MN cover up?

[Guest guest]

I am in the middle of my nightmare. There seems to be a huge cover up in

the Minnesota State Building Codes and Standards Divsion.

The Minnesota State Office of Building Codes and Standards Division has an

OFFICE POLICY... yes OFFICE POLICY that if your house is less than 3 years

old when you report the construction defects and mold in your new home, your

local building offical is the governing body.

In my opinion, the State of Minnesota is trying to discipline the local

building officials when they find out about newer homes having construction

defects and mold in them.

When the state finds out there are problems with homes less than 3 years

old, instead of helping the victimized homeowner, they go back to the local

building official to find out what codes were violated and he gets to be " in

charge " of your case.

Excuse me, wasn't my local building official supose to protect me from the

code violations in the first place?

My local building official had never seen a window spray test. He has never

been on site of a moldy home with water infiltration and construction

defects and now he is going to tell the state what codes were broken?

Do you think he is going to admit all the code violations he missed the

first time during construction?

And who is really punished here? Of course you guessed it... the homeowner.

Maybe I should go to the media concerning this?

Sheila Asleson

Victimized Homeowner

Here is my story:

Twelve months ago our nightmare started.

Over the 12 months so far we have shelled out over $40,000 in testing fees,

expert fees to prove code violations, rental of another home, heat,

utilities, medical bills and attorneys fees.

AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE TO FIX OUR HOME!

With that $40,000 spent already, we understand the journey has just begun.

Let me tell you our story.

Our house was 1 ½ years old when we found mold and construction defects.

On September 16, 2003, (THE DAY. that has forever changed our lives) we were

starting to finish off the basement and we found mold in the walls of our

home.

We called our builder right away and told him what had happened. We asked

him to buy the house back and he said no! He said he would contact his

insurance company and they would come out to look at it.

Well it has been 12 months now and the builder and his insurance company

have done nothing to fix our home!

We also called our homeowner's insurance agent right away and also told them

what had happened.

But it took a letter from our attorney to get our homeowners insurance

company to come look at the house. Our homes owners insurance denied our

claim to put us up in a rental home. (I got sick from the mold and so did

one of our daughters so we had no choice but to move out of the moldy house)

It was recommended by our attorney that we get the house tested for types

and levels of mold, as one of our children has allergies plus an autoimmune

problem. And also because I had been diagnosed with Lupus 5 ½ years ago.

Lupus is also an autoimmune disease. I have done some research that people

with compromised immune systems shouldn't be around mold or their spores.

And doctors recommend people with Lupus to avoid stress.

This whole mold thing has been the most stressful thing in my life!

The testing for the mold that we paid for out of our pocket was done 2 ½

weeks after we found the mold. It took several weeks to get the results

back.

Meanwhile, we waited in agony because one of our daughters was getting

really sick. She couldn't stop sneezing, blowing her nose or coughing when

she was in the house. It was awful!

For 6 weeks she had night after night of fitful sleep because the coughing

kept her awake. Cough syrup didn't help. She looked awful with huge dark

circles under her eyes, but worse, she started to have trouble breathing

while she was in the house.

It turned out that our daughter is allergic to the mold spores in the house.

Her allergist recommended that she get out and stay out of the house until

it was fixed.

So for four weeks our nine-year-old daughter had to go from house to house

to house, living with friends and neighbors. This killed us inside!

Not only was she just nine year old and sick from the mold, but she couldn't

even live with her family! It was heartrenching that we couldn't be there

for our own child in her time of need!

The test results for the mold were not good. We had high levels of mold in

the walls of our home.

My husband and I were certain that we couldn't continue to go on living

without our daughter with us. We needed to be together as a family and we

needed to try to get healthy. The emotional and physical stress was taking

a toll on the whole family.

The only thing we could afford to rent was a very small farmhouse in the

country. And we had to pay for this house ourselves, utilities, heat etc.

with our own money.

We thought how in the world are we going to be able to afford a second

house, utilities, heat etc. when we still have our mortgage, heat and

utilities to pay for at other house? Add on top of that, add medical bills,

testing fees and expert fees for the moldy house.plus attorneys fees!

It has been 12 months since we have found the mold and construction defects

in our home. Why isn't anything being done to fix our home?

We have spent thousands of dollars with our own money, gone forever as a

victim of the system.

Why?

Where is our help? Where is the help for the victim?

We are not asking for a handout. We are asking for justice.

Justice for the homeowner.

Sincerely,

Sheila Asleson

Minnesota

763-682-1411

PS Many people ask us if we had a stucco home. NO WE DID NOT! We had steel

siding.

WE have found out through the testing that WE HAD TO PAY FOR, that several

code violations had occurred during the building process. Either our county

inspector overlooked or didn't check for these code violations.

Not only have we been severely hurt buy our builder, his insurance company,

our homeowners insurance company,, but also our building inspector. the very

agency that is supose to be protecting us!

Only through changing laws, is anything going to happen or change. In the

meantime, people are falling through the cracks of our legislative system,

and getting hurt physically, emotionally, financially