Dial M for Mold!

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Dial M for Mold!

Black fungus triumphs over tenants at Costa Mesa apartment complex

by GUSTAVO ARELLANO

CA

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/41/news-arellano.php

Fungus amongus

Naidovich has lived at the gated Camden Sea Palms condominiums

in Costa Mesa for the past eight years. Earlier this spring, his 63-

year-old mother began suffering coughing fits at night. Naidovich

alerted management, and they quickly found the culprit in his

bathroom: stachybotrys chatarum, better known as black mold.

Management said they would take care of it, but Naidovich's mom is

coughing again—the black mold is back.

In April, Naidovich told his neighbor, Mesta, about the mold.

Mesta wasn't surprised. For the past year, mold has infested his

unit, mostly in the kitchen and in the bedroom that his eight-year-

old son and infant daughter share. Camden management replaced a

windowsill and proclaimed the problem over. But mold is still

bubbling on Mesta's kitchen ceiling.

The two then talked to Deverick Mack, a five-year tenant at Camden.

Mack has moved with his wife from hotel to hotel since late January,

when they left their Camden condo after their eyes became red and

skin inflamed—thanks, they allege, to mold in their living room.

Camden also promised to remedy their mold problem. The mold is still

there.

Mack, Mesta and Naidovich have spoken to other Camden residents and

discovered many have weathered mold outbreaks in their condos since

the heavy rains in January. Their demand to Camden officials is

simple: stop the mold. But according to multiple tenants interviewed

by the Weekly, management has made only limited repairs to their

units—when they bothered to respond to complaints at all.

" All our concerns have been met with either silence or snippy

responses, " Mack said.

A recent visit to the Camden Sea Palms, an oasis of middle-class

tranquility in Costa Mesa's rough Westside, confirmed tenants'

allegations that the place is a mold farm. Some units featured only

the first splotchy dots of mold on walls. In others, residents stuck

wads of tissue paper on the corners of windows in an unsuccessful

effort to stop the mold's spread. Mold was in bathrooms, in living

rooms, above cribs, near bunk beds.

Calls to the managers of the Camden Sea Palms were not returned.

This organization isn't the first to encounter silence from

management, whose parent company, the Houston-based Camden Property

Trust, operates nearly 66,500 apartment units across the country and

reported revenues of $433 million last year. On Feb. 7, the Orange

County Health Care Agency sent a letter to Camden Sea Palms manager

Hancock, warning her to " take immediate action to correct

this condition " after Mack complained to the HCA. Failure to do so,

according to the HCA's letter, would violate the Uniform Housing

Code and subject Camden to fines. But there is no record in

documents obtained by the Weekly that Camden responded to the HCA's

request or that an HCA inspector ever investigated Camden units. HCA

officials refused to discuss anything not included in the documents,

citing privacy concerns.

In any case, HCA's power is limited. According to its website, the

agency's only recourse is to " take tenant complaints " and send out

an informational packet on mold.

Meanwhile, Mack called the Costa Mesa Code Enforcement agency, which

declined to investigate, calling it a " civil " matter. Finally, Mack

hired V. , a FEMA Certified Risk Analyst, to assess

his unit's mold damage. On Jan. 29, and a State Farm

Insurance agent inspected Mack's apartment and found that the crew

hired by Camden to repair Mack's unit was not certified by the state

of California to remove mold and, not surprisingly, that the repairs

had failed to fix the problem.

In a Feb. 18 letter to Camden's attorneys, demanded that

Camden officials provide him with a copy of their mold assessment

report. Camden never responded. In letters and telephone calls,

kept asking for the report until March 3. That's when Mack

learned via a call from a Camden manager that the company was trying

to break his lease agreement.

" They said they didn't want me back, " Mack claims. " No other

explanation. "

" Mr. Mack and [his wife] have done nothing to breach the Agreement, "

wrote to Camden's lawyers. " One can only speculate, darkly,

as to the motive of your client to seize this opportunity to engage

in these reprehensible business practices. "

Mack doesn't know why Camden management will no longer return his

calls, even though he's paid rent on his property since leaving it

in January. " They may fear if they respond to one, it would be an

acknowledgement there is a problem, and it could be a can of worms

that could be crippling to their bottom line, " Mack says.

Mack doesn't miss the mold, but he does miss his apartment,

especially the ocean view from his window and the cool ocean

breezes. He hopes Camden calls him back and does something—or that

county or city health officials force them to get rid of the mold.

He says he can't understand why both the HCA and Costa Mesa code

enforcement department have refused to help him and other Camden

residents.

" I don't want to retaliate against Camden or get them shut down, " he

insists. " We like our place—we've been there five years. We just

want to go back home. "

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