We were told our mold problem was fixed but it wasn’t

We were renting an expensive home in Pacific Palisades in which we found a mold problem.  WE were getting sick, all of us including the kids.  We knew their was a problem but wasn’t sure how bad it was or not.    Our child was sick as was my wife.  I felt fine more or less but wasn’t sure but I knew my kids were sick because of mold.  We hired SOS and Chuck came out and immediately found the problem and wrote a report which was both detailed as well as specific as to WHAT had to be fixed to correct the mold problem and fix our indoor air quality.  Chuck’s referred company gave us a bid of $14,000 dollars to fix the mold only; not to put anything back.  The landlord found a company who did the work for $12,000 dollars.  The landlord went with the company that quoted $12,000 dollars.  We were relocated, and the work was done.  After the work was complete, the landlord called SOS back to the property.  When Chuck came out to visit it was immediately evident that the problem was NOT fixed and nearly everything identified in the report was not addressed whatsoever.  Areas were even sealed off with plastic and not addressed at all. We were told our mold problem was fixed by our landlord but it wasn’t.

Our landlords mold company lied to us!

These photos were taken AFTER our home had been cleaned twice, tested and certified by another mold company!  

This is a view of one area in which we were told by the landlord and the mitigation company was clean. Further when tested by the landlords testing company they told us this was negative for mold growth which wasn’t true at all. Does this look clean to you?

This is another area that we were told was clean not once but 3 times! Twice by the mitigation company who had done the work 2 times, and once by the testing company of the landlord. Clearly this isn’t clean at all. When SOS tested this area the concentrations of mold colonies were off the charts!  BOTH areas tested positive for mold including Stachybotrys, Aspergillus/Penicillium, Chaetomium

Yet another image from an area that we were told was clean!  Remember these are the only ones we could see as the walls were sealed up.  We can only imagine what we could not see!  These areas all tested positive for Stachybotrys, Aspergillus/Penicillium, Chaetomium type spores in dense colonies 

Obviously we were being lied to-

The owner of the mitigation company was present and fully acknowledged that they had miserably failed, blaming his absence on being out of town and his “guys not following the instructions set forth by him”.   So they assured us and SOS that the work would be done and then Chuck and SOS could return to inspect the work.  At this point the mitigation company and the landlord decided that they should hire someone else to review the work and collect mold samples.  The company they hired came out two separate times and took two different sets of air samples in not only the affected areas of the home but in the other rooms.  We were told that everything was fine and it had all checked out!

We moved back in and got sick again!

When we moved back into the home we were there only about a few days and all of a sudden we were getting sick again.  We couldn’t understand this given that not only had this been done twice but that it was sampled on two different occasions by the inspection company hired by the landlord and all of the samples were “NEGATIVE” and normal.  But, something wasn’t right. We were given the air sample results from the landlords inspection and testing company.  Which are below.

 Obviously we were very upset

here are the results of their air samples saying our project was clear to return home.

When Chuck examined these results his immediate response was “these are impossible”.  We asked why?  “Simply put, there is mold naturally in the air everywhere.  In a normal environment you would expect to see about 70% of the spores inside that you do outside depending upon conditions present and other factors regarding if your windows are open a lot etc.  These results make no sense at all.”  “Notice that as compared to the outside air there is between 1.6% and 6.5% of the spores inside the rooms as there is outside.”  Simply put and logically this wasn’t plausible to us.  Further as we were immediately sick when we moved back in we KNEW something was wrong. We then engaged Chuck to come back out two days later and collect air samples for us.  The results were shocking and yet consistent with what we thought.

here are the results from the air samples Chuck took

The samples collected by SOS showed between 112% of the spores inside the rooms to up to 472% as compared to the normal outdoor air.  Significantly different than the implausible results of 1.6-6.5% of the spores that were found outside.  Chuck would not say why these results were so vastly different and we have our suspicions as to why.  However what we can say definitively is that were were sick immediately after moving back in.  The images shown above are only two areas in which Chuck and SOS found visible mold that still had not been addressed. Further the data collected by Chuck matched up with what our symptoms and the physical evidence would suggest.

as you can see in the table above inside of the home in the same rooms there was between 112% and 472% of the spore concentrations inside the home as there were outside.  The results from SOS matched up to the findings of the things that were not done even a second time.

Why the other company came up with what they did we cannot know.  But it didn’t seem logical that the NORMAL air outside compared to the NORMAL air inside only showed 1-6% of the normal spores that you would expect to see.  Something was amiss.  The results were simply put; not plausible.  Yet we went ahead and moved back in and immediately my family had a really bad reaction.  We were told our mold problem was fixed but it wasn’t.  We sued our landlord and the case was settled in our favor.  Thanks to SOS.

Company comment:

At SOS we see this type of stuff all the time.  Years ago what a remediation company got paid $5,000 dollars for they get paid now about $1,500.  Yet insurance premiums are up 200% as is workman’s comp and other cost.  In an effort to make this work, remediation companies are resorting to tricks like spraying or fogging a sealer to mask problems they SAY they had fixed.  While the names of the company’s involved in this remediation efforts they were both well known and one was a national brand.