Posted by Taylor Kingsley on 12/11/07

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We are renting a house in Hawaii that has mold in the
carpets. It appears as a light green on leather clothing
and is causing horrible allergies for me and my husband.
The landlady thinks it is rather minor (although,
ironically, she and her husband moved out of this house
due to his respiratory problems, which they attributed to
vog, not mold). She will not allow us to remove the carpet
in even one room, although she was willing to pay for some
plug-in dehumidifiers. We have those in 3 rooms, and we
are using the "Damp Rid" powder you put in a closet to
absorb moisture, but it's still so bad, I have to sleep
outside sometimes. We get relief for a few weeks when we
get the carpet steam-cleaned, but it's expensive.
Would you suggest we:
a) Ask the landlady to pay for mold treatment such as
fogging or steam cleaning with a mold killer such as
OxyMold?
b) Withhold rent?
c) Write a demand letter?
d) Treat it ourselves?
e) Just move out?
f) Something else?
What are our rights???
Our lease has 9 months left on it, and we'd really prefer
not to move out unless it's the last resort, because we
have already moved 8 times in 2 years (some of the moves
were due to mold). We will certainly be moving into a
dryer ecosystem next time but would rather hang in there
(yet in a healthier way) til the summer...
Thanks for your advice.

Tenants' Rights re: mold (not black), 12/11/07, by Taylor Kingsley.

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