Need help. Please let me know your thoughts.

I am having trouble with mold in my apartment. My snakes are in the living room. There is no mold in the room my snakes are in. The place where mold does exist is in a room as far from my enclosures as possible. You have to walk around the hall past the kitchen and down the hall again to get to the spare bedroom. The humidity in my enclosures are 50 to 70%. The room they are in is at 15 to 20 percent. The room with mold is at 30 to 35. The apartment is trying to blame my enclosures for the mold issues in the room not associated with them. They have requested I relocate them by the 31st of this month. I agreed to move out on the 31st and be done with them. They say I have to give a 30 day notice on 9/1/2019 to get out of the lease with a 750 fee on top of paying another months rent when they are requesting me to get my animals out by 8/31.

Can my enclosures be causing this or am I correct that they are trying to cover up a preexisting condition?

Is it legal what they are trying to do?

Should I just hire a lawyer?

So I am not a pro at rentals, but if you did not inform them of your snakes, and did not pay a pet deposit for them, I believe you are technically breaking the lease by having them. They can give you a 30 day notice. If they knew about the snakes, then I don't know.

If the mold were from your enclosures, it would show up near them first before spreading from that as the center of it. With it only being far away from them and not surrounding the cages, I would assume it is either preexisting mold issues or related to faulty/dripping plumbing in the walls causing a new mold issue they want to avoid dealing with.

No legal experience here, but if you pay a pet rent fee and/or they knew about and agreed (especially written) to you having them before/when they arrived, it seems like they shouldn't have much ability to do what they're trying to do. It seems like either of those cases would mean they knew the risks of allowing it and agreed to them. Pet rent is part of your contract and there's usually terms to protect tenants from sudden rent changes or terms changes, so that might be relevant and something to review the wording of.

Talking to a lawyer would probably be your best move. They'll know for sure, especially for your area, if it is legal or not and what recourse you have.

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

I am having trouble with mold in my apartment. My snakes are in the living room. There is no mold in the room my snakes are in. The place where mold does exist is in a room as far from my enclosures as possible. You have to walk around the hall past the kitchen and down the hall again to get to the spare bedroom. The humidity in my enclosures are 50 to 70%. The room they are in is at 15 to 20 percent. The room with mold is at 30 to 35. The apartment is trying to blame my enclosures for the mold issues in the room not associated with them. They have requested I relocate them by the 31st of this month. I agreed to move out on the 31st and be done with them. They say I have to give a 30 day notice on 9/1/2019 to get out of the lease with a 750 fee on top of paying another months rent when they are requesting me to get my animals out by 8/31.

Can my enclosures be causing this or am I correct that they are trying to cover up a preexisting condition?

Is it legal what they are trying to do?

Should I just hire a lawyer?

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Enclosures are typically pretty self contained. You’d have to have massive amounts of mold in your enclosures for an extended period of time for it to spread and become established within the apartment. Houses/apartments can commonly get mold without enclosures or animals of any kind. Definitely seems like they’re trying to dodge responsibility and put all fault on you. A lawyer might be a good investment. Sounds like a giant pain, good luck!


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I had a mold issue years ago when I was living in Indianapolis. Mold began showing up under my cat's litter box. I still highly doubt it was the litter box as she never peed on the carpet - I think it was a mixture of a leak under the carpet plus the mat under the box holding the moisture in. In any case, they never made any noise about the cat because I paid my dues for her every month, per my lease agreement, and they fixed the problem with a small deductible from me (again, per my lease).

Read over your lease agreement carefully and see what your rights are in this situation. In my experience, good apartment complexes don't make demands that are outside of their agreements, and if they do, they back off quickly when you pull out the lease. If you have a signed lease agreement and they still aren't abiding by it, that's the time to go to a lawyer.

If you don't have any agreement signed between you and the owners, you're most likely out of luck... going to a lawyer will only make things way more expensive for you. And you'll probably have to vacate before anything gets done anyway.

#Not likely.

#Maybe depends on your lease agreement, what is the pet policy? (type of pet allowed, number allowed). Can you have them in the first place?

#If you are not wanted there leave don't waste time or money on a lawyer because even if you win, you will still be unwanted,and they can make your life miserable if you stay and they do not want you there.

What exactly does your lease state about pets?

Are you still in a fixed-term lease or is it currently month-to-month?

Is there a bathroom or kitchen close to the room with the mold? Any water leaks from roof or windows? How well-ventilated is that room?

Have you tried cleaning the mold yourself?

I think your best bet is to move. If you're butting heads with your landlord that won't change. Especially if you bring lawyers into things. I've had a landlord that wanted me out and that's a crappy feeling hovering overhead.


Without knowing the exact terminology of your lease I can't offer any more info.

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Originally Posted by MarkL1561

Enclosures are typically pretty self contained. You’d have to have massive amounts of mold in your enclosures for an extended period of time for it to spread and become established within the apartment. Houses/apartments can commonly get mold without enclosures or animals of any kind. Definitely seems like they’re trying to dodge responsibility and put all fault on you....

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I totally agree with this (they are using this as an excuse, perhaps, to make you move?), but it's probably best to move...mold isn't good for you or your pets anyway.

All depends what your lease agreement says as far as what is legal for them to hold you accountable for. Read it carefully, if you didn't before...& get help if
you think you're being taken advantage of...yours wouldn't be the first landlords to try it. Been many many years since I've rented, but I've fought a landlord
& won when they tried to keep my deposits to cover their losses from other tenants (they later admitted that to me). I'll admit that I fought a little dirty though ;) I told them if they didn't refund my deposit I was going to let some total dirtbags move in (in my place) & then they deal with evicting them. They
didn't like that idea at all & I got a prompt payment of money they owed me. (You do have to look as though you mean what you say, I guess I fooled them?)

I'd also be asking what's on the other side of the walls of the room where the mold is...are you on a top floor apt? Probably a roof leak that is coming down
inside the walls, but could also be a plumbing leak causing the moisture.

Read your lease agreement. Is there a clause regarding pets? Does it specify domestic or exotic pets? Does it mention size restrictions or anything that would indicate it is referring to dogs and cats? If so, you can make an argument that your snakes don't fall under that clause. There are numerous leases that would allow pets like fish because they are not considered "pets" under their definition, so it depends on what it says and how they define what makes a pet, a pet.

If exotics are listed not allowed under any curcumstances at the time you renewed or sign off on your lease, mold or no mold, you can't keep them.

If exotics are included as pets but there is a monthly or mandatory fee, you may still be able to keep them by agreeing to pay said fees or leave with your animals.

The burden of proof will probably fall on them if they insist your enclosures are the cause or encourage mold growth. I would not so sure to say that enclosures alone have nothing to do with it. They could try to argue it is not just the enclosures, but the maintenance and equipment that is causing or making the mold issue worse.

If you wish to stay, then hire a lawyer. They might back down rather quickly and leave you alone, at least temporarily, until they find something else to bother you with.

Depending on how long you have stayed, some states have a law where the landlord must give you a specific time period to leave that could extend to more than 30 days from the date of notice. Check your state's law and know your rights.