Woman says mold is forcing her out of Overland Park apartment
A woman says mold is forcing her out of her Overland Park
By Chandler Watkins
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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (KCTV) — Stephanie Gailliaert says she’s been living at Village of Lionsgate Apartments for the last six months, but now is looking to move out.
“I can’t stay here and I’m not transferring, because I can’t live in mold,” said Gailliaert.
In January, there was a water leak in her bedroom. She reached out to the apartment office for help.
“Maintenance came over and brought a fan, put it up there and had it blowing for five days in the room,” said Gailliaert. “They brought a dehumidifier. Managers and maintenance came over to look at it. I said the carpet is wet, can you just go ahead and take it out? They said no, we are going to clean it and sanitize it. So, they went ahead and did that, but it only smelled clean for about 30 minutes. After that it went back to the same stench.”
She said it got so bad that she started sleeping on her couch. Gailliaert says as the weeks went by, she continued to get sick.
“I’ve been to 4 ERs because of breathing issues,” said Gailliaert. “It started with sinus, went to bronchitis, now it’s pneumonia that I have because I’ve been living in this thinking it’s not mold. But it’s mold and it’s made me very sick.”
She says apartment management told her there wasn’t mold in the apartment; Gailliaert shared a sample taken from her apartment, as well as several photos of mold allegedly in her apartment.
“They told me everything was fine, but I just kept getting worse,” said Gailliaert. “They told me I could transfer to a different apartment if I want, but why would I want to go to another mold apartment? If you would have done the right thing, did the mold remediation. Clearly there is mold here. They didn’t do the right thing. They made me sit in here for a week blowing mold spores and filth around the place so I got sicker.”
She says the apartment management is now charging her thousands to move out before her lease is up.
“I didn’t want to move,” said Gailliaert. “I just wanted them to do the right thing, which they didn’t.”
KCTV 5 called and asked to speak to a manager at Villages of Lionsgate Apartments for their side of the story. They declined to comment.
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