Duluth mother finds room of mold in rental home

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — “As a mom knowing your child was exposed to that,” said Cherylyn Woody, the tenant.

“The last couple of months she has gone to the pediatrician, she had an inhaler, she’s never had problems before,” Woody said of her 4-year-old daughter.

In addition, Woody showed Channel 2 Action News lab test results that detected eight fungi in her sinuses. The two moved into the Duluth home about nine months ago.

Woody, who was alarmed, hired a mold inspector from BIO ONE Atlanta to come out and check her rental property on Highland Pine Way.

At first, inspector Paul Cervino says he did not see any problems in the main house or the crawl space.

“Upon further investigation I pulled this board right over and we found a room segregated from the rest of the house,” Cervino said.

Cervino said the room, hidden behind boards, was out of view.

“We noticed there is a flight of stairs that leads into an access point that has recently been covered up with sheet rock and plaster,” Cervino said.

“It was hidden; I had no idea there was a room under the house,” Woody said.

Monica Gilroy, an attorney for the property management company, said that the company was unaware of any issues with illness or mold until Friday and immediately let the tenant out of her lease.

“My clients will be conducting their own mold testing of the Property,” Gilroy said in an emailed letter. “As to allegations that the Property has a “hidden” portion of the house, my clients have no knowledge of the same. In fact, on Friday afternoon, they sent their own staff member to look at the Property and were directed to a crawl space area under the home, not in the main portion of the Property.”

WSBTV