Unhealthy situation

[Guest guest]

Unhealthy situation

Renters repeatedly seek repairs from landlord; mold, fallen ceiling

await repair

Corvallis Gazette-Times*

By BENNETT HALL

Gazette-Times reporter

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/06/29/news/community/2aaa01

_rental.txt

Martha Chandler moved to Corvallis for her health. But now she's

wondering if her new address could be making her sicker.

Chandler, 62, was diagnosed with cancer in April. The same month,

she and her husband, , 67, relocated to Corvallis from the

coast to be close to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, where

she receives chemotherapy treatments four days a week.

The rental market was tight, and the retired couple are on a limited

income, so they took the first apartment they found in their price

range. It was a tiny three-bedroom in a converted house at 857 N.W.

Tyler Ave. operated by Bula Enterprises. The couple's son, i,

and his 4-year-old daughter, Lai Lynn, live with them.

" We rented this place sight-unseen, " Chandler said.

Right away, he said, there were problems.

The day the family moved in, the street-side door of their apartment

fell off its hinges. Their landlord had the door rehung in quick

order, the Chandlers said, but he did not repair a broken windowpane

right above the knob, where an intruder could reach in and unlock

the deadbolt. A piece of cardboard was all that covered the hole.

Things got worse on June 20, when the ceiling in Lai Lynn's room

collapsed. The child was out at the time, but the Chandlers say a 4-

foot-by-4-foot piece of ceiling caved in, dumping soggy drywall and

insulation material onto her bed. The whole mess, the family says,

was covered with black mold.

Again, the Chandlers say, the response from Bula Enterprises was

swift but inadequate.

" I called them in the morning, " Chandler said. A maintenance

crew came and cleaned up the worst of the mess, cutting out

compromised parts of the ceiling and removing the moldy gunk. But as

of this Friday, a week after the ceiling caved in, nothing more had

been done.

" We haven't heard anything from them since, " Chandler said.

A call to a Bula Enterprises property manager Friday afternoon was

not returned. Company owner Kip Schoning could not be reached for

comment.

Finally, late in the day, a Bula employee came out to say the

damaged ceiling would be sprayed to kill the mold and patched on

Monday. At about 6 p.m. Friday, a worker was mowing the grass.

Until Monday, Lai Lynn will sleep in her father's room, while much

of her furniture and other other possessions are out in the yard,

covered with tarps.

Worried about his wife's fragile health, Chandler has taped

a sheet of vinyl over the bedroom door to keep mold spores from

spreading into the rest of the apartment.

The house itself is an old, sprawling affair that's been subdivided

into six rental units. Inside, floors tilt in different directions,

and ceilings bulge in spots where old water damage has been patched

over.

From the outside, the three-story clapboard structure is

distinguished mainly by doors painted bright red, a Bula Enterprises

trademark. Three disabled vehicles clog the driveway. The locking

mailbox is broken, so tenants get their mail in open cubbyholes on

the front porch.

City records show a history of complaints about the property from

neighbors and tenants that dates back several years, the most

frequent relating to garbage piling up outside. This month, the

Chandlers and other tenants told the Gazette-Times, trash

accumulated for three weeks before Bula Enterprises had it hauled

away.

" We can't afford much, being on Social Security, " Martha Chandler

said. " But you'd think someone would keep up the property. "

A check last week by a city building inspector determined that the

damaged ceiling was still structurally sound, but Bob Loewen of the

Corvallis Housing Division said the hole might run afoul of the

habitability provisions of state landlord-tenant law. He helped the

Chandlers write a formal letter asking Bula Enterprises to fix the

ceiling right away.

" The best thing to do is put it in writing, " Loewen said. " That

always helps. "

If the ceiling isn't fixed soon, Loewen said, the Chandlers might

have to go to court.

Chandler said he's prepared to do that if he has to, but for

now he just wants the place fixed up so his granddaughter can have

her room back and his wife can have a home without the threat of

mold.

" It's a mess, " Chandler said. " But we're kind of stuck in a place

where we can't do anything. "

Help for renters

Questions about a rental housing situation? Call Bob Loewen in the

Corvallis Housing Division at 766-6944 or Westfall, the city's

code-enforcement officer, at 766-6929.

Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@....