to disable it and told Kennedy he’d return to repair the leak.

He didn’t come back, though. About two months later, Kennedy noticed the symptoms – difficulty breathing, watery eyes and an unusual rash.

“I can’t really explain to you how bad it is – the being sick,” she said through tears.

At the end of February, she discovered what she and two doctors believe are the cause of her health issues. She found dark rings of mold in her pantry, and behind that was the water heater with the unrepaired leak.

“I didn’t have an alarm to tell us, ‘Hey, you got a water leak somewhere,’ so I guess it began to grow and spread, and it spread horribly,” she said.

Kennedy said the mold spread to her kitchen and living room. Photos she took show patches of dark rings of mold crawling up multiple walls. The area around her leaking water heater remains damp, and in some places, paint and flooring appears damaged from moisture.

Kennedy said an immunologist and dermatologist both told her that exposure to mold spores had caused her respiratory issues and rash. She knew staying in the apartment would potentially worsen her health, but “Where do you go when apartments are $1,000?” she asked. Rents rose 11% nationally last year, and on top of that, Broken Arrow and other communities in the Tulsa metro area have few affordable homes available to rent.

Maintenance staff worked on one area affected by mold, Kennedy said, but she was unconvinced the problem was solved. Her health wasn’t improving. So in March, Kennedy complained to her property manager.

The next day, she found a note on her door saying that her lease wouldn’t be renewed.

Now she must move out by tomorrow. She worries that packing will disturb the mold spores and aggravate her health problems.

“I’m sorry to be tearful, but it’s just a really rough day sick-wise,” she said Monday, adding, “I need to get storage, I need to pack, and being so sick, I can hardly stand up.”

Mold is everywhere, and it can grow in the right conditions. Most adults are probably familiar with the sight of small amounts of mildew in showers or around sinks.

But in homes with serious mold issues caused by leaks, flooding and other natural disasters, residents can become ill. Exposure to mold can trigger or worsen allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems. It can irritate a person’s eyes or skin.

[ Support stories like these by making a tax-deductible donation to BigIfTrue.org. ]

Yet housing advocates, attorneys and renters themselves say tenants have few options when landlords won’t deal with what’s causing the mold.

That’s in part because federal laws don’t address mold in housing, and most state and local housing codes don’t mention mold, either.

For renters like Kennedy, asking for needed repairs can leave them looking for a new place to live in a crowded, pricey rental market.

Knowing the cause of mold is key for renters

Jonathan W. Wilson, deputy director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, said that with mold, renters are dependent on their landlords to act. If they don’t, it’s a case of seeing if a renter’s local health or code enforcement department can identify a water issue.

“I think other than hoping your landlord will do the right thing and potentially reaching out to the government if they’re not, you’re somewhat limited because you really don’t have the right to pull out walls when you’re renting,” he said. “It may be that if the building is not habitable or safe, you could get out of your lease and move somewhere else, but that’s not an option for some people.”

Eric Hallett, the statewide coordinator of housing advocacy for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, said he hears from renters every week about mold that their landlords won’t address. Part of the challenge for renters is it’s their responsibility to prove their health problems are linked to mold, which can be tricky.

Hallett said many doctors are hesitant to say that mold has caused a health issue, and low-income renters also may not be able to afford a doctor’s visit and other medical expenses, like testing.

“Just visiting a doctor can be a real barrier to people if they don’t have health insurance, if they don’t have a way to take off work or if they can’t afford their copays,” Hallett said.

Because Tulsa County and the city of Tulsa don’t have rules about mold in housing, the Tulsa City-County Health Department can only respond to complaints regarding the cause of the mold, including roof and plumbing leaks.

Hallett recommends renters with mold figure out what’s causing it, like a leak, before contacting the health department.

“If you call the health department and say, ‘I have mold,’ they will tell you to clean it with bleach, paint over it, and that’s all they will do,” he said. “If you tell them, ‘I have an unmitigated water leak,’ then they will come out and investigate the source of the water leak, and so I always tell people to start there.”

Adam Austin, environmental public health division chief for the Tulsa Health Department, said if inspectors see mold, they can use moisture meters to confirm problems like roof leaks and request the property owner to correct the issue in a reasonable amount of time. That’s usually 10 days, but the timeframe can be affected by supply chain and contractor shortages.

“Right now, everyone’s having to be more flexible because of the shortage of people and things – just a shortage of everything – but our goal is to get the issue corrected,” Austin said.

The city of Alpena, Michigan conducts rental inspections on a three-year cycle and in response to complaints. Michigan doesn’t have laws specifically about mold, but the state’s building codes touch on mold through rules on preventing moisture from entering homes.

Alpena City Building Official Donald Gilmet said most of the mold his department sees is mildew caused by things like using a shower without allowing moist air to escape through a bathroom vent or a cracked window.

“The key for people to know is that it takes three things – air, moisture and food – for mold to survive,” he said. “Air circulation is very important to the elimination of mold in the interior of structures.”

Mold after climate disasters

After floods and other climate disasters, homes can be vulnerable to mold, especially if damage has exposed the home to water. Wilson said mold can begin growing in as little as 48 hours.

“It’s a major concern after any natural disaster that involves water, whether it’s river flooding or hurricanes and coastal flooding,” he said.

In 2020, Nina Desvignes, who is retired, moved to Oakmont Apartments in New Orleans’ Algiers neighborhood. Conditions at the long-neglected complex deteriorated further after Hurricane Ida in late August last year.

Desvignes said roof damage from the storm allowed water into her apartment, causing the growth of mold that gave her breathing problems.

But mold was just one of a slew of problems with the apartment that Desvignes left last week. The city paid to move Oakmont residents to a hotel because of code violations and serious safety and sanitation problems.

Among the issues unaddressed by the building’s management were raw sewage, gnats, rats and roaches. Her appliances didn’t work, and her unreliable fridge forced her to spend extra money on new food because it kept spoiling. She spent $700 on two air conditioning units because her apartment’s air conditioning didn’t work. And renting the unit still cost Desvignes about $1,000 a month.

Beyond that, she couldn’t feel safe in the apartment she shared with her daughter and grandchild. Gunfire was common at the complex, which also had attracted squatters.

The city is paying for Oakmont residents to stay in a hotel for up to three months, and officials have said the renters will get help finding a new place. The city is uncertain how much the rare move will cost.

Desvignes said leaving was a miracle.

“I’m livid about what happened and how people could get away with such horror,” she said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Hannah Adams, a staff attorney for Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, said mold is a concern for renters in Louisiana after natural disasters but also in normal times because of the state’s rainy and warm weather. Subsidy programs with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development have standards for mold, but the state and New Orleans don’t have codes to address it.

Meanwhile, New Orleans’ shortage of affordable housing became more limited after Hurricane Ida, leaving low-income tenants with few rental options.

“The solution is people just live in the mold and have extremely disparate, long-term health impacts because they don’t have anywhere to go,” Adams said. “I don’t mean to be grim, but renters here have really limited options, which means often being forced to make a choice of being homeless or living in a moldy apartment with their kids.”

Adams said under state law, tenants can pay for repairs and deduct the costs from their next month’s rent, but most of her clients can’t afford to pay for up-front repairs.

“You can sue your landlord for damages, but that doesn’t help you get repairs in a timely manner,” she said. “We have antiquated tenant laws and almost no regulation of this really serious health and safety issue.”

Some renters are afraid to report problems to code enforcement because Louisiana, like Oklahoma, is one of seven states where it’s legal for landlords to evict renters who file health or safety complaints.

How to clean up mold

Mold thrives in wet and humid places. The US Environmental Protection Agency and local health departments recommend moisture control as the No. 1 way to prevent mold growth – things like increasing ventilation, using exhaust fans, venting bathrooms and adding insulation to prevent mold from forming due to condensation on cold surfaces.

The main thing is to identify the source of moisture and address it. Wilson said his organization doesn’t recommend mold testing since there aren’t federal standards to compare against the test results, and different types of mold are treated the same way.

Instead, the best way to tell mold has become a problem is by smell.

“If you can smell it, you have a problem,” Wilson said. “If you have a problem, address the moisture and clean it up. It’s really sort of as simple as that.”

After storm damage or a big leak, residents should remove wet materials from their home, then clean mold with a cleaning solution.

Wilson said it’s often possible to remove surfaces with mold on them and clean underlying surfaces without using harsh chemicals. Stronger disinfectants can be used in extreme cases if the home is being aired out properly and people with respiratory issues aren’t present while the chemicals are being used.

Contact BigIfTrue.org editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Twitter.

BigIfTrue.org is a nonprofit news site based in Oklahoma City. Our mission is to report stories that envision a more equitable world and energize our readers to improve their communities. Donate to support our work here.