LAKEWOOD, Wash. — A Lakewood tenant is facing off with her landlord, saying her family has been forced to live with black mold for nearly a month.
KIRO 7 News met with Legacy Park Apartments tenant, Cassie Morrone, who says there is continued mold stemming from a burst pipe in mid-October.
“There was just water dripping all over our stove; dripping all over our cabinets,” recalls Morrone.
She says the landlord started demolition on some of the water damage in her home and her upstairs neighbor’s, but that there haven’t been any updates for two weeks.
Meanwhile, she says her family is struggling to live in the apartment’s current condition and spends most of their non-sleeping hours outside in the cold.
“Everyone was coughing and couldn’t breathe right,” says Morrone about the condition of the apartment.
KIRO 7 reached out to the landlord and management company ‘The Neiders Co.’ In a statement, they say in part. ‘No mold has been visible during our repair work and a mold-certified licensed building inspector reviewed the affected apartments on November 13th, confirming that no mold of any kind is present.’
The family says it took a month for the landlord to offer them alternative housing, and that they only did so on Friday. In a statement, the management company acknowledged ‘offers
could have been made available sooner.’
The family says they are continuing to live in the apartment, as they can’t afford the expenses that come with a full relocation.
Morrone tells KIRO 7 that even if her family were to move temporarily to a hotel, they were told by management they’d need to move all their belongings out of their current apartment.
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