SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Sherry Russell said she just wants her cough to go away.
“Struggling to breathe in,” she said. “Coughing up some of the worse stuff.”
Russell believes the cough is caused by mold in her apartment because of various leaks near her patio doors
“All this is cracked away,” she showed KENS 5. “It’s washed away from water.”
She also showed KENS 5 what she believes is mold in the bathroom.
“The black wouldn’t go away and it’s like really gross,” Russell said. “It’s mold.”
She notified her property manager several times, several different ways.
“I want to say in the last six, eight months, I’ve been asking them, writing it, calling them,” Russell said.
She said she has taken all the measures she can to eliminate it.
“I noticed when I’m scrubbing like, you know, corners are always hard, but if you know, scrubbing them, they come clean, but this won’t come clean,” Russell said.
The property manager told KENS 5 an employee with the property and the regional property manager looked at the apartment and saw no mold. Russell said the only option left is to move.
“This is me and my family’s health, what do we do?” she said.
Tenants that find themselves in a similar situation should take these steps.
The first is to always put the problem in writing to a property manager.
“You do want to put things in writing so that you’ve got a record of it,” said David Mintz with the Texas Apartment Association. “So there’s no question that you’ve made that notification.”
He also recommended trying to do what you can as a renter to reduce moisture.
“A lot of times it’s just making sure that there’s not water accumulation that’s going on,” he said.
Russell said she has done both.
“I spray it down with cleaner and I brush it because I don’t want gunk on my shower wall when I’m bathing,” she said.
Contacting your city’s code enforcement is the next step.
“If your efforts to reach out to the management haven’t been successful, then code enforcement will respond to that and evaluate whether or not there really is a problem that affects health and safety and if it does, they’ll take the proper steps to try to remedy that situation,” Mintz said. “Generally, it’s harmless and I think that’s very important for people to keep that in mind when you do have mold.”
Call 311 to reach code enforcement in the City of San Antonio. Mintz said there are no federal or state standards for dealing with mold.