Tenant/Landlord-Mold Issue
I had been renting a house for over a year and finally realized the house is mold infested. I had signed a new lease in November and at the end of December I withheld rent to the landlord trying to enforce them to have the house inspected. They suddenly decided that they were not renewing the lease after I had already paid them the new amount for 3 months. During the past year my daughter and I had been getting sick off and on which wasn't normal for either one of us. I did an in home mold test as well as having a contractor come inspect the duct work with an infared scope and a different air conditioning company inspect the main air handler in the house. Not only did my mold test have a significant amount of mold growing in it after 2 days, but both, the contractor and air quality person found mold present in the ducts. The air handler has about 1/2 inch thick of mold growing on the back of it and mold growing on the inside of it. Definitely, airborne. This is what my daughter and I had been breathing in for the last year. Not only have we been dizzy, sinus infections, bronchial infections, and skin rashes. The owner/property manager did nothing about it except to tell us to move. (At this point, all I wanted to do was move) I basically had 2 weeks to find a place for us to live. Due to my daughter's school zone, being a single mother, and working full time, I was not having any luck finding a place and no family close to stay with. The property manager filed an eviction for us to get out. I had a consultation with one attorney who was not very helpful. She told me to call or e-mail her with any questions. After a week I e-mailed her some questions as to which she never responded. I finally was referred to Matthew by the Florida Bar and he responded right away. He was very informative and professional in helping me understand my rights as well as explaining things pertaining to my case. He was extremely knowledgable in the area of expertise that I was dealing with. He answered all my questions thoroughly and gave me more information than I expected. After going to court this past Friday, the eviction was dropped. I would definitely refer anyone to him who needs legal advice in this type of situation as well as any other legal needs that he specializes in. I will also use him in the future for other legal needs.