Landlord covered up mold before, rent was abated until March, now facing eviction after continued 311 complaints
Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice because I feel completely overwhelmed and I’m starting to think my landlord/property management may be retaliating against me for continuing to push back about mold and habitability issues.
I’m in uptown and have been dealing with ongoing mold and repair problems in my apartment for awhile now. At one point, management acknowledged the severity of the issue enough that my rent was abated through March. However, despite that, I do not believe the mold problem was actually properly resolved. In my opinion, parts of it were essentially covered up rather than fully remediated, and there is still mold present in the apartment now.
During the repair process, I also felt like I was put in an unreasonable living situation. I didn’t really have another place to stay, and management still expected me to continue eating, sleeping, and living in my studio apartment while mold-related repairs were actively happening. The entire situation was stressful and honestly felt unsafe/unhealthy to me.
Because of that history, I became hesitant to resume paying full rent immediately after the abatement period ended. From my perspective, the underlying habitability issue was never truly fixed, and I didn’t feel comfortable paying full rent while still dealing with mold concerns.
Around the same time, I was also laid off and now only work part-time, so finances became difficult. I applied for court-based rental assistance/CBRAP and my application has been pending/processing.
After I continued raising concerns about the mold and repairs, communication with management became more tense. My tenant portal was locked, making it difficult or impossible to pay rent normally online.
Then in April, they filed for eviction. To make things more confusing, I found out the eviction paperwork apparently listed the wrong address.
At this point, I’m trying to understand whether any of this could legally be considered retaliation or whether I handled the rent situation incorrectly given the unresolved mold/habitability concerns and prior rent abatement.
I’m mainly wondering:
Does prior rent abatement help support that the mold issue was serious?
If mold is still present after an abatement period, does that affect whether full rent should be owed?
Could filing eviction paperwork shortly after ongoing complaints about mold/repairs be considered retaliation?
Does the wrong address on the eviction paperwork matter legally?
What evidence should I be organizing right now? (photos, emails, maintenance requests, proof of abatement, etc.)
Would it be worth contacting a tenant rights attorney/legal aid before the case moves further?
I’m trying to handle this responsibly and not avoid accountability, but I also genuinely feel like the apartment conditions were never properly fixed and now I’m being pushed out after continuing to complain about it. Any advice or similar experiences would really help