Oregon Tenant Rights - Mold

[Mari Valkyrie]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

I moved into an apartment at the beginning of November. While having cable installed, the contractor had to access my apartment through the crawl space beneath the unit. He noted pools of stagnant water under the building. I addressed this with my landlord and expressed my concern that the wood beams were exposed to this moisture, and that there was a high probability for issues with mold. My landlord informed me that they would work on it. Landlord later came back and told me that there was nothing that they could do, the water is runoff from the landscape design.

Well, now I am finding mold growing in my apartment. I will bring this to my landlords attention, and I know that the surface will be taken care of. However, I maintain my concern that this is a continual issue from the standing water, and essentially, I want to be released from the lease and have my deposits returned. Anyone have suggestions as to how to accomplish this without taking this to a lawyer?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Unfortunately, the all too frequent assumption by tenants that finding mold is a legal reason to break a lease is incorrect.

Mold is easily taken care of by a combination of hydrogen peroxide and water. Adequate ventilation (for example, if the mold is in the bathroom) will aide greatly in reducing it's return.

Where are you seeing this mold?

Gail

 

[Mari Valkyrie]

Oregon Tenant Rights-Mold

Hi Gail,

Thanks for responding. This mold is growing in a bedroom closet, on the wall that is on the outside.. growing from the bottom up.. obviously there must be rot from standing water... there is also mold growing on the middle of the wall, another outside wall. The other location is in my living room, right next to the baseboard heater, in the corner - also on an outside wall.

From what I have read online, the other option to this would be to sue the landlord for exposure to toxic mold. I have a friend that does professional air testing, and he has indicated that he will check it out for me.. The question then would be, who to give this information to, (other than hiring an attorney and having to sue,) just so I can get the hell out of here!

 

[CSO286]

Hi Gail,

Thanks for responding. This mold is growing in a bedroom closet, on the wall that is on the outside.. growing from the bottom up.. obviously there must be rot from standing water... there is also mold growing on the middle of the wall, another outside wall. The other location is in my living room, right next to the baseboard heater, in the corner - also on an outside wall.

From what I have read online, the other option to this would be to sue the landlord for exposure to toxic mold. I have a friend that does professional air testing, and he has indicated that he will check it out for me.. The question then would be, who to give this information to, (other than hiring an attorney and having to sue,) just so I can get the hell out of here!

And then the landlord will insist that his expert test the unit to find out what type of mold it is.

Right now, you have no idea what kind of mold it is.

 

[Gail in Georgia]

The issue would be threefold: 1. If your friend is legally considered professionally qualified to do accurate testing and 2. out of the over 100,000 strains of mold does this mold represent one of the two strains that, in some humans with respiratory issues, can trigger health problems and 3. do you have medical documentation that the presence of this mold poses a specific health risk for you.

You're over thinking that this is a get out of a lease free situation. What you need to be focusing on is 1. what is causing the mold growth (i.e., if a leak this repair issues needs to be addressed by the landlord) and 2. how to remove the mold (a very simple and inexpensive process).

Closed closets can be humid places where mold can grow, especially if items are packed in tightly, including boxes stored on the floor.

Gail