Entire Home & Belongings Destroyed By Toxic Mold
Friends and Family,
We extend our deepest thanks for visiting this page, taking the time to read our story, and for your unending support and encouragement in this devastating time of loss.
If you are unfamiliar with us or our story, please allow us to briefly share how this tragedy occurred and how we could use your help.
My name is Lindsay and my husband’s name is Zack. In October 2020, we moved from Texas to Ohio soon after we found out that we were pregnant with our beautiful daughter, Willow. We found a house for rent through a national rent to own company. (For legality purposes, we will not disclose the name of the company for now.) The house is a beautiful century home that was built in 1929. Before moving in, a home inspector for the rental company came in and said that our home was good to go, but noted the leaking and moisture issues in the basement of our home.
Upon moving in, we noticed that whenever it snowed or rained (which was very often), our basement would flood with water due to holes in the walls and windows in the basement. We reported this issue to our rental company, and they dismissed their LEGAL OBLIGATION to fix this issue, even though it was a health and safety hazard. Over the past year, we have continued to ask them to fix the water hazards in the basement, and they have continued to decline and or ignore our requests.
A few months after moving into this home, we both mysteriously began feeling severely ill.
I began having excruciating migraine headaches every single day. Mind you, I have no history of migraines. I also began to sneeze constantly and have immense sinus pressure and pain. My body began to have unexplained aches and pains, my eyes started to burn constantly, and I became extremely fatigued. Then, I began having severe digestive issues, which I began to be effected by daily.
My husband, Zack, also “mysteriously” started to develop severe digestive issues and extreme fatigue. His muscles and joints began to ache, just like mine. And he also developed severe sleep apnea (which he also had no prior history of.)
When these symptoms began to wreak havoc on our lives, we had no idea what could be causing these issues and we certainly didn’t understand the danger we were in.
One day after a heavy rainfall, my husband went down into our basement to check the flooding, and something in him prompted him to examine the basement more closely. Upon further examination, he discovered what looked like black mold all over the walls and mold all over the ceilings. This obviously deeply disturbed us, because of the sickness we had been suffering with and the fact that our belongings and house could be contaminated.
We contacted our rental company and after pleading with them to send someone to take care of the mold, they finally agreed to send a construction company out to our home to “clean the basement.” After the construction company left our house, we felt relieved that our basement would now be clean and we could hopefully continue our lives. However, once we went into the basement, we discovered that the construction company did not clean ANY mold, or take care of the root cause (the water leakage, holes in the walls/windows/etc) All they had done was tear down a few panels.
Due to the negligence and refusal of our rental company to legitimately take care of our mold problem and the root cause (the leaking), we decided to call a mold expert to come and test our home. When the expert came, he was stunned to see the condition of the basement. He put on protective gear to protect himself from the overwhelming mold smells, and he said that he could still smell it through his gear. He tested our home and sent the samples off to the lab.
The results were daunting.
The lab results declared our ENTIRE home as severely toxic. Our entire home AND all of our belongings. We not only discovered that we had a “mold problem”, but that we had a HIGHLY SEVERE infestation of black mold. And not only did we discover that we were sick, but we realized that our mysterious illness were caused as a result of black mold poisoning.
Here are the numbers that compare the mold on the outside of our home, versus the inside of our home.
Toxic black mold (outside) 849
Toxic black mold (inside) TNC (too numerous to count)
Cladosporium (outside) 35
Cladosporium (inside) 317
Mucor (outside) 0
Mucor (inside) TNC (too numerous to count)
After discussing these results with our mold experts, toxic mold support groups, and seeking further advice from people that have gone through the same situation, we were strongly advised not only to part with our home, but all of our belongings.
In cases of mild or moderate mold in a home, there are instances where certain things can be salvaged. In our case, our home and all of our belongings have been too severely contaminated to safely try to salvage them in any way. We are heeding the wise advice of our mold experts and those who have gained wisdom through (unfortunate) experience.
Due to the fact that all of our personal belongings are now gone, we are humbly (and I admit, hesitantly) asking for help. All of our clothes, all of our furniture, everything we own is gone. Our savings account is completely drained, due to the extensive medical bills we have incurred over the last year. Our healing journey from this will be a very long road, and we will continue to incur more and more medical bills. We also are taking legal action and have no way to pay for a lawyer to help obtain the damages due to us as a result of this companies vile negligence.
If you feel led to help our family, you can donate here. Words cannot adequately express our deepest thanks in advance for your support. We pray that God would give us the future opportunity to be the same blessing to all of you that you have been to us. Lastly, we would like to give thanks to the Lord, because even in this loss, He is good and He will provide for us beyond what we could ever imagine or think is possible.
God bless you all and may the Lord richly bless you.
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job 1:21
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:31-33
