Mobile home mold and buyer beware

Imagine moving into a home and finding out it could be harming your children. It happened to a Green Country family who thought they were investing in their future, but say their new home turned into

Monday, February 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Imagine moving into a home and finding out it could be harming your children. It happened to a Green Country family who thought they were investing in their future, but say their new home turned into a nightmare.

News on Six reporter Tami Marler says this is a classic case of "buyer beware." The Davis family is like nearly 20-million other Americans who have chosen a manufactured home for their family. Now they've turned to the News on Six for help. Jeremy Davis is a typical 12-year-old boy. He stays active with sports and dogs, even though he's been sick a lot lately. "Headache, stomach ache, just been hurting my body all over the place."

Jeremy says he's willing to move from his new home back to this travel trailer, where his family lived for six months after their home burned to the ground. "Me and my sister's been wanting to get away from the mold and mildew because that's probably what's making us sick. And I just wanted to get away from it."

His mother, Mary Davis showed us why the home has been nothing but trouble since they bought it brand-new. "Well we weren't expecting it to be a dream home, but after losing a home, it's just it's turning out to be another nightmare." Davis says it started with a puddle by her back door that she wiped up with a cloth. "I noticed and I says 'oh my God, what did I just do?' and I looked at it and it was mold. And then I started looking at my windows, and there was mold in the windows."

Davis worries because she and her 3 children have been sick for months. Indoor mold can cause a variety of health problems. Some potentially deadly. "And she is deathly afraid and I won't even let her sleep in her bedroom because the mold is so bad in this window." They contacted the dealer about the mold growing inside one door and half of their windows. Classic Country Homes in Inola contacted Fleetwood Homes - the manufacturer. Fleetwood told the Davis family, the mold was caused by condensation in the windows, something their 2-year warranty specifically excludes.

But an independent inspector found deficiencies with the windows, insufficient caulking and gaps that could leak. He also found a damaged vent that wasn't allowing air to flow, two problems that would be covered by the warranty. Davis says what should have been a happy home has turned into a $30,000 nightmare. "We have a 2-year warranty with Fleetwood with this trailer, why should we have to do anything to it?" There is somewhere you can turn if you're having similar problems that aren't being addressed by the manufacturer or dealer.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development takes complaints for the manufactured home industry. Call for information at 800-927-2891. We spoke with the dealer in Inola, who said she would prefer we talk with Fleetwood Homes. They have not returned our phone calls