Katie L. on Birdeye a year ago
04/16/2022, 08:21 AM
On April 7th I was cleaning off our kids metal wire bookshelf and after clearing the bottom two shelves I discovered black mold along the wall. I immediately contacted the emergency maintenance line and Invitation Homes scheduled to have their maintenance guy come out a few days later. After he came out, he sent in an urgent request for a mold restoration company to have the issue taken care of. DTS Restoration came out and confirmed with their equipment that there was moisture still coming from the wall area. After testing out the showers they discovered temperature changes along the wall with the mold when the master bathroom shower was on. This led them to conclude that it was most likely the shower pan behind the wall overflowing and then causing the mold. We were told by DTS that we didn't need to be living in the home due to the mold and the overflowing shower pan. At the time I was 7 months pregnant and was also having respiratory issues due to the mold along with our two year old son. DTS came out and completed their restoration work May 17th.
During this time we have been working with our renter's insurance agent for our claims for all of our personal property loss and ALE expenses. Our agent stated to us that during this time period she has tried to get in contact with someone at Invitation Homes and had no reply. I contacted the local Altamonte Springs office and requested to have our ALE expenses covered due to the unlivable situation and my call was returned by Angel Brown. Mrs. Brown contacted me back and spoke with me over the phone while looking over the report from DTS. She stated that due to the amount of repairs needed that it would take weeks to fix everything. Mrs. Brown said we would be covered by Invitation Homes at a rate of $150 per night to stay at a different place due to no running water in the home. We then had to schedule the plumber to come out and evaluate the plumbing and turn the water back on. Due to my husband's work he is unavailable during the week to meet the plumber at the house. I'm unable to drive out to the house during the week at the moment since I had a C-section 2 weeks ago and haven't been cleared by my physician to do so. At this point Mrs. Brown tells us that since we have to schedule the plumber for the next Saturday and not for Monday that we wouldn't be covered for ALE expenses after Monday. Mrs. Brown stated that the home will be considered livable after the water is turned back on. This has turned out to be a complete lie and false. There is no way the home is in livable condition even when the water gets turned on. Both bathrooms have to be rebuilt, there's no vanities/sinks, no master shower, no drywall and insulation (even in the ceiling) and even no water knobs for the hallway bath. This in no way accounts for the total loss that we have incurred due to all the issues. We have over 30k in personal property loss and around 10k in alternative living expenses at the moment.
Mrs. Brown told our agent that once the water is turned back on that the house would be considered to be in livable condition. There is no way that is true and would never pass building codes. This especially would be dangerous with our small children with all the exposed wiring easily accessible.
We have had to pay upfront for all our ALE expenses and have lost over 30k in personal property. We've had to trash all our mattresses, any furniture that had any unsealed surfaces, the majority or our kids toys, all our shoes, couches and anything with porous surfaces. The way this whole situation has been handled is completely unacceptable, especially with the false statements to our insurance agent from Mrs. Brown. The only information that has been given to our agent has been the original picture of the exterior wall in the kitchen, and that picture was given to her by us.