Tenant Who Found Moldy Mess In Ft. Lauderdale Apartment: 'Walked In Here & I Felt Squish'

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – "I walked in here and I felt squish."

Kyle Singer said he discovered he had a water problem in the Port Royale apartment he shares with his girlfriend Elizabeth and their 1-year-old daughter Leah.

But when he pulled back the carpet, Singer discovered a bigger problem: ugly, black mold.

"This was all black, I have pictures. You can still see some black on it," he said.

Photos taken seven days ago show mold beneath the closet carpet and on the lower walls.

As he continued to look, Singer also found mold under the carpet of the master bedroom, across from the closet.

There was mold in the bathroom as well.

Singer said Port Royale's management company sent a couple of people in to replace water damaged dry wall and, supposedly, remove the mold.

He said they didn't remove it completely from the bedroom closet floor and carpet, and covered it up in the bathroom.

"They have put new drywall on top of old, moldy drywall," Singer said.

Singer said he knows because he commissioned a company, Miami Mold Specialist, to examine the apartment.

The experts, using an extender stick, took photos of the mold behind the bathroom wall.

The company's initial report confirmed the presence of mold. A more detailed analysis showed mold on the coils of the apartment's air conditioning system.

The mold company said all of it should be removed, and only by a qualified expert, not the property manager's workers.

Singer said he, Elizabeth and Leah have had chronic respiratory problems, common to people who are sensitive to the type of mold they have been exposed to – a variety called Cladosporium.

The mold experts also found evidence that the mold not only hasn't been removed from Singer's apartment, but it is spreading, continuing to grow.

"It's been such an unsafe environment, and it's just been a consistent pattern of negligence," said Elizabeth Hohmann as she waited outside the apartment with the couple's child Monday.

She feels the management company has given slipshod, inadequate treatment to what she considers and emergency situation.

Singer echoed the sentiment.

"I want them to admit what they're doing wrong. I want them to handle the situation properly," Singer said. "I don't want them to Band-Aid the mold. I want them to remove it."

All of the family's clothing and furnishings from the bed and bath are bagged and stacked in the living room and kitchen.

They have been staying in a hotel, with friends and even in their van since the moldy mess was discovered.

The apartment complex's management company, the Waterton company out of Chicago, told CBS4 that it has not ignored or covered up any issue in Singer's unit and has been communicating with him.