I want to move out (a lengthy rant).

Oh God and you lasted two fucking years?
You can't pay me to come within a hundred metres of black mould, let alone a wall covered in it. Man, I'm surprised you are alive... Black mould is one of the most poisonous fungi known...

I grow my own shrooms so I have mouldaphobia. Trichodermia (green mould) is bad enough, but black mould, that is a mycologists nightmare...

No man, fuck that, leave NOW. Pack your shit and LEAVE. I don't care if you have to sleep on the streets, I'll rather do meth, sniff glue, and huff methane than inhale black mould spores... I won't be surprised to find your lungs covered in fungus if I where to do an autopsy on you... That shit is going to give you cancer. Fuck that, it will give you something much worse than cancer.

In fact, I say you take photo's, leave, and then sue the bastards who rented you the place, that place isn't fit for human, or animal, habitation. If you where an animal, the SPCA (or whatever they call the animal protection servaces in the US.) will be all over those guys.

 

this. rank your preferences. if cheap is at the top of the list, stay. if sanity is at the top of the list, go.

also, if you're in the US, have a housing inspector come to the place at no charge and have them look at the mold. they will inform the landlord that they are required to remove it.

 

That's a can of worms if you open it.

If the landlord is required to remove it, then they will likely raise the rent. Or maybe demand a general cleanup of some of the other rmates (or even evict all of some of them).

Move yourself out - but impress upon the rmates that *they* should have someone in authority inspect the place - if they feel like it, and don't mind a possible rasie of the rent or other things as after-effects.

If your roomates prefer the cheapness of the rent; let sleeping dogs lie (as they say).

 

My earlier statement of, if the OP can afford to, he should move out stands...

However, due to the number of comments regarding the black mold...

These people have been living there for two years, as the problem got worse, and did nothing about it...

That INCLUDES the OP...

In the last two years, none of them could afford to clean up the basement, open some windows, air it out, spray it down with bleach?

No, it likely wouldn't have solved the problem totally, but it sure as hell would be multitudes times better then as it is now when they have just left their basement as a mold breeding ground.

SHOULD the landlord have made sure the place he wasn't renting out was safe? Of course he should have... That would have been the responsible thing to do (and in some places, the law)...

However, the people LIVING there, have much more at stake then the landlord...

They should have taken action on this long ago, regardless of the choices of the landlord.

 

Well said!

 

Which you do you like best? The cheapo or the neato?

 

I was completely ignorant of the black mold problem in the basement until about 2 months ago. We never use the basement, I just happen to go down there to let off a bug bomb when I found it. ALL the windows are painted shut and will not move. I didn't even know the seriousness of black mold until doing some research recently. Thats not something you learn in school, its not something I've ever really discussed with anyone really until now.

 

There are a million things that will kill you or seriously fuck up your health that you aren't taught about in school.

You should be aware of your surroundings and when you see something you don't understand, you should find out what it is and take action to remedy things that are potentially harmful to you.

There is nobody in the world who is going to care about your health as much as you do.

 

I'm definitely getting the fuck out of there as soon as I can find another place. I might stay with my parents (if they don't mind) until then.

 

grrrrrr
anyways, the problem here is that like a typical landlord they assume the tenants do not know their rights, and in this case they don't. you have a right to safe housing if you are in the US. The city will send an inspector out at no charge to you and inform the landlord of what repairs must be made.
the mold does not seem to be an effect of something the tenants did or did not do. yes, they should keep the house clean, but they can't do much about the mold without the landlord.

 

But the landlord can choose to decide the price of repairing the house isn't worth the rent they've been collecting.

They can have the house condemned for cheaper than the repairs.

The tenants, who want a nice house, and can't find a 4 bedroom house in the city for $300 a month, decide to move into a depilated shack.

What happens when too many of these depilated shacks are condemned at once, is they're bought out by a developer, renewed and then a process of gentrification occurs.

Rich people who can afford the new property move in, and the former tenants find newer less expensive places to stay.

Without good urban planning, it is the entire reason ghettos form. That and racism.

 

If it were me I would stay for the low rent and use all that money I'm saving to fixing up the place myself. Drywall isn't that expensive or hard to install. I'm not really trying to say suck it up so much as I'm trying to say that that rent is amazingly low and I really wouldn't want to give it up. I would honestly pick up after all my roommates and stay on top of it every day to be able to continue to have rent that low

When I lived in the ghetto our landlord would take money off the rent when we did repairs to the building, maybe ask if you can do that?