Re: Haunted by mold: Homeowner seeks relief

[Guest guest]

That story is so sad...what a horrible nightmare of

reality.

--- tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...> wrote:

> Haunted by mold: Homeowner seeks relief

> By: Charniga, The Record02/06/2006

>

> http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?

> newsid=16073587 & BRD=1170 & PAG=461 & dept_id=7021 & rfi=6

>

> Troy,NY

>

> BRUNSWICK - If toxic mold in your home is a problem,

> you may be

> better off calling Ghostbusters than most of the

> regulatory agencies

> in charge of protecting consumers, judging by one

> woman's story.

>

> More than six months ago, The Record published an

> account of a town

> resident who was forced to leave her home because

> the toxic mold

> that had infested it was slowly poisoning her and

> her teenage

> daughter, a problem that was not disclosed before

> the sale was

> closed.

> Now, e Choma, a 38-year-old single mother who

> works as a

> project analyst for the Progressive Insurance Co.,

> says she's in

> much the same position today as she was then.

> Apart from the $105,500 Choma borrowed from M & T Bank

> to buy the 6

> Magill Ave. home in early 2004, she owes for the

> furniture that

> fills the home, which she abandoned after a year,

> $10,000 for other

> furniture she bought to fill her Colonie apartment

> after abandoning

> her home and other bills. She estimates that $32,360

> in property was

> abandoned, in addition to gifts and items of

> sentimental value, plus

> a new $7,000 roof that failed to stop water from

> entering the home.

> Choma said she was forced to abandon the home

> because she is

> allergic to the Stacchybotris and Aspergillus

> strains of mold, both

> of which are toxic. The mold began to show up six

> months after she

> bought the home in visible swaths, first in her

> hallway and then

> throughout the two-story home's second floor.

> Exposure to the mold caused her hair to fall out,

> memory loss,

> headaches, peeling eyelids, nose bleeds and a fungal

> infection that

> covered her face with red blotches. Her daughter,

> once an Averill

> Park track star, also suffered respiratory problems,

> but both

> women's symptoms subsided once they left the

> contaminated home.

> Her homeowners' insurance company, Allstate, denied

> a claim last

> year, calling the mold infestation a condition that

> existed before

> Choma bought the house, discounting her claims the

> inspector she

> hired before the closing never mentioned the

> infestation. M & T is now

> moving to foreclose, Choma says, expecting what good

> credit she has

> left will be ruined.

> She stands to lose her one remaining possession, her

> truck, because

> she made too large of a cash down payment and her

> many creditors

> feel entitled to this $6,000 in equity even though

> she still owes

> part of the truck's cost. She is also currently

> being audited by the

> Internal Revenue Service for an income tax return.

> " Mold is specifically excluded from being covered by

> a policy " as it

> is not considered " a sudden and accidental loss "

> such as a tree

> falling on a house, which would be covered by a

> typical homeowners

> insurance policy, Allstate spokeswoman Jaclyn

> Darrohn said.

> Though the initial inspection found nothing, the

> structural

> engineers she later hired to inspect the home didn't

> need more than

> a glance to determine the dormers that had been

> added to the the

> second floor at some point were sinking,

> compromising the structural

> integrity of the roof and letting in moisture. Choma

> blames the

> structural deficiency for the mold, which she

> believes was

> deliberately hidden from her before she bought the

> house.

> She now feels cornered, with little support from the

> public sector,

> while her creditors line up to divide what they can

> of her remaining

> assets.

> M & T Bank, which loaned her the money to buy the

> home, went as far as

> to suggest on July 27 that she sell the home with

> full disclosure of

> its problems for its assessed value of $30,000 and

> pass the funds

> along to them in exchange for writing off the

> $70,000 balance, an

> offer Choma refused.

> Selling the home without full disclosure of its

> problems, as Choma

> claims was done to her, is grounds for a charge of

> fraud.

> Since the family who sold the house to Choma have

> not been charged

> with a crime, their identities are being withheld.

> Choma believes three other buyers approached the

> former owners but

> backed away after seeing results of engineering

> reports. Their

> identities may be in a file compiled during an

> investigation by the

> state Department of State. She believes she could

> prove she was

> defrauded if she could reach these persons and

> confirm they were

> told of the home's problems while she was not, but

> she has been

> unable to obtain access to the closed file.

> She credits Brunswick Building Department employee

> Ron Neissen with

> helping her most by not condemning her home. The

> town has since

> declared the building, which is prone to flooding,

> unfit for

> occupancy.

> Between June 17 and 21, Choma sent letters to

> senators E.

> Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gov.

> Pataki, state Senate

> Majority Leader ph L. Bruno, Rensselaer County

> Legislature

> Chairman Neil J. Kelleher and 11 other legislators,

> and state

> Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

> Only Schumer replied in writing, Choma said, with a

> form letter

> thanking her for her concern with environmental

> protection but

> making no indication her letter was actually read.

> But on Friday, less than two hours after a

> reporter's call to

> Schumer's Washington, D.C., office, a staffer in his

> Albany office

> called Choma's cell phone to relay an offer from the

> senator to

> write a letter to the IRS on her behalf, should she

> ask for this

> assistance.

> The only time that phone number was sent to

> Schumer's office was in

> the June letter. She said believes the letter was

> kept on file

> without action during the interceding months.

> A Schumer staffer said Friday they were now in touch

> with Choma

> and " aggressively seeking any opportunity to help "

> on the federal

> level, specifically with her IRS audit, which Choma

> blames on a tax

> preparer's error.

> " This is obviously a very distressing situation for

> Ms. Choma and

> her daughter, and we will do everything we can to

> help, " including

> by contacting the state Department of Banking and

> federal Department

> of Health and Human Services and possibly even

> arranging pro bono

> representation by an attorney, Clinton said through

> her press office

> Friday.

> Only one of the county legislators replied via

> telephone,

> saying " there was nothing they could do for me, but

> they would keep

> me in their prayers. " County officials say their

> hands are tied.

> The state Bureau of Consumer Fraud, which she

> reached out to through

> Spitzer's Web site, advised her to pursue a

> settlement in small

>

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