Homesinvaldosta

Events dated 07/22/2018-11/27/2019

Attached images show visual proof of statements made.

My name is Jeremy Tucker. My wife and I rented this home, 605 Mack Dr. Valdosta, GA *******, from The Herndon Company between 12/01/2017-11/27/2019. While Herndon readily fixed many reported issues, the issue of mold was never tackled while we resided in the home. Mold of surprising proportions was first reported to Herndon on 07/22/2018. A "technician" was not contacted for this issue until 10/02/2019 (over a year later!). As you can see from the [report1] image, the issue was not resolved while I was still a renter of Herndon (the yellow dot is how their tenant portal shows maintenance requests not yet completedsuch would be marked with a green dot). When this was first reported to Herndon, we were told to "hang some DampRid." The DampRid did not even slightly address the issue, as can be seen in the [closet] pictures.

The contacting of the "technician" was done at the request of the property manager, Marissa Brooks, when she was notified that we were vacating the property. This was the FIRST TIME that ANYONE from Herndon came out to the property to view the mold. The issue was deemed serious enough to correct so that the owner could sell the home or so that Herndon could find another tenant, but it was not seen as serious while we were under a mandatory lease.

The mold in the closet got so bad that the door eventually broke completely due to moisture damage. This break was reported on 09/01/2019, but was cancelled on 11/22/2019. As of the cancellation, not even the door had been taken care of yet, and we were still tenants of the property!

Colds have afflicted my entire family for the last year. We originally took it to be the constant passing back and forth of colds as most families do. However, having found Black Mold, we now question that stance. It wasn't until we were in the financial standing necessary to move that we were able to do so, until then, we were trapped in this home. The future scares me regarding what permanent issues could arise due to our exposure to this mold.

Image explanations:

The report pictures show our proof at reporting these issues to Herndon.

The wall picture with the circular mold present has been identified as Black Mold. This was found on the wall of the dining room. The section where found has part of the wall connected to an interior portion of the property and part of the wall connected to an exterior portion of the property.

The closet pictures denote the front hall closet. This area continued to collect mold so badly that the door eventually broke from moisture damage. All closet pictures that show the door jamb were taken from inside the closet. The wall pictures show the wall inside the closet.

The upstairs closet picture shows the interior wall of a closet upstairs. This closet connects to the same wall where the Black Mold was found. This wasn't noticed until we packed up to vacate the property.

The cabinet pictures show the cabinets located in the kitchen. Each of these cabinets developed mold within the cabinet (walls, shelves, door, etc.) and began creeping outside of the doorway of each cabinet. Very visible mold!

The laundry door picture shows the top of the door jamb leading into the laundry room. The same with the wall picture. This picture shows the wall connected to the door jamb, outside of the laundry room. The ceiling pictures show the mold inside the laundry room, growing all across the ceiling. Highly visible and very thick concentration of mold!

While The Herndon Company had ample time to address these issues, it neglected to do so. The mold is not an isolated incident of Herndon's negligence, but it is the largest of the issues Herndon chose to ignore. To give you perspective: when our sink or toilet clogged up and backed up, Herndon sent out a plumber to undertake such a simple repair. When my front door became so clogged with moisture that I could not lock it with the deadbolt, Herndon chose to send no repairman. When that same door became so clogged with moisture that I could no longer open the door while inside the home (becoming a fire-escape risk), Herndon finally chose to send a repairman.

I have reported this issue to HUD (Herndon does not currently offer HUD housing, but hopefully a complaint like this will keep them from doing sothey shouldn't be allowed to offer government housing'), the EPA, the BBB, the Lowndes County Health Department, and Lowndes County Code Enforcement. Hopefully, Herndon will be fined for their violations as they deserve to be!

I'm unsure as to how Herndon feels about its tenants normally, but if their lack of concern over these issues is any consideration, I would say we're nothing more than a paycheck to them.

I purchased my new home through Herndon, and have had no issues at all from that purchase. So buying a home from Herndon is a perfectly viable option; it's renting from Herndon that's the issue

You want my advice? Rent elsewhere: Lincoln Realty, Valdosta Properties, Lyons Property Management, etc. A Google search pulls up quite an extensive list. I am unsure of the reliability of these other companies, but I KNOW that Herndon is quite happy with my family getting sick from living in a mold-infested home.

Do yourself a favor: keep you and your family healthy by renting from some other company.

Pictures can be found at https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApnDeC-DWG35g54Hz65Pbm7E5rbaBw?e=6MCTsS