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I live in Louisville, KY, USA. I have recently moved out of an apartment. The reason I left was because the apartment was infested with mold that affected much of my belongings and hurt my breathing. The mold problem occurred shortly after my toilet overflowed by itself, flooding about a third of my apartment with toilet water. The landlord never did anything about the floodwater but just expected me to clean it up with a wet/dry vacuum. The mold started after the second time this occurred. For the sake of my health, I have had to move out of the apartment. However, my landlord refuses to give me my security deposit because I failed to give 30 days notice. I don't think this is fair since the reason I am leaving early is because of my landlord's negligence. What can I do to get my security deposit back?
I live in Louisville, KY, USA. I have recently moved out of an apartment. The reason I left was because the apartment was infested with mold that affected much of my belongings and hurt my breathing. The mold problem occurred shortly after my toilet overflowed by itself, flooding about a third of my apartment with toilet water. The landlord never did anything about the floodwater but just expected me to clean it up with a wet/dry vacuum. The mold started after the second time this occurred. For the sake of my health, I have had to move out of the apartment. However, my landlord refuses to give me my security deposit because I failed to give 30 days notice. I don't think this is fair since the reason I am leaving early is because of my landlord's negligence. What can I do to get my security deposit back?
I'd contact a lawyer. Did you document the mold issue? Did you do tests? I'm personally curious as to whether this may fall under the idea of a landlord needing to provide a livable habitat. If someone can legally demonstrate that a property is uninhabitable, the landlord is no longer holding up their end of the lease.
However, if you just up and left, you might be out of luck :-/.
I'd contact a lawyer. Did you document the mold issue? Did you do tests? I'm personally curious as to whether this may fall under the idea of a landlord needing to provide a livable habitat. If someone can legally demonstrate that a property is uninhabitable, the landlord is no longer holding up their end of the lease.
However, if you just up and left, you might be out of luck :-/.
I did not do any tests. I cleaned up or disposed of most of the items in my apartment that had visible mold on them. However, I am dealing with breathing issues right now because of the mold, and I also have a hospital bill from when I previously had to go to the hospital because of breathing issues from the mold. All my clothes have a moldy smell on them. Beyond this, I don't really have any documentation. One thing, though, that I thought was kind of fishy is that the landlord claimed that after having a professional inspect the apartment that there was no evidence of mold, but when talking to the same professional personally, he said that the floor was filled with mold underneath the carpet.
The apartment really was uninhabitable. I actually spent the whole last month of my tenancy living with my parents because my apartment was too dangerous to live in.
It was on two occasions that my toilet overflowed and flooded my apartment. On both occasions, my landlord relied on me to get up all the water out of the carpet with my wet/dry vacuum; he never got up the carpet to dry the carpet padding or the concrete floor. It was only after the mold problem emerged that he took the carpet up and cleaned under the carpet. Is there some legal wrongdoing here on the part of my landlord?
I think that if you left without making arrangements to terminate your rental agreement you are out of luck. You still owe for 30 days of rent.
By the way, toilets do not just overflow all by themselves with no reason and nobody around, so you are going to have a problem getting a judge to believe that one.
If you don't have any proof of mold I think that one isn't going to fly, either. If you go to small claims court, the judge isn't going to take your word (or the landlord's word) for anything, The judge wants to see proof, and apparently the landlord has a professional that says there is no mold and you have nothing but your own word. Do you at least have photos of the mold?
If all your clothing smells like mold, I suggest that you wash it, probably with a disinfectant like maybe Lysol. Or soak them in OdorXit and then wash them.
I think that if you left without making arrangements to terminate your rental agreement you are out of luck. You still owe for 30 days of rent.
By the way, toilets do not just overflow all by themselves with no reason and nobody around, so you are going to have a problem getting a judge to believe that one.
If you don't have any proof of mold I think that one isn't going to fly, either. If you go to small claims court, the judge isn't going to take your word (or the landlord's word) for anything, The judge wants to see proof, and apparently the landlord has a professional that says there is no mold and you have nothing but your own word. Do you at least have photos of the mold?
If all your clothing smells like mold, I suggest that you wash it, probably with a disinfectant like maybe Lysol. Or soak them in OdorXit and then wash them.
Unfortunately, when mold was appearing on my belongings, my main priority at the time was to get rid of the mold rather than use it as evidence, so I neglected to take any photos or keep any mold evidence.
And by the way, my toilet did overflow all by itself. Once it even overflowed while I was at work. My bathtub would also overflow by itself sometimes; dirty bathwater from an upstairs unit would come down and then emerge from the drain in my bathtub. So sometimes I would take a shower and be standing in my neighbor's dirty bathwater.
Unfortunately, when mold was appearing on my belongings, my main priority at the time was to get rid of the mold rather than use it as evidence, so I neglected to take any photos or keep any mold evidence.
And by the way, my toilet did overflow all by itself. Once it even overflowed while I was at work. My bathtub would also overflow by itself sometimes; dirty bathwater from an upstairs unit would come down and then emerge from the drain in my bathtub. So sometimes I would take a shower and be standing in my neighbor's dirty bathwater.
Ugh, that's disgusting. Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I think this may be one of those times in life where crappy circumstances just lead to a crappy result :-/. No pun intended.
You need some type of proof. Do you have anything? Email complaints to the landlord
Texts requesting the problem get fixed?
Or did you just decide the apartment was not fit to love in, packed your stuff, moved out and asked for your deposit back?
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