All Forum Posts by: Lynnette E.

Also, do not be surprised if your renters do not have their own air quality/mold data.  My guess is they were pulling samples all weekend.

Justin

I am retired from the federal government and worked at a few different agencies. I have worked with many toxic substances during my career, including mold and other biological substances.  I was a chemist and an environmental scientist during my career.  I worked with superfund sites, HAZMAT, sewage (lots of mold there!), remediation of biological and chemical contamination, chemical warfare agents, lots of different things during my career.

I would recommend that you cancel the remediation on Tuesday and get additional information.  The remediation may not be needed and you are wasting money on something that was transitional.  You really should develop the data before you plan on a remediation.  Plus the remediation will taint your house's value forever.  Why do it if it is not needed?

Mold comes and goes and they may have tracked it into the house immediately prior to your test.  They may have purposely brought it into your house just to set you up.  Have you checked if your renters have pulled something like this before?

And sometimes pollutant loads in a house increase just because the air filter needs to be changed and someone left it in place for months.  You could have a very easy to fix problem--get them out and change filters, and clean vs. remediation that will taint your house's value forever.  You will need to declare mold remediation when you sell, if you can sell your house ... someday...you are in CA.  (And I was born and raised there, lived there as an adult for many years too, just retired to TN.  

I am very familiar with how CA laws and juries favor tenants.  My parents had rentals since I was about 6 years old so I helped them a lot over the years and did the final notices to move out when they passed and I had to sell their assets to distribute.

You need to get better data to protect your assets.  They will have imaginary illnesses for the rest of their lives and you will be paying with the data you have.  More data is your protection.

What you should have done, and now should immediately do is get another company to do the mold test and either confirm or allow you to dispute the original test.

NEVER remediate on one test without visible mold!!!

If they are out and their stuff is out and the test shows no or less toxic mold then you may be able to argue it may have been on their furniture or mold they encountered outside the home and brought it into the home as they are gone and so is the mold.  The mold was attached to them/their stuff, not your house.  Mold is everywhere!

IF there is mold and you take their stuff out the mold level will likely drop.  This extra testing may help you out legally, especially if you get their stuff into storage and retest the house.

And you should NOT tell them when you will be doing a new test if they have access to the house as they can tamper with the results, and do not let them have access to the house during the test.

I would not have told them you were remediating, you just gave them legal bait!  I would have said you were doing more testing and studying the situation.  You want them out as a precaution since there MIGHT be a problem and as a precaution you want them out, or your liability removed if they stay.  Maybe your PM can say they misspoke or did not say it a clearly as they needed to and that there may not be a problem, you are doing more testing, but they should leave just to be extra careful, etc.

Offer to pay a few hundred dollars for a medium priced motel for a few days, a months storage for their stuff just to get them out, but say you are helping with the costs  until you retest and confirm over the next few months.  Then you may share the information with their insurance...MAY. And then share information like lower than, higher than not real data.

Also, spend the extra money and have independent tests of EACH room to focus where the mold may have come from.  e.g. garage/kitchen from the flooded area  or bedroom or bathroom, entry hall, etc. from them not ventilating during showers, or they brought the mold into the home on their clothes or bodies.  It helps if you can show the bedroom area is low, not present, etc.

I live in Crossville TN and looked at buying in FFG's back in 2014. The problem with that area is the POA. Their fees are very high for the area and they are severe in how they manage. There are the 'friends and family folks' and those that they torment in the regulated community. For example if you are not on the friends and family list and want to paint your home, you fill out the form, choose paint colors on their approved list and wait for the permit. But they decline your color and say there are too many houses with that color in your area, so you can paint your house Y color. You hate Y color, or just really want the other color, but they will not budge. And then to prove their power they threaten you with penalties because now your old paint has faded and is not in compliance with the approved colors, or it is peeling or whatever.

The POA is controlled by folks that moved here from NY, east coast, etc, not locals and they have let their position go to their heads, plus they really like rules to control others. FFG really does not fit in with the typical TN way of life.

The locals joke that they keep their Yankees in FFG so they do not destroy the community with their values. 

The prices are so low because of this POA...it will always be hard to sell these houses and mainly it is a area with retired people so as they leave, not many step up to buy. Locals do not buy there, don't rent there. Renters would need to be folks new to the community. Your rent will need to be high to cover these POA fees too!

Mike,  I have been trying to learn about TN laws, but there are not a lot of them, at least on the state webpage, and I know there are other requirements like the lead based paint pamphlet from past experience, but do not see that information in the law.  I am trying to find that information, that is why I asked.  And yes, the LBP is a federal requirements, but thought their may be state requirements to.

Thanks Irina!  How do I know what Tennessee requires?

Hello,

I have helped my parents in renting their homes many years ago and remember that we had to provide a pamphlet about lead based paint and how to reduce lead exposure to the renters.  (They have since passed and can not help me with this question.)  I found this pamphlet on-line, but was wondering is there is any other information or pamphlets that are required when renting older homes?  Do they need to be told of other environmental dangers?  Instructions for the fire alarms, COS sensors?  

I am in escrow for my first rental home in Tennessee so any information you have will help me and be appreciated.

Thanks!

I am in the process of buying a house on auction.com.  I won the bid and the contract has been accepted by Wells Fargo.  I was told it should close in 40 days after the contract is processed.  If its late that is ok, it will be fixed then rented.  Timing is not critical.

I did send the earnest money to their closing company and requested title insurance through my company.  For anyone further along in the process, will their closing company coordinate this with my title insurance company, or do I need to get involved in the coordination?

Also, for anyone just starting the process, make sure you look at the homes in person.  

In our search the first house we went to was in a very good neighborhood.  The house has a very split foundation, the house is actually pulling into two pieces.  The porch was filled in with foam on the 2 inch split through the cement, but it has pulled further apart since this filler was put in.  Through the windows one can see the living room has 3 pieces or levels by looking at the mop board area and following the crack from the porch.  The foundation is block and was spilt and filled in, but not repaired to prevent further movement.  The house is beautiful looking, just a major problem.  It is still listed.

The next house we saw had a 'not fit for human occupancy' notice on it from the County.  The roof of the carport was falling is, and I suspect the roof and ceiling of the house as well.  Someone put black paper over the window to prevent anyone from looking in.  Also, the entire area forces the storm drainage to flow on this lot, it flows around the house, and this house may be moving too.  This is in a very nice area and it's still listed too.  Nothing on the listing says the house is condemned.

Another house had plants so grown over that one can not even get up the pathway to the front door.  We assumed it was now vacant due to the vegetation, but on trash day trash was put out and someone is living there!  We did bid on that house but someone else won.

So, really its buyer beware, some of the houses are very bad, and you can tell without entering them.

The house we bought looks ok from outside and through the windows, but the listing says extensive repairs are needed.  So will be interesting to get in there, hoping it has wires and pipes:)  The price is ok, even if it does not.

Wayne, you re right!  they did finish the foreclosure, just stopped short of getting possession.

Thank Andy.  

One property I am looking at was foreclosed by Wells Fargo.  They advertised it was advertised on a real estate auction site that accepts bids recently as occupied, but it was foreclosed on 2 months ago.  I drove by and it is occupied.

I was hoping to try to figure out if the bank gave up on foreclosing--he was a hard case for some reason-- or if they did not even try.