Today, I went to this house today on 17 Edgelea Drive, Chambersburg, PA. I had seen it that it was abandoned 2 years ago when I went for a community yard sale. That time it had a big hole in the roof and today, now that I am REI, I thought of it and went to take a look at it. It had an orange county notice at the kitchen door saying that it is unfit for human habitation. I googled it to see its google map pictures. I found a 2013 picture showing a car parked in the drive way. But in summer of 2014, the roof had already sunk in at one part.
When I peeped thru the window there was a hospital bed and lots of junk around it. Seems to me that the house has been neglected by the owner when they were living in it. They may probably have been sick and eventually died. Probably during their sickness they may have left their dogs and cats to poop in the house and so it was all messed up.
Now coming to the hole on the roof; to date, 3 rainy season worth of rain has been going into the house. If the house in such a mess with junk in all rooms, then, it may have not been cleaned and dirty for a long time. So, rain water coming in thru the roof can weaken the ceiling and go into the walls and soak into the carpet with dirty (probably dog poop). We are not including vermin in this case. So, water and dirty, good breeding ground for molds, probably black mold.
So, it may have been growing black mold for 3 years (the county notice is dated March 2016). So, three years of unrestricted mold growing can definitely make a home inhabitable (unfit for human habitation).
