Family flees 'house of horrors'

[Guest guest]

Family flees 'house of horrors'

Faces bankruptcy after they discover recently purchased Stony Plain

home infected with toxic levels of black mould

Published: Tuesday, August 01, 2006

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?

id=dbbabbaa-cee1-42c7-b8ad-e0510516a35e & k=75290

EDMONTON - A Stony Plain family is facing financial ruin after they

unknowingly bought a house infected with toxic levels of black mould.

Steve and Norma Dima bought the 1970s-era home on a sprawling 1.6-

hectare property just west of Stony Plain in a private sale in April.

The Dimas did not have the house inspected before agreeing to the

sale.

Now, just months after moving in and weeks after tests revealed

unsafe levels of mould in the home, the Dimas are sleeping in a

minivan in their own backyard.

Their savings are already stretched from the down payment on the

$264,000 home and Steve Dima's income as a pipefitter won't cover

both the mortgage and the rent on whatever new home they find.

The cost of demolishing the old house and building a new one is even

further out of their reach.

The Dimas, who are in their mid 50s, don't think they can recover

from a bankruptcy.

But at this point, their options are limited.

" We've got our backs against the wall, " Steve Dima said. The Dimas

moved in to the home over the May long weekend.

As they carted in furniture and unpacked suitcases, the family

noticed the smell of incense hanging in the air.

It was not the first time. When Steve Dima examined the property in

the spring, the same strong smell was always present.

At the time, he thought nothing of it. The property was not in great

shape.

The floor of the garage was layered with thick piles of pigeon waste

and cats roamed freely through the house.

The incense was probably just an effort to cover up their smells,

Dima thought.

But one morning, just weeks after the family arrived, one of the two

Dima boys came up the stairs from his basement bedroom complaining

of a headache.

There was a strange smell downstairs, he said, and it wasn't the

incense.

Indeed, as the one smell retreated, another took its place. The

unmistakable stink of mould soon pervaded the house.

Capital Health inspected the property in June. Their tests revealed

unsafe levels of aspergillus, penicillium and cladosporium in the

air.

In high enough concentrations, all three can cause serious damage to

the human immune system.

Next, a private inspector came to determine the size of the problem.

Dallinger found chunks of black mould caked into the insulation

when he opened the walls. He measured the moisture in the basement -

necessary for the mould to grow -- at 99.9 per cent.

Dallinger advised the Dimas to leave the home and everything in it,

and not return. By this point, Norma Dima's voice was already ragged

from what doctors told her were spores infecting her throat and

lungs. She is waiting for blood tests to reveal if her liver is

damaged.

" It's the house of horrors, " Norma Dima said, her voice straining.

For now, as their parents sleep in the family van, the two teenage

boys are living with relatives. A picnic table sheltered by a

plastic tarp holds the only possessions the family took with them

when they left: a couple of garbage bags full of clothing, some

personal files and all the records related to the sale.

Norma Dima spends every day at the table, trying to find a solution.

Right now, she is trying to have the county declare that the home

was never properly certified when it was built in 1974. But if that

does not work, the

Dimas's only hope may be to go after the previous owner. That could

be tough.

The general legal principle in such cases is " let the buyer beware, "

said Denis Noel, a lawyer who taught real estate law at the

University of Alberta for 24 years.

That means unless the contract stipulates that the vendor has to

reveal significant defects, the buyer is out of luck.

However, there are exceptions, and the Dima case may well be one.

If the condition is dangerous and the vendor is aware of the

problem, generally speaking, they do have to say something. If they

keep quiet, a court can make them pay whatever it costs to eliminate

the danger.

The thick growths of toxic mould in the Dima's home are certainly

dangerous. And the family says only demolition of the house will

solve the problem.

If that's true, the damages could cover the cost of tearing down the

old home and building a new one.

So the question the Dimas have to answer is simple: Did the previous

owner know about the mould?

In an e-mail to The Journal, the previous owner said she had been

advised not to comment.

The Dimas however, have no doubt. They are convinced the incense

smell was an effort to hide the problem long enough for the sale to

be finalized.

" She knows the score, " Norma Dima said.

Steve Dima acknowledged it was probably stupid not to have the

property inspected. But, as the half-restored cars and trucks parked

neatly in the yard attest, Dima and his boys are good with their

hands. He was convinced they could fix whatever problems he found.

He hopes that, by making his story public, others won't make the

same mistake.

As for the woman who sold him the house, Dima can only shake his

head.

" God says what goes around comes around. But I just don't know. ...

We're ruined. "

rwarnica@...

[Guest guest]

WOW,

Question if you know someone who's about to put a home for sale knowing the mold

is so bad to knock on the door could send many streat to the Hospital. What

would you do knowing someone is about to by a nightmare at 359,000 I'm just

wondering what would you do or can you do?

Elvira

[] Family flees 'house of horrors'

Family flees 'house of horrors'

Faces bankruptcy after they discover recently purchased Stony Plain

home infected with toxic levels of black mould

Published: Tuesday, August 01, 2006

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?

id=dbbabbaa-cee1-42c7-b8ad-e0510516a35e & k=75290

EDMONTON - A Stony Plain family is facing financial ruin after they

unknowingly bought a house infected with toxic levels of black mould.

Steve and Norma Dima bought the 1970s-era home on a sprawling 1.6-

hectare property just west of Stony Plain in a private sale in April.

The Dimas did not have the house inspected before agreeing to the

sale.

Now, just months after moving in and weeks after tests revealed

unsafe levels of mould in the home, the Dimas are sleeping in a

minivan in their own backyard.

Their savings are already stretched from the down payment on the

$264,000 home and Steve Dima's income as a pipefitter won't cover

both the mortgage and the rent on whatever new home they find.

The cost of demolishing the old house and building a new one is even

further out of their reach.

The Dimas, who are in their mid 50s, don't think they can recover

from a bankruptcy.

But at this point, their options are limited.

" We've got our backs against the wall, " Steve Dima said. The Dimas

moved in to the home over the May long weekend.

As they carted in furniture and unpacked suitcases, the family

noticed the smell of incense hanging in the air.

It was not the first time. When Steve Dima examined the property in

the spring, the same strong smell was always present.

At the time, he thought nothing of it. The property was not in great

shape.

The floor of the garage was layered with thick piles of pigeon waste

and cats roamed freely through the house.

The incense was probably just an effort to cover up their smells,

Dima thought.

But one morning, just weeks after the family arrived, one of the two

Dima boys came up the stairs from his basement bedroom complaining

of a headache.

There was a strange smell downstairs, he said, and it wasn't the

incense.

Indeed, as the one smell retreated, another took its place. The

unmistakable stink of mould soon pervaded the house.

Capital Health inspected the property in June. Their tests revealed

unsafe levels of aspergillus, penicillium and cladosporium in the

air.

In high enough concentrations, all three can cause serious damage to

the human immune system.

Next, a private inspector came to determine the size of the problem.

Dallinger found chunks of black mould caked into the insulation

when he opened the walls. He measured the moisture in the basement -

necessary for the mould to grow -- at 99.9 per cent.

Dallinger advised the Dimas to leave the home and everything in it,

and not return. By this point, Norma Dima's voice was already ragged

from what doctors told her were spores infecting her throat and

lungs. She is waiting for blood tests to reveal if her liver is

damaged.

" It's the house of horrors, " Norma Dima said, her voice straining.

For now, as their parents sleep in the family van, the two teenage

boys are living with relatives. A picnic table sheltered by a

plastic tarp holds the only possessions the family took with them

when they left: a couple of garbage bags full of clothing, some

personal files and all the records related to the sale.

Norma Dima spends every day at the table, trying to find a solution.

Right now, she is trying to have the county declare that the home

was never properly certified when it was built in 1974. But if that

does not work, the

Dimas's only hope may be to go after the previous owner. That could

be tough.

The general legal principle in such cases is " let the buyer beware, "

said Denis Noel, a lawyer who taught real estate law at the

University of Alberta for 24 years.

That means unless the contract stipulates that the vendor has to

reveal significant defects, the buyer is out of luck.

However, there are exceptions, and the Dima case may well be one.

If the condition is dangerous and the vendor is aware of the

problem, generally speaking, they do have to say something. If they

keep quiet, a court can make them pay whatever it costs to eliminate

the danger.

The thick growths of toxic mould in the Dima's home are certainly

dangerous. And the family says only demolition of the house will

solve the problem.

If that's true, the damages could cover the cost of tearing down the

old home and building a new one.

So the question the Dimas have to answer is simple: Did the previous

owner know about the mould?

In an e-mail to The Journal, the previous owner said she had been

advised not to comment.

The Dimas however, have no doubt. They are convinced the incense

smell was an effort to hide the problem long enough for the sale to

be finalized.

" She knows the score, " Norma Dima said.

Steve Dima acknowledged it was probably stupid not to have the

property inspected. But, as the half-restored cars and trucks parked

neatly in the yard attest, Dima and his boys are good with their

hands. He was convinced they could fix whatever problems he found.

He hopes that, by making his story public, others won't make the

same mistake.

As for the woman who sold him the house, Dima can only shake his

head.

" God says what goes around comes around. But I just don't know. ...

We're ruined. "

rwarnica@...

[Guest guest]

There needs to be a web site where people can post their mold

experiences by address.. sort of like Google Maps.. But I wouldn't

want to be that person, because there are people out there who would

want to kill you, just like they had killed 'their' tenants/victims..

etc.

But it needs to be done.. By someone with the resources to protect

themselves from the inevitable fallout, lawsuits.. etc.

Perhaps it could be based overseas...?