Sarina in Tempe, Arizona

When we moved into our apartment it was, I can’t even find the words to describe how dirty it was. We had made a deal with our landlord to clean up and repair the damage and cleaning because we needed a place to stay. He just showed us the apartment he didn’t open and look how bad things were. So, I took pictures of the apartment to show what we needed to clean. He didn’t supply any of the cleaning products. That came all out of our pocket. But, as we started to clean we found mold in the bathroom closet which was really bad and very thick to take off. When we lift the toilet seat cover to clean there was mold and it was stuck to the toilet. We also when we were cleaning the kids room found mold on the carpet. The previous tenant had a dog and it had urinated and pooped all over the carpets. We tried cleaning it up but it comes back each time . When we went to the kitchen to clean. That’s where we found the most of the worse mold. It was so bad the mold. Was floating around in the water at the bottom of the dishwasher the previous tenant had left dirty dishes in the dishwasher and so the mold was growing every where. There was also mold in the washroom and in the ventilation system for the ac unit. Needless to say we had let the landlord know and he did nothing about it. Just suggested that we use bleach and pinesole to clean it up. Which we did not do. Because of the fact we knew it was dangerous. We also let the landlord know about the carpet, the bathrooms and every where we found mold. We asked about changing the carpets and he always has an excuse not to. We pulled out the dishwasher and cleaned it as best as we could but,the mold keeps coming back. We have let our landlord know and he again gives us another excuse not to fix the problem. I got sick we have to keep on the mold problem so every 3days I have to clean all where the mold is. I’m the only one that does the cleaning thank goodness. Because after cleaning the house and all of the mold I went to bed one night and got up with half of my face swollen I went to the Urgent care because it was a weekend. The doctor said it was a allergic reaction and gave me antibiotics and sent me home. The next day when I woke up my kids were afraid of what they saw. My whole face was know swollen and I had black what looked like a bruise on my face as well as pus pockets all over my face. When I got to the emergency room because I was now having a hard time to breathe. The doctors did not know what had caused it . And I had forgotten that I was cleaning the house the days before it had happened. I had a dermatologist, neurologist, optimist and the head doctor looking over me. Until the doctors called the doctor from the Infection Disease Center because as they would push down on my face at the pus pockets more pus would come out. I stayed in the hospital for a week taking very strong antibiotics to help stop the spreading of the Infection because it was now moving in to my hair. When I was released from the hospital and got home what we walked into a house that smelt of strong mold. We again informed our landlord and he is not giving us any excuses but now telling us to move out. Which we are looking for a place now to move because my 2 kids are now getting sick. I tried calling places that I thought would help me like the department of health but Arizona doesn’t regulate mold. That’s a sad excuse. I spent a week in the hospital and now my family is getting sick as well. And yet the landlord won’t except any responsibility for the mold. And we are looking for a better place to move to. And to show all of this we took a picture of my face swollen and what it looked like and I now have permanent scars on my face where the pus pockets got so bad.

Questions:

Who should I turn to because of this the doctors said it was the mold at my follow up visits? Or who should I report him to get something done? What agencies would be able to help me with this mold?