We Can't Live in Our Home, Please Help

Hi,

My name is Jacob, and my fiancé and I could really use a helping hand.

We purchased a home very recently, and were more than excited. This is our first home, and it seemed to be the perfect little oasis for us and our furry kiddos (one dog and one cat). It seemed a wedding, beautiful house, and plans for starting our family were right around the corner. We worked very hard to be able to get to this point in our lives and were very proud of ourselves for taking that next step, but before we knew it, we were living an absolute nightmare.

To put this in the most blunt way possible, we are now financially bound to a home that we cannot live in. We are unable to shower, wash clothes, wash dishes, use the bathroom, or stay in the house due to toxic fumes. Not even 24 hours after signing papers on the house and getting keys did we start seeing the real condition of this home. The day we signed on the house was the same day the heavy rainfall from the hurricane aftermath hit our area, so the heavy rains were able to reveal the first problem - the roof.

The numerous people responsible for walking us through this home purchase did not do their duties and due diligence, which has landed us in a home that should have never hit the market in the first place. Because of this, along with some deception from others involved, we are now homeowners of a house with no working plumbing, electrical dangers, and a leaking roof that has leaked all over the house (along with various other issues not mentioned - these are just the main issues that pose a hazard to our health). Our kitchen and living room have been severely damaged, our master bathroom is severely damaged, and the rest of the house has taken its hit as well. The laundry room is sealed off because of the damage and fumes coming from that room specifically, the master bathroom has been sealed off, but even with that, the fumes of methane gas and mold linger through the house, which is extremely unsafe to breathe.

We do not have any friends/relatives that have the room for us nearby, so in order to escape our situation, we have to uproot our lives and relocate 13 hours away to stay with my fiancé's family, which has costed her job. We have no other choice and have made arrangements to move in with them next week. For the time being, we have been having to order food every single day since there is no functional kitchen. We cannot run the dishwasher or even wash dishes by hand since the water cannot be on for more than a few seconds without clogs and line backups happening. We have been using a bedside portable toilet with a bucket, which has been one of the worst experiences through this all. We have been showering and doing laundry at my mother's house, which gets very time consuming commute wise with my work hours. We have been living an extremely uncomfortable life because we were taken advantage of by those involved in the purchase process. And I feel the term uncomfortable is an understatement. To make matters even more difficult, my fiancé was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, so this stress has made her condition that much worse. Her flare ups are now almost constant and her doctor keeps advising how crucial it is to keep stress levels down, which is impossible in our current situation and environment. I also have a breathing problem, and the methane gas fumes and mold fumes are not something either of us should be breathing in. It's not a safe living environment, so we have no choice but to move.

Obviously, this has taken a huge mental, physical, emotional, and financial strain on us both. My fiancé being out of a job until we can find something temporary for her now makes things a lot harder to manage. We're still responsible for a mortgage on this house that we can't even live in, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how unfair it is. We have decided to take legal action, but this process takes time. We could be in limbo for the next year +, and we cannot afford or manage to live like this for that long. We are trying to raise funds to fix the dire issues in the house so that we can move back into our home and live while we wait for legal justice to take its course. There are a number of things we need to address in this house such as all of the interior damage this has done and so on, but our immediate goal is to fix the things that make the home unlivable. This way we can live in the house and my fiancé can resume her work while we wait for the rest to be ironed out in court. We have put every penny we have into not only purchasing the home, but having people out to investigate the issues and so on. Food has been an extreme expense since we are unable to buy standard groceries and cook as we would. We just cannot continue to live this way, for our own health and safety along with our pets'.

Any contribution to help get us back to our routine in our home state in a SAFE and functional version of our home would be greatly appreciated. This is a very difficult thing for us to do, and the whole situation is killing us slowly, but we need safe living conditions, and for that we need some help. We are eternally grateful and thank you for any positive energy sent this way.