Mold forces Duluth family out of apartment, causes illness

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -

Fighting mold in Georgia is not an easy battle. It has caused one metro Atlanta family to get sick in their own home and they said their landlord has done very little to address the issue.

"We have no living room, we have no dining room. We can't even sit at the table to eat dinner. Water may come down on us if we try to," tenant Tiffany Pharr said.

So CBS Atlanta called on Heaton Environmental to investigate, after Pharr complained about the living conditions in their apartment.

She said a water leak at the apartment complex caused their ceiling to cave in twice during the past two months and management has only patched the problem.

Concerned the moisture would lead to mold, they bought a home test kit for about $10. They put one petri dish on the carpet, the other next to the hole in the ceiling. The results were shocking.

"We've all now been sick pretty much since this all happened with sneezing, runny nose, itchiness, all of us, all four of us," Pharr said.

Pharr said she asked management to move her family to another apartment to avoid exposure to the mold, but they told her only if she renewed her lease for a year.

"It's stressful and I'm pregnant and I shouldn't be going through this much stress while being pregnant," Pharr said.

Because petri dish results are unreliable, CBS Atlanta asked Heaton Environmental to run over $700 worth of air quality tests.

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Mold forces Duluth family out of apartment, causes illness