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Tenant claims landlord covered up mold with drywall, paint

10 months 6 days 16 hours ago Friday, February 16 2024 Feb 16, 2024 February 16, 2024 3:51 PM February 16, 2024 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Terri Taylor says she feels sick living in her house and it's because there's mold all over the place. Before she moves out of the rental property, she's sharing a warning for other renters.

"He won't fix it, I've been dealing with this since August," said Taylor.

Over the past few weeks, Taylor has packed up what she could save and tossed the rest. She's thrown away clothing, washing machine and dryer, and furniture. She moved into the rental house in October 2022. It was a nice place to live for her and her children until she started having trouble last August.

"My daughter called me and was like, the ceiling fell in and hit me in the head and I was like what are you talking about?" she said.

Above her ceiling, the HVAC had been leaking. Taylor says she alerted her landlord, Kendall Plain, but didn't hear anything for a month. Her house got very hot and became a breeding ground for mold.

"All he can do is ask for rent and paint over the mold," she said.

Taylor watched as water dripped into a bucket from the ceiling. She says she put a tarp on the ceiling to prevent anything else from falling down.

When weeks continued to tick by without repairs, Taylor stopped paying rent. She says Plain of Plain and Associates LLC tried to evict her, but was unsuccessful.

While touring the property on Friday, Taylor pointed out how the wall in her living room is soft and sagging. A hole in the drywall shows mold covering the inside of the wall.

"They tried covering it up," she said.

Taylor says a crew came by last week to make repairs. Before they replaced the drywall she took a photo of the mold between the wall. It was then sealed up without being treated and painted over.

"You're only covering everything up and I'm scared because when I move and the next person moves in, their health may be worse than mine and not have a chance," said Taylor.

Even before she's moved out, the house is online for rent listed at $1,400 a month. The photos for the listing make it look like a very nice place. Taylor hopes that renters will see her warning about how there's more to those photos on the Internet.

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