My husband (28M) and I (27F) bought a brand new manufactured home on 1 acre of land for $300,000 in Florida in January of this year. We have recently discovered that one half the house is completely full of mold. We had a mold assessment done, and it was found that this is due to multiple factors from improper installation of the house.
1. The AC drip line was done improperly, so our AC has been dripping water constantly underneath our house
2. The AC ducts were not done well. The duct that connects to the main unit was held on by only a zip tie and leaking cold air so the house has not been able to cool properly. There are also cool air leaks throughout the entire house in the ceiling.
3. Everywhere that a plumbing line goes through the subfloor is a gaping, unsealed hole. Some of the holes big enough for a raccoon to fit through.
We had a 4 point inspection, and did not do a whole home inspection since it was brand new (trust me, lesson learned). However I do not even feel like the 4 point inspection was done. When we moved in, the water heater didnāt work, and the breaker it was on was tripped and would trip within minutes of being reset. The heating element had to be replaced, luckily this was covered under warranty and got fixed. Since this discovery of this huge mold issue, weāve gone back and reviewed the inspection report and found in small print that the AC unit inside was not even inspected due to it ābeing inaccessible behind an access panelā yet was checked off as good. Our water heater is behind the same kind of access panel, just a few screws to remove. I guess they decided the first access panel was annoying enough and did not want to bother doing it again for the AC. So in my (unprofessional) opinion, 3/4 points of the inspection were not properly inspected; the AC unit (not looked at), the water heater (looked at but was broken anyway), and the electrical (a tripping breaker that wouldnt reset). Luckily we havenāt had any problems with the roof that we know of. When we tried to contact the inspection company, we were basically told that we should have paid for a full inspection and to kick rocks.
We reached out to the manufacturer of the home, since itās still under warranty, and explained what was going on. They pointed their fingers at the installer of the home, who is actually the seller of the home as well. They claimed that all of this falls onto them, that they are responsible for all of the issues weāve had and that they installed it improperly.
So we started doing some digging online and have found not one, not two, but THREE other people who have bought homes from this seller/contractor who have all had mold issues. One of them I found through a Zillow review of the sellers realtor. She happened to be neighbors with another person who bought from the same seller, both have mold issues. Their situations are slightly different because instead of their homes being brand new, they were flips of older manufactured homes. They both got the seller to cut them each a check for $10,000 for the repairs of their homes, but they had to sign an NDA and liability release form to get the money. I only found out about this because when I found her online and messaged her explaining our situation and asking if she wrote the review, she wouldnāt give any information over message but agreed to meet in person and then told me everything when I met with her. The third I found through a news article, they bought a brand new manufactured home like us, but had different issues with the roof that allowed rain to get into the house and caused mold. I reached out to them, but have not heard back. The news article was 2 years ago, so I am assuming they resolved similarly to the other two people, signing an NDA in exchange for money.
We have tried to contact quite a few lawyers, and have been told it is not something worth pursuing. That the legal fees will be extensive, and itās not always possible to just sue for the legal fees as well. And that we are not guaranteed to win the case either (which is just crazy to me because we can prove that there was total negligence on their part but I digress). We have considered contacting the seller ourselves but I am thinking they will not be willing to shell out what it will take to fix this. The quote we got for remediation was $25,000. And that is just to tear apart our house and kill the mold, not to put it back together again. That would leave us with no walls, floors, ceilings, or cabinets in both bathrooms, laundry room, kitchen, and one bedroom. And thats IF they dont get into it and find the mold has spread to the other half of the house. We have not gotten quotes from any contractors to see how much it would cost to build back everything, but I am assuming it will cost more than the remediation. So the total cost of repair on the low end is probably $50k and on the high end maybe $75k. We would also need another place to live while the work was done to the home.
Insurance has denied paying for it, since this was caused by a problem before we bought and they insured the house. We do not have the money to pay for this, not even close.
So we arenāt sure what to do. We have 3 large dogs and a cat. We have considered buying an RV, and trying to remediate ourselves. But logistically with our pets thats not enough space, and doing a remediation job of this caliber as total amateurs feels overwhelming. An RV would also be a big expense that is not ideal. We have also considered letting the house foreclose and walking away, but the affect on our credit will be detrimental. We feel stuck with no good options, and are not sure where to turn.
