Homeowner says mold make her home uninhabitable

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Homeowner says mold make her home uninhabitable

By: Charniga, The Record06/26/2005

http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?

newsid=14759346 & BRD=1170 & PAG=461 & dept_id=7021 & rfi=6

BRUNSWICK - Number 6 Magill Ave., the first house on a short dead-

end residential street that is quite easy for a passing motorist to

miss, is clearly unoccupied. Shrouded in blue tarps hanging limply

in the heat, the home is surrounded by a knee-high lawn and

silence.

Stepping inside, the question of why the two-story, single-family

home is empty is answered, first by the smell of mold and second by

dark growths visible on the walls and on ceiling beams shown by

missing tiles.

According to homeowner e Choma, who bought 6 Magill Ave. Feb.

12, 2004, the molds present in her home and on her possessions are

Stacchybotris and Aspergillus, the most toxic of molds whose

airborne spores are poisonous when inhaled.

Until last year, she shared the home with her daughter, an award-

winning athlete, and a seven-pound Pomeranian. Four months ago, an

air quality engineer she hired to take samples in her home told her

it was contaminated with more airborne Staccybotris spores than he'd

seen in a decade.

Choma, who works as a project analyst for Progressive Insurance

Company's special investigations unit looking into questionable

claims, believes she was hoodwinked into buying an already tainted

home by the former owners, whose relative works as a broker and

helped them sell the home.

But belief is about all she has, with the exception of a $105,500

mortgage on a home she is unable to occupy - all her efforts to seek

help or some form of justice have failed, she says. A claim filed

with her homeowners' insurance company was denied, as the problems

existed before she bought the home, and her lawyers believe the

language of the purchase contract may exclude civil action even if

the former owners had assets to pursue, she said.

At this point, it is believed that the individual who owned the home

before her improperly and without a building permit built

constructed two dormers on the roof. For want of a few dollars worth

of step flashing, which would have sealed the roof properly, the

home may now be a total loss.

" So disgusting, " Choma said between ragged coughs after stepping out

of the front door after giving a 10-cent tour of her contaminated

home. Pulling binders, photographs, test results and other documents

by the handful out of a crate in the back of her SUV, the single

mother of one told her tale.

An inspection of the home performed before she bought it found the

roof was between 12 and 15 years old and showed signs of normal wear

but should last another eight years before being replaced, she said.

However, other written opinions she has since received state the

roof was improperly built and probably leaked since it was new,

Choma said.

In October, she received a report identifying mold samples collected

on the second floor as poisonous, and later tests of first-floor

materials and furniture also came back positive, leading analysts to

recommend she gut the home.

Her best hope at this point is locating another buyer who backed out

of a purchase arrangement before she discovered and began her

attempts to buy the home. Choma believes they backed out because

they learned exactly how much of a " fixer-upper " they would have

been buying, which in her view would prove the seller defrauded her.

According to Choma, the sellers lied on at least four points while

trying to sell the home: The roof obviously leaks, the cellar

flooded seven times in less than a year, more of the property floods

with standing water than the sellers admitted and the home has

suffered overall water damage, she said, stating her belief the

former occupants could not possibly have overlooked the home's

troubles.

The last owners moved out just prior to the holiday season and until

the sale closed were paying two mortgages. Before doing so, they

covered existing patches of mold with new paint, new carpet, and

caulk. In one case, they stacked furniture against a wall to cover

mold, Choma claims.

" They wanted to be done with this house. The house was making them

sick, " she said.

The former owners were not alone in this experience.

Other than shots of rotting beams and a $7,500 roofing job that

turned out to be pointless, among her trove of photos are several

shots taken while Choma suffered what she described as a fungal

infection covering much of her face with red blotches.

She also claims hair loss, memory loss, headaches, peeling eyelids

and frequent bloody noses among other symptoms she suffers,

allegedly as a result of exposure to toxic mold spores.

Fearing for the health of her daughter, Capano, an

accomplished athlete whose father is allergic to mold, Choma allowed

her ex-husband and grandparents custody so the child wouldn't be

uprooted from Averill Park schools months before junior high

graduation or fall behind on her schoolwork. She had had sole

custody.

The Rensselaer County Health Department refuses to get involved,

citing a lack of state standards for mold contamination and the fact

it was not a landlord-tenant dispute, and told her mold inspectors

exist to scare the public.

" I knew nothing. When this happened, I had mold in my hallway. All I

knew was I had mold and the color was black, " Choma said of her lack

of knowledge of toxic mold one year ago.

She hopes to see the former owners held accountable, as she believes

they must have known the home was a hazard, and also the inspector

she paid to protect her.

" This is what he does for a living. He should have known. I didn't

pay this man money because a year later I'd be forced to abandon

this house, " Choma said.

Now living in a Colonie apartment, she's gearing up to fight M & T

Bank, which holds her mortgage. It is her hope the bank will decide

to write off the mortgage under the circumstances, but her attorney

Craig Crist feels it is more likely to sue her, based on the

promissory note she signed.