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04 May 08
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Jason and Kerri Brown of Greenville found a secret room in their home behind a bookcase, and what was inside was a nightmare beyond their wildest dreams."This can't be happening. This can't be true. It terrified me," Kerri Brown told News 4's Tim Waller.
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The secret room in the old mill home on Whitten Street in Greenville's Dunean section contained a handwritten letter from the previous owner titled, "You Found It!""Hello. If you're reading this, then you found the secret room. I owned this house for a short while and it was discovered to have a serious mold problem. One that actually made my children very sick to the point that we had to move out," Kerri Brown read from the letter.According to the note, there was so much mold, it made the last family who lived there sick, and they were forced to move out.The Browns later learned the home contained the worst types of mold including Stachybotrys, the so-called Toxic Black Mold.
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"It terrified me because my first thought was Megan," Kerri Brown said. "And you know, I had heard reports of what it does for children, and I was terrified."But at this point, it was only a note, and Jason Brown was skeptical."Who would leave a note? Why did he do it? What's he up to? A little bit suspicious I would think. Even cynical almost," Jason Brown said.
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LINKS:Hendrix Engineers Web Site EPA's Mold Information EPA Mold Guide For Homeowners Spanish Language EPA Mold Guide Centers For Disease Control Mold Health Information OSHA Guide To Workers' Health Around Mold American Industrial Hygiene Association Mold Facts South Carolina DHEC Indoor Air Information Facts On Fungus Types American Academy Of Pediatrics Mold Information
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So the Browns hired an environmental engineer to see if there was any truth to the note in the secret room.Indeed, Steve Hendrix of Hendrix Consulting Engineers in Greenville, found elevated-levels of several types of mold, including Aspergillus, Basidiospores, Chaetomiu, Curvularia, Stachybotrys and Torula."(On a) scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst, I would give this one probably a seven. It's definitely got problems we want to see remediated," Hendrix said.
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The Browns filed a lawsuit in an attempt to get their money back on the mold-infested house on Whitten Street. The suit names Fannie Mae, Century 21 Flynn & Youngblood and Realtor Sue Bakx, who the Browns claim knew about the mold. Bakx and Century 21 Flynn & Youngblood deny any knowledge of the mold.Sue Bakx, now a sales associate for Century 21 Bob Capes Realtors, declined to be interviewed for this story. But her attorney, Clark Price, spoke to News 4 on the telephone, saying the home at No. 6 Whitten Street was sold "as is," adding it was the Brown's responsibility to have the home tested for mold.
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Like most homebuyers, Jason and Kerri Brown got a home inspection before they bought the house. But the Browns acknowledge that the inspection did not include a mold test. Most home inspections do not."That is true. I signed it. I initialed it," Kerri Brown said.And what about the man who left them the note in the secret room behind the bookshelf? Was he to blame for any of this? After all, who leaves a note?
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Meet the author of the note, George Leventis."I didn't mean it to scare the Browns, which I think it did when they first read it," Leventis said. "If I didn't write it, it would easily happen again."Leventis and his family were the first to discover the horrible secret of Number 6 Whitten Street. There is no indication the previous owner was aware of any mold."I've never seen my kids that sick. And it was scary," Tricia Leventis said in tears.According to Tricia, she and their two young daughters became desperately ill, and said doctors told them to leave the home immediately."It was adamant. Absolutely, get out," Leventis said. "It was to the point where my youngest was so sick, she was unable to hold any nutrition, nothing was working, she couldn't breathe."The Leventises did the only thing they believed they could do, with no money in savings to have the mold removed. They stopped paying their mortgage and let the home go into foreclosure.But George Leventis knew the home someday could be re-sold, and he wanted to be sure the future owners knew about the mold. Leventis said what better way to warn them than to leave a note hidden from plain view."I put it in the room because I didn't want anyone to find it if it was left out in the house. I figured if someone else who had another interest or a stake in the house found it, they would just throw it away or they wouldn't tell anyone," Leventis said.The Browns say that is exactly what happened, and say if not for the note, their child may have become sick as well.
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"I'm very thankful he left the note. In my opinion, there's a possibility he could have saved Megan's life," Kerri Brown said.In the meantime, the Browns said there is no chance of saving the home on Whitten Street with the "secret room.""The bottom line is it costs almost as much to fix it as the house is valued," Jason Brown said. "We're having to pay a mortgage on a house we can't even live in."
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07 Jan 08
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