Single mom tears down mobile home infested with black mold

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Single mom tears down mobile home infested with black mold

Woman says it was only choice as insurer won't cover damages

PUBLISHED: March 30, 2006

By De

Macomb Daily Staff Writer

http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/033006/loc_moldhome001.shtml

Macomb Daily photo by N. Posavetz

When Oswald discovered mold had infested her Shelby Township

mobile home, she couldn't afford the repairs and decided instead to

have the home demolished.

You can purchase this photo. It will appear tomorrow in our online

PHOTO GALLERY.

A 28-year-old Shelby Township woman is homeless after an insurance

company refused to pay for damages to her mobile home caused by

black mold.

Oswald said she just wanted to spruce up her home when seven

years ago she removed outside flower boxes.

Instead, she and her two children find themselves without a home and

in the middle of a nightmare.

" This has broken my heart, " said Oswald, a single mother who works

as a secretary at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital. " This was not the

plan. "

Oswald's story began seven years ago when she purchased a previously

owned mobile home in the Dequindre Estates park in Shelby Township.

The home included flower boxes attached to the outside -- flower

boxes that had become an eyesore, she said.

" They were ugly and (the previous owners) were using them as

ashtrays, " Oswald recalled.

So she removed them.

Fast forward seven years to last month. Oswald's dog got a little

rambunctious while playing in the living room and crashed into a

wall. A section of the wall crumbled.

Further investigation revealed that black mold had penetrated the

drywall of the home to such an extent that a large section crumbled.

Oswald immediately thought about her son, 9-year-old , an asthma

patient, and decided she had to move quickly.

Within days, Oswald contacted her insurance company. Then she got

some more bad news. The damage would not be covered.

Had the mold been caused by a broken water pipe or similar

malfunction, the insurance company said, the repairs would be

covered. But since it apparently resulted from Oswald's failure to

seal the screw holes after removing the flower boxes, the company

wouldn't pay.

" Since your loss was the result of mold, lack of maintenance, and

seepage or leakage of rain, there is no coverage, " the company wrote

in a March 1 letter to Oswald.

An April 2005 posting on the Insurance Information Institute Web

site suggests the lack of coverage for such losses is " specifically

excluded " in standard homeowners policies.

" Mold contamination is covered ... only if it is the result of a

covered peril, " the article reads.

Damage to the home was estimated at $4,500 at a minimum, Oswald

said, and that depended on how widespread the mold damage. That's

$4,500 she didn't have.

She doesn't believe the damage was caused by removal of the flower

boxes, so she sought legal advice to challenge the insurance

company's denial. More bad news.

" The amount it would cost to go after them, I'm still going to come

out negative, " she said.

Saddled with a home in which she cannot live and facing $330 monthly

lot rent payments, Oswald made one of the toughest choices of her

life: She decided to have the home demolished and removed.

" I couldn't afford it, " she said. " It breaks my heart to have to

pack up my family and move. "

For the moment, Oswald and her children are staying with friends.

She still has to pay the mortgage on the mobile home that's now been

demolished.

Oswald believes she's exhausted all her options, but hopes somebody

might suggest a course of action that hasn't occurred to her.

Meanwhile, Oswald will try to find a new home for herself and her

children.

" I've got no choice, " she said.

Oswald can be reached at (586) 242-9727.