Linton Tenant Learns About Mold the Hard Way

Susan McDonald’s story with mold is not too different from a thousand other stories of ruined lives. However, we can turn this into another “teachable moment” since there is a lot to learn from what she’s been through.

Susan McDonald of Linton, IN had her life turned upside down when mold forced her to abandon her mobile rented home and dispose of all her property, including priceless personal effects. Even though her symptoms have improved, doctors think she will continue to suffer through sinus infections, extreme fatigue, itchy skin, numbness, and a number of other illnesses for the rest of her life. She attempted to sue her landlord for $6,000 to clean up her personal belongings, but was unable to afford an attorney and couldn’t prove her case. You can read her full story here
and here/

Susan was apparently caught off guard by the mold, and didn’t even realize it might be responsible for her symptoms until she read an article in Consumer Reports about mold. This pushed her to see a doctor and investigate, but by then it was too late.

When Susan found some wet places in her home after she moved in, her landlord told her that he had already fixed those. The landlord later claimed that he was never told about mold or leaks in the home, or he would have fixed them. The landlord may not be exactly truthful here, but it also doesn’t seem like Susan took those wet spots seriously enough. She later got reports from a licensed property inspector and insurance field adjuster which showed that nearly every window sill, the walls, and under the floor around the rear door of the home were all water damaged.

Susan had renter’s insurance; however mold is excluded in the policy.

After losing everything and paying extra just to get out of the situation, Susan is now on a crusade to promote a city ordinance to provide renters with a home inspector before they move in. “A simple thing like a simple home inspection could have prevented all of this.”

But this isn’t true. As you should all know by now, a home inspector is not obligated to report mold findings, and usually won’t. This unknown fact has caused many people to mistakenly rely on a home inspector to inform them about dangerous mold. So even if Linton could afford such a thing, which they cannot, it wouldn’t necessarily prevent the same thing from happening to another tenant.