Music exec miffed by mold in Fisher Island Condo

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/3760425.htm

Tue, Jul. 30, 2002

Music exec miffed by mold

Sues to leave Fisher Island

BY DOUGLAS HANKS III

dhanks@...

A music industry executive who bought into the good life on Fisher Island

says his luxury condominium is hopelessly infested with mold and he's suing

to give it back.

ph Rascoff, who represents U2 and the Rolling Stones, claims

construction defects and a faulty air conditioner allowed colonies of mold

to spread throughout his three-bedroom oceanfront apartment in the exclusive

island community.

Rather than settling into a life among celebrities like Mel , Anne

Bancroft and Oprah Winfrey, Rascoff claims he faced a plague of blotchy

spots that started on an electrical outlet in the master bedroom last summer

and within months had marred his valuable paintings, pocked his designer

wallpaper and left his new vacation home unliveable.

The New York business manager and tour producer filed a suit Monday in

federal court in Miami seeking to cancel his purchase of the

3,300-square-foot condominium, which he bought in January 2001 for $1.5

million from developer Fisher Island Holdings.

The suit asks for another $700,000 to cover remodeling and decorating

expenses, and the furnishings allegedly ruined by mold.

The litigation comes as Florida is facing a rising number of mold insurance

claims, which insurers say threatens the industry. The state Insurance

Department will hold its first hearing today at Plantation City Hall on

insurers' request to limit or eliminate mold damage coverage. The hearing

starts at 3 p.m.

Fisher Island Holdings, which bought the 216-acre island community in 1998,

acknowledged a malfunctioning air conditioner caused a mold outbreak but

maintains it has sanitized the unit and fixed the problem.

Chairman Melk could not say Monday if the mold had returned, as Rascoff

claims, but described mold as something South Florida residents -- even

elite residents -- often have to endure.

''My four-door 750 BMW is completely covered with mold inside,'' said Melk,

who built a fortune helping Miami Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga run

garbage-hauling giant Waste Management and the Blockbuster video chain. The

men who give Melk's car a weekly wash often leave the windows rolled up

tight, he explained, letting mold fester when it sits unused. He has it

cleaned with bleach.

''Everyone has a mold problem,'' Melk said. ``We're in the tropics.''