I could write two pages of background but I'll keep it short.
*Found great house in Denver and will have first option to buy in two years, which we probably will.
*Wife and I are expecting baby in 3 weeks.
*Owner of house is family friend. He had 10 applications on the house but gave it to us.
*I gave him $1500.00 to hold the house BUT have not signed any paperwork.
*This house is perfect for us and is a place we could live for 10 years
*We have EVERYTHING packed and we are ready to move in today

So the landlord gives us the keys yesterday and says we can begin doing some work on the house (we still have not signed paperwork). I took this week off of work so I could paint, move in etc.
On the first floor ceiling, I noticed a little spot near a wall. The wall also had a baseball sized bubble I hadn't seen before.

I chipped away at the bubble and discovered a 3 foot by 3 foot section of black mold. Further investigation reveals that mold stretches accross the entire living room ceiling-approx. 15 feet long and six inches wide.

So the landlord says he will take care of it asap. I have everything packed and a wife about to burst with a baby. We were supposed to be moving EVERYTHING in today. This will push back our move at least 10 days while everything is fixed/repaired. We have places to stay and everything, so that's not a problem.

My question is, WTF would you do if you were in this situation? What if they test for mold and it is in other places too? (I suspect it is). Keep in mind that if we wait 1 week for all the tests, repairs, etc. and it comes back that there is more, we will probably ditch the place and find something else quick. However, we would have lost a week and now have to find something else. Please help!

8/3/2007 8:57:39 AM

Test for mold in other places (make him do it today or tomorrow) and figure out if the place is completely fucked up or if it just had mold where there was a pipe burst once upon a time.

If the mold is removed, then it's just something to watch for.

That IS a large amount of death/mold to be present in a house though. Figure out the source for that mold. If it's right by a pipe or something it may be understandable, but if there's nothing else near it or above it that would've reasonably caused the floor, the house may have some other problem you don't know about (maybe the ceilings leak when it rains). I would definitely go through and chip at some more walls before you move in.

8/3/2007 9:08:20 AM

I'd walk away with a quickness.

Even if i lost my $1500, the potential health problems that may ensue, especially with a baby could be much much worse than $1500. Black Mold is some fucked up shit, and it seems like this landlord tried to cover it up... walk away and don't look back.

8/3/2007 9:21:07 AM

I'm sure black mold is really good for a baby.

8/3/2007 9:24:38 AM

Quote :

"walk away and don't look back."

though you should be legally entitled to get that money back.

8/3/2007 9:26:28 AM

I definitely wouldn't move in with my kids. So, a newborn baby is a definite no-go in my opinion as well. However, since you said this is a family friend, I would talk to him about it and explain your feelings and the fact that you have a new baby coming and don't deem it safe. Hopefully he will understand especially if he's a good friend.

8/3/2007 9:38:28 AM

you do not want to fuck around with black mold

8/3/2007 9:56:47 AM

Quote :

"I'd walk away with a quickness."

and

Quote :

"you do not want to fuck around with black mold"

Exactly.

Without a baby there you would be at enough risk just breathing ... with a new baby this could be very serious.

*If* you do go through with it and the mold is dealt with in the ceiling and walls MAKE SURE IT IS NOT IN THE VENTILATION SYSTEM! Chances are, it is and if it is you have a much more serious problem ...

[Edited on August 3, 2007 at 10:07 AM. Reason : air]

8/3/2007 10:03:47 AM

isnt mold just penicillin

8/3/2007 10:13:38 AM

walk away. I mean, if the baby was 6 months or so and and you had more time or whatever then do it but you dont want to fuck around with your newborns health.

8/3/2007 10:48:03 AM

walk away. mold allergies are serious business. they can kill ppl with lowered immune systems and babies and stuff. black mold is baaaaddd stuff.

8/3/2007 10:51:39 AM

Don't move in. We are living in a house with a mold/mildew problem in one room. That room is kept shut and we just store stuff in there. Our place is a 2 bedroom, but 1 bedroom is uninhabitable. Well, we could probably sleep in there, but we're not taking chances of the baby or one of us getting a respiratory infection, asthma, allergies, etc.

8/3/2007 11:02:11 AM

We are having the house tested today. There is a toilet that sits right above this wall and it leaked a couple of times. It has been replaced since. They are doing a whole house inspection with infared and a bunch of other stuff in about two hours.

8/3/2007 11:18:32 AM

hopefully the landlord will foot the bill for it.

8/3/2007 11:25:57 AM

I've done quite a bit of research on mold lately (when I moved into my new room there was some in my closet that I didn't know about). In my searching I found tons of black mold horror stories. With that, my first instinct is to say find somewhere else to stay. Your wife and your soon to be born baby could be affected in ways you can't even imagine (and could possibly not know about for years). Black mold isn't something to mess with, and often insurance companies run from claims dealing with it (you don't want to get stuck with that!).

On the other hand, I could have just read a bunch of internet horror stories. From a more realistic point of view, I would be very VERY cautious. Even if the landlord "takes care of everything" I would get atleast a second opinion from someone reputable... maybe even two or three. If there is a source that you can find (as said earlier), great. If no source is found I wouldn't trust that much mold. Something just doesn't add up, you know? It's not worth jeopardizing your infant's health (which could possibly be lifelong), no matter how great the house is. Mold affects different people in different ways, but infants are susceptible to anything and everything.

Best wishes. I'm not trying to seem irrational, just the thought of a baby in that house scares the living daylights out of me. I hope everything works out well for you & you find out what is causing the mold. Also- Congrats on the baby

8/3/2007 2:53:28 PM

^^hopefully? i'm pretty sure they're legally bound to.

8/3/2007 2:56:39 PM

The bad shit is called stachybotrys

8/3/2007 3:14:33 PM

http://gcrc.meds.cwru.edu/stachy/default.htm

8/3/2007 3:14:57 PM

I would highly recommend not moving in. If you move in anyway then you should pick up a mold test kit from Home Depot and send in any mold that it finds for analysis. At least that way you can find out if the mold spores are dangerous.

8/4/2007 1:47:12 AM

run and don't look back

8/4/2007 4:01:03 AM

i agree with bobbydigital

put your new balances on and start stepping

8/4/2007 7:33:09 AM

i don't even know why you'd consider moving into a house with black mold.

even if they clean up the mold -- and that is not very easy -- who's to say that it won't come back? obviously the conditions are ripe for mold, and there is no technology on earth that can remove all mold spores from a house.

8/4/2007 9:26:51 AM

^there's one, its called a wrecking ball

8/4/2007 9:30:36 AM

ha, i guess fire would do the trick too probably

8/4/2007 9:32:22 AM

actually fire wouldn't work for sure.

8/4/2007 10:40:58 AM

^^^^yes there is. mold remediation and it is $$$$. In a 1600sq ft house it cost my insurance company ~40k and an extra 20K to put all the dry wall back in. Mold is serious business and unless you're willing to spend that kind of money then the house is a no go. Even without a baby you and your wife could have some serious health issues living in this house after just "cutting out" the mold.

find another house

8/5/2007 2:23:46 PM

black mold doesnt just affect one area, it is all over the house...hidden...I saw a show on the discovery channel about how a family moved into there dream house, had mold issues, insurance wouldnt cover it(long battle, they eventually won it), however, they found out that the whole house was full of black mold, it just takes one rain for it to spread....it drys, but the spores fly to other places waiting for moisture. This family had a kid also, the husband was a engineer, but due to the mold, his brain is pretty much fucked(he got it the worse), he is perm disabled...the kid developed severe asthma...the only person that didnt really have any problems was the wife. What they ended up doing was leaving the house and leaving everything they own there, couldnt take anything...so this beautiful home has furniture and everything outside, like a family lives there, but nobody ever can live there unless the destroy the house and build a new one. Hopefully, in your case, it is not as bad. I think in there case, the mold was at first at one location, but because the insurance company wouldnt fix it, is spread all throughout the house...they won $Texas from the insurance company, but still.......

8/5/2007 4:13:25 PM

i would sue someone

8/5/2007 4:14:19 PM

one summer i worked for a home inspection company and had never really thought about mold in houses before but i learned there that its apparently super serious and a frequent problem and that people would have lawsuits and stuff all the time while buying houses and my bosses would actually have to go to court to be expert witnesses. so just being around that craziness imho its worth steering very clear of and do everything you can to get your money back including if necessary a lawyer. but, i dont really know much about mold. but either way i hope you and your family find the whats best very soon.

[Edited on August 5, 2007 at 9:32 PM. Reason : .]

8/5/2007 9:29:50 PM

I didn't read a single thing...

but I lived on the basement floor of a wrightsville beach house one summer...

freaking AWESOME pad... until it got hot and we had to rely on the AC... and I was misserably sick for a month and couldn't sleep. I couldn't get to sleep, I felt like absolute shit whenever I was in the house but then would feel better pretty much as soon as I got out of the house...

Declared imediately afterwards that I would NEVER live in a place with mold again.

8/5/2007 11:05:11 PM

Fate has proven itself in the last couple of days. So the mold restoration team came out last Friday and did a bunch of tests. On Monday, we found out that the entire wall and ceiling would need to be ripped out/replaced/etc., and that it was going to take about 2 weeks. (the house is in the mountains and no contractors like coming up there).

So we talked to the home's owner and he gladly gave us back all of the money we had put in plus another $250.00 for good will, which was really nice. He called me early Tuesday morning and gave me a phone number to a lady he knew that had a home on the market about 1 mile from the previous house.

I call the lady, and it turns out that she knows my wife. She hasn't seen her in a year but she remembers her well as she babysat her grandchildren a couple times. I explain my situation and she says " I have known the owner of the moldy house for years, and we talked some things over. I don't really have to sell my house, I just want to move to CA to be closer to my grandkids.
If you'd like, I can rent you my house for 2 years for $1200, and you will have the first option to buy after 1 year if you choose to do so. I will be flexible on the price, yada yada"

So, we will be moving into her house next week. It is almost 500 SF bigger and nicer than the other house. We will also be saving $300 a month in rent. This place should be renting for about $1800.

Soooooo, having mold in a house we liked will save us $7200 over 2 years, and we got a nicer place!

8/9/2007 10:30:24 AM

Wow. What a happy ending. I'm kind of curious though now as to what some of these horror stories about black mold are, maybe someone could post some?

8/9/2007 11:29:01 AM

Sweet deal. That should work out really well for your family. Congrats!

8/9/2007 11:47:48 AM

thats awesome man, GG

8/9/2007 12:29:21 PM

yea definitely, good decisions work out in the end

8/9/2007 1:03:23 PM

you should find a way to thank the owner of the original house, he really went above and beyond

8/9/2007 4:03:59 PM

I am helping him find someone else to move in-I'm going to show the prospective renters the house when the drywall stuff is done-he lives like 15 miles away, I live like 3/4 mile.

PLUS, I am going to do some handyman stuff for him at the mold house as well, $20 per hour under the table.

8/9/2007 4:09:31 PM