Slum Lord Wins?!

My former slum landlord of 7 yrs has lowball offer for letting neglect cause a mold infestation that destroyed my property and my family’s health. Here’s the backstory; We noticed mold bloom after a big storm as soon as we saw mold we emailed our property management but the property manager waited over a month to come check out the house and then took several more months to even attempt to contain or remediate. In this time they tried to blame the conditions on us, saying we were being cheap with the heater etc. They spent countless hours and money on downplaying the situation. Telling my family we could live in the house it wasn’t that bad and until we got a mold inspection they refused to acknowledge how high the spore count was above any safe levels for living. We finally got an attorney involved and have been going through the whole waiting process for over a year. In that time our renters insurance denied our claim for personal property coverage (which we made sure to include when we first moved in so we would be covered as renters) and the owners insurance denied the claim for owner negligence. The owner’s attorney denied and lied from the minute he got involved the house finally became deemed uninhabitable by our city with several citations on unpermitted rooms, expansions, repairs and the lack of proper mold remediation work. We have racked up thousands of dollars in debt trying to cover living expenses and getting short term housing and now after this long our attorney just wrote an email saying the final offer we have been given is $50,000. After the attorney takes his 1/3 cut this barely covers our credit and loan debts and doesn’t even help us with replacing our appliances, house furnishings etc. Here’s my attorney’s response to me asking for a counter offer that is somewhat reasonably going to cover the expenses we’re stuck with and give us a small compensation for the complete f#%* up of homelessness and instability this has caused my family with 3 daughters. To say they have suffered is an understatement. All three have been covered in rashes, have lung issues and other serious health issues that might be for the rest of our lives. Let me be clear I’m not trying to ruin our landlords lives. But they should be held responsible for their actions and the constant neglect of something that made them decades of money. They have several rental properties, including renting out our old house for $900 more a month so I am not sure I empathize with them.

Here’s my last email from my own attorney:

“While we fully recognize the seriousness of what your family experienced, and that this amount cannot undo the losses you’ve suffered, it’s our responsibility to be transparent and advise you that recoveries of this size without insurance coverage are extremely rare. In hindsight, this is a very strong result under the circumstances, even though we completely understand it does not reflect the full extent of your hardship.

It is also our duty to inform you that pushing further, now that they’ve offered their financial maximum, creates a serious risk of them filing for bankruptcy, an outcome that would leave your family with nothing.

Please take some time to consider the offer. We're here to answer any questions or walk you through anything that might help you feel confident and informed in making your decision.”

So that’s it?! They get to make more money monthly with a new set of tenants after refusing to follow CA tenant law regarding habitable rentals? Is there anyway I can creatively recoup more of my money from this situation?

Posted Jul 9, 2025, 11:20 PM UTC

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