mold-symptom.com

This was the dream house Brandy Dignall always wanted.

It was by no means luxurious, and that was all right with Dignall. She wanted a good school district for her 9-year-old daughter, a friendly town, and a quiet place surrounded only by swaying trees.

But she hasn't lived there since January.

That's because her condo, nestled in the rolling hills of the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock, made her sick. It's infested with high amounts of mold after a leaky pipe directly behind her unit went unnoticed for more than a year, creating a moist environment where the fungus could flourish.

Dignall believes the mold is toxic; so do her doctor, allergist, environmental surveyor, toxicologist, and lawyer.

So while Dignall and the condominium association sort this out, she spends $800 a month for a cramped apartment in Clifton that she and her daughter share. That's in addition to the $900 in mortgage payments for the condo she can't live in - doctor's orders.

And all this while Dignall is on medical leave from her job as an office administrator.

Her apartment is salvageable, it just needs to be remediated - which means thoroughly dried and affected areas cleaned or replaced. But first, the source has to be remediated. Dignall wants the utility room behind her unit - where the pipes are — to be cleaned of all mold.

"It's not a dream. It's a nightmare," Dignall said. "And I can't seem to wake up."

It looks just like shower mildew. It's small and gray or brown and spreads out in colonies. It's slimy or sticky to the touch, and almost a million mold spores can fit on the face of a nickel.

Molds can spark allergic reactions and asthma symptoms in some people. And a smaller group of people - especially those with weakened immune systems - are vulnerable to lung infections caused by inhaling mold spores. Most mold is harmless, studies show, but a few, when in great quantities, release toxins.
Dignall's condo is hosting four kinds of mold, according to environmental tests. And because there is so much of it, Dignall's doctors believe it's causing an unhealthy environment.

In 1994, eight babies in Cleveland were hospitalized with bleeding lungs. Initial reports blamed it on toxic mold, but that was later proven false. The story created a nationwide mold scare.

Since then, government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched ongoing studies. Also, numerous home-testing agencies, cleaning companies, and consultants have popped up.

Toxic mold has gained more attention over the past few years with Hollywood heavyweights filing suits. Ed McMahon - in a $20 million suit - claimed a broken pipe in his Beverly Hills mansion led to mold growths that made him sick and killed his dog. Bianca Jagger also filed a $20 million suit against the managing agents of her Park Avenue apartment for rampant toxic mold. And Erin Brockovich, an environmental activist who became famous after release of a film named for her in 2000, logged $600,000 worth of mold damage in her home and later lobbied for California's Toxic Mold Protection Act.

New Jersey doesn't have a law on toxic mold (nor do most states), but officials are researching the health risks associated with mold.

In 2002, insurance companies paid $2.5 billion in mold claims, according to the Insurance Information Institute. And there are about 24,000 claims pending - including 1,600 in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut - according to Policyholders of America, a homeowners advocacy group.

It was like winning the Big-Game lottery for Dignall that summer in 1998. She was one of the few chosen for a number of low-cost condos available at The Glens at Pompton Plains. As part of the township's requirement to provide affordable housing, one building was assigned for low- to moderate-income families. There are 120 units in the development now.

Dignall used her life savings and took out a loan to buy the $63,000 condo.
"A steal," she thought, back then.

With daughter in tow, Dignall moved in.

But during her first month in that condo, things began to fall apart. Her first-floor unit flooded. She needed to replace all the doors, some walls, and a carpet. It was also that month that she received the first letter from the condominium association - the first in what would become a book of letters. It said the association was not responsible for the damaged carpet if the unit floods again.
Dignall thought she'd swallow the cost this one time.

The apartment flooded several times after that. The building is also on a slope, which makes it susceptible to frequent flooding. It turned out later that the fire-suppression system was leaking, and a pipe exchange located behind Dignall's apartment was also leaking.

The leaks were finally fixed, and the walls replaced in January. But the storage area behind her apartment wasn't cleaned properly, and the mold spread again - this time, to a much lesser degree, but high enough to upset Dignall's symptoms.
"It'll just keep regrowing," Dignall said. "It has to be stopped at the source first."
Before she moved out, the mold was growing behind her stove, all through her closet, and under just about everything it could reach. When she replaced the walls the first time, everything looked clean. But when the walls were broken open, workers found mold growing inside the sheet rock.

She had to clean all of her belongings in bleach before bringing them to her Clifton apartment, or face the possibility of it spreading again.

Baker Firestone, the company that built the 600-unit condominium complex, has been in ongoing litigation with attorneys who represent the residents of The Glens. Residents said the complex was not built properly. They've had to replace shoddy staircases, landscaping wood chips that were untreated and spread mildew growth, and deal with constant drainage problems.

To date, the condominium association has collected $43,575 in settlements, according to records. The money is kept in a maintenance account and used to correct problems throughout the complex. Most recently, $28,000 worth of repairs have been initiated to alleviate drainage and resolve landscaping problems.

But Dignall is the sole resident with a mold problem. Her unit is the only one near the pipes. Since 1998, she has been going back and forth with the condo association seeking to fix the mold problems.

The trouble is there are no guidelines when it comes to toxic mold. It's not like asbestos, where there are laws and regulations. And there are even some scientists who believe the whole thing is a hoax.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said standards for acceptable, tolerable, or normal mold have not been established - making it harder to address the issue for condo associations run by residents.

Dignall is set back almost $20,000 in repairs and doctors' fees, and plagued with allergies, asthma, and sinus infections. Her daughter also has similar chronic symptoms, and the family wonders if it's tied to the mold.

She enlisted the help of a lawyer, and is seeking to have the mold remediated and repayment for some of the things she replaced.

During the first week of September, she attended a condominium association meeting and asked the board - made up of residents, a manager who works for Wentworth Property Management, and their lawyer - for help. She prepared a speech, enlarged photos of mold creeping into her couches, resting under her mattress, and spreading in the walls.

Some of her neighbors also attended the meeting and supported her.
"I just want this problem solved. I want it fixed," said Dignall, a shy 27-year-old with a soft voice and fragile frame. "Please."

She was shaking as she spoke, and on the car ride to the meeting there were a few times when her hands wouldn't stop shaking and she needed to breath deeply.

"I feel like this is just never going to end," she said.

It's now October, and Dignall is still living in Clifton waiting to hear that she can move back to Pequannock.

Conflicting reports and lack of information are the reasons Dignall's problem has taken so long to solve, both sides said. At the end of that meeting last month, the board agreed to help her. On Tuesday, a representative of the condominium association confirmed that the board still plans on remediating the mold growth, but could provide no further comment.

But Dignall said, "The only thing I've heard from them [the condo association] is that they are assessing late fees onto my maintenance payment, which I haven't paid since July. Why pay when my apartment is not being maintained?"

Dignall wanted to sell the apartment, but couldn't. It failed environmental tests.

"I can't sell it, rent it, or live in it," Dignall said, exasperated. "Who said real estate is a great investment?"