u/thatcursedgoblin

Okay so basically, we moved into this house late last year and it was nothing but good vibes right up until about a week ago. A few janky things around the house but nothing that rang major alarm bells.

It all started when I noticed a bit of mould around the (old wooden) window sill in my bedroom, nothing crazy and pretty typical for an older house with shit windows. I’m super sensitive to mould so my housemate helped me move my furniture around and cleaned it for me.

From there it just really snowballed. We noticed some mouldy clothing items in some of my bedroom storage (the light green/white fuzzy type). Ended up taking everything out of that cube unit and noticed some warping around the backing of it so moved the whole thing out of the room. The small bookshelf I had next to it, also covered in that same type of mould. So we threw that outside too. We decided to rearrange my whole bedroom so we could check everything and give it a good clean and there was black mould around one of the power points 🫠 (on an external wall, in line with an outdoor tap that briefly had a leak earlier this year and was replaced promptly)

I notified the REA who has been really responsive and seems to be taking it all seriously. She submitted a work order to The Mould Doctor, and they told us it was about a 3 week wait to get somebody out to assess the house. Within a couple of days of that all happening, mould started popping up on everything. I’ve had to take every bit of clothing I own out of my bedroom because a significant amount was affected. My bags, shoes, clothes, random things inside my bedside drawers, my fucking BEDDING that had been freshly washed and thoroughly dried a few days before. I’m running both split systems on dry mode non stop and a dehumidifier around the clock, I have moisture absorbers everywhere, etc. Last night I took off a tshirt I’d worn for a couple of hours (literally just went to Kmart and ran some errands) and I popped it back on this morning for a quick trip out of the house in a hurry. Within half an hour of being out of the house I noticed it had a pretty large area that was mouldy. It’s popping up overnight in large quantities and I’ve lived in my fair share of old damp houses but I have never seen anything like this and neither have any of my friends.

I’m having to re-check everything constantly in case more mould has popped up. I’m in a constant state of anxiety. Our dream house has turned into hell to live in and I’m not coping. The last straw was noticing yesterday that a very very sentimental furniture item in a completely separate area of the house also had mould all over it and I’m devastated.

I had to go fork out money I didn’t have for a storage unit to save as many of the sentimental things I can while I can (obviously being very careful about what I take over there too, and kinda quarantining things as we assess, so there’s just no space anywhere in the house right now and it’s chaos)
Our REA is taking it seriously and trying to get a different company out asap but in the meantime it’s costing a small fortune to try to salvage our belongings.

Basically, I’m at my fucking wits end with this house and extremely overwhelmed. I’m chronically ill and barely even able to work at the moment so having to deal with all of this is really setting me back. If anyone has any recommendations on next steps, what exactly our rights are, etc, it would be very much appreciated!!

Sorry for the long post, I just can’t stress enough how fast it’s appearing on everything and while we’re being hyper vigilant and doing everything we possibly can, I know a lot of it isn’t going to be salvageable and I’m heartbroken because this house was meant to be a fresh start after a really, really hard year.

I have a consult with a lawyer tomorrow, we’ve had a chat previously and she thinks she can help me (I’m unsure exactly what gave her that impression because I’ve only told her the basics of my situation, but I’ve been on work cover for over 52 weeks)

I’ve always had a fairly good relationship with my employer but I’m also aware that if I’m entitled to a payout I should pursue that and this injury has flipped my whole life upside down and aggravated an existing condition as well so I’m barely able to function at the moment. I’m just extremely anxious about things getting messy along the way and burning bridges I guess?

Anyone who’s been through it, could you give me an idea about the process and what I should expect?
I know the lawyer can go over that with me too, I’m just trying to mentally prepare after putting off the meeting for weeks!!

I have OCD and pretty bad legal-related obsessive thoughts/fears that can really send me spiralling even though I’m pretty confident I’ve done nothing wrong. So I’m just wanting to understand the process better and what it entails.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can shed some light!!