A local mother faces eviction after she talked to Action News Jax about the black mold growing in her home.
Murcell Tarver's landlord says she is welcome to live elsewhere, and claims efforts were made to fix the problem. He also claims she didn’t pay rent.
Tarver is a foster mother, raising five children in a house where she says black mold is rapidly growing, and showed us the bedroom where she stopped letting her daughters sleep because of the mold smell.
The children now sleep on blowup mattresses in the kitchen.
“I try to have them not come in here, as much as possible,” said Tarver.
She said she first noticed it in the bathroom, believing there was a leak in the wall.
After Tarver called her landlord, maintenance workers added a layer of drywall and tried to cover up the smell, but Tarver claims her landlord didn’t want to make the necessary, permanent repairs.
The landlord, who lives in California, told Action News Jax over the phone that the fix his tenant expected was too expensive and involved.
He says Tarver is welcome to live elsewhere, and even sent us the new documents, evicting her for not paying February’s rent.
This was news to Tarver, who said she’ll be contacting an attorney.
“You can’t tie my hands like that,” she said, “Because I have to think about the well-being of my kids.”
A recent Code Enforcement inspection found various problems in the home.
A city report says the bedroom floor had been “improperly repaired or constructed,” and that it was in “unsanitary condition.”
Cox Media Group
