was a dream home, the kind of place Kim and Patrick Hodges had
always wanted.
perfect home for the couple and their daughter.
nothing — except a massive wall of mold. The Hodges family now
lives in an apartment. The bank foreclosed on the home when the
couple couldn’t afford both rent and mortgage.
that mold contamination has gained attention in recent years as
homeowners, contractors and insurers debate the extent of the
problem — and who should pay for it.
in the decade, but caps on the amount insurers are required to pay
have discouraged suits since then.
into a four-year nightmare they are still dealing with to this
day.
had made. Absolutely gorgeous on the outside,” Kim Hodges said.
“But when you went to cut it, it was burned to a
crisp.”
2003. The Hodges were cruising around Oak Ridge when they saw a
house that caught their eye. “We went in,” Kim said, “and I fell in
love.”
range, but the couple met the builder and hit it off. They agreed
to build a similar house nearby.
short-lived.
Kim walked through the living room, she noticed the floor was wet.
At first she thought their dog had an accident. But then she
noticed a much more serious water problem.
designed to keep water out, had fallen off. The cap was
reinstalled, but the problems continued. When it rained, water
trickled down the walls in the room.
still didn’t fit well. While investigating, he decided he needed to
open up a wall in the room.
the drywall, Kim Walker entered the room and saw lines of ants,
then a sheet of black mold coating the wall.
quickly.
mold throughout the house. The verdict: The family needed to get
out. Now.
recalls. “He said, ‘You can’t take anything with you. Your house is
contaminated.'”
friends, and scrambled to find out what it would take to fix the
problem. At the same time, other things began to make sense in
retrospect.
said. “I had a cough like a smoker’s cough.”
from allergies and assumed symptoms were related to that. Kim, who
was recovering from an earlier bout with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a
disorder of the nerves that had left her paralyzed at one point,
had been the sickest in the family.
other headaches continued to mount.
cost six figures to sweep the house free of mold. And that figure
didn’t include the cost of replacing possessions that could not be
cleaned.
their insurance company and discovered a $5,000 cap, set by the
state, on what insurance policies have to pay for mold
damage.
the jury ruled against the Hodgeses after a weeks-long trial. The
builder maintained high winds during a summer storm in 2006 blew
the cap off, but Kim said none of the neighbors’ houses suffered
damage.
in. By the time they rented an apartment, it became clear that
their money would stretch only so far.
couldn’t do it anymore,” Kim said.
had just stepped out during supper, everything frozen in
place.
through — with one exception. Her family recently won a $4 million
judgment against a builder after their Virginia home became
contaminated with mold.
something of a one-woman army on the issue. Ultimately, legislation
is needed to make builders more accountable, and houses need longer
warranties, she said.
warranty,” Meng said.
Information Institute said litigation played a role in the recent
attention mold has received.
years,” she said. “It’s only in the early 2000s that it became a
hot topic, or the lawsuit du jour.”
few states placed caps on the amount insurance companies must pay
for mold claims.
“The vast majority of mold results from some kind of maintenance
failure,” she said. “And maintenance is an issue for the
homeowner.”
liability policies for contractors typically don’t cover mold, said
Deb Bowers, an attorney who represented the Hodges family. That
makes even successful lawsuits potentially
fruitless.
but it’s not worth much,” she said.
many times mold is found in buildings each
year.
Jay Colburn, whose company, Environmental Restoration, frequently
fields calls about the problem.
said.
getting worse, but people are more aware of it, said Colburn, whose
company uses infrared cameras and moisture meters to check for
leaks and excessive moisture.
roof, a broken pipe — and food, such as drywall. The key is
repairing the source of the water and finding and removing the
contaminated materials with a “controlled demolition,” Colburn
said.
$40,000, he said.
others to avoid what happened to them.
can,” Kim said. “Then you’re not just relying on the
experts.”
had to just let it go.
move forward. If you keep dwelling on it, it can rip you
apart.”
which remains empty. She fears someone will buy it without adequate
repairs. That the problems will simply be papered over. And the
story will repeat itself.
beautiful,” she said. “That’s what they will see. The beauty in a
sick house.”
