Hey all, I'm posting this for a number of reasons...I'm hugely anxious about my current situation, but I also thought my story might help others who may go something similar someday.

Some of you might have read my earlier post here where I talked about the simultanoues mould/flooding problem I was having in my apartment. Well, after phoning the city, and telling my landlady that I had done so, she immediately got her husband to show up and fix the flood in my kitchen. It turned out a leaky pipe inside the wall was doing the damage. He fixed it all up quickly, except that he had to get someone else to come in the next day to replace the wall tiles that his plumber removed. So apart from the gaping hole in my kitchen wall, everything was fixed up.

I was glad about that, but still upset that they were not taking the mould problem seriously. Then, late that night, inspiration hit me...why not poke around that hole in the wall? So I pulled back the insulation, and there it was...tons and tons of black mould. It was in the wood, the brick, the insulation...everywhere.

I had found my smoking gun. I immediately took pictures of everything, and got them printed out the next morning. I phoned my landlady and told her that she was caught. Not only was there mould in my apartment, but her husband did not bother to clean it up: either he knew it was there and didn't say anything, or he didn't bother to check even though the leak was on obvious mould hazard. Either way he was hugely negligent, and I had the pics to prove it.

My landlady recognized her bind, and immediately let me out my lease, effective at the end of the month. I got a verbal agreement, but will get her to commit it to writing this week (not that she's going to reneg, and she knows she's in big trouble).

Now the only problem is that I have to pack up my things and find a new place to live...in a big, strange city where I know so few people, and with my wife still stuck at her old job five hours away. Oh, and I have midterm and presentation to do this week, and am basically swamped with schoolwork. I'm thrilled that things resolved themselves so neatly, but scared about what's to come.

Anyway, if anyone is ever caught in a lease in a lousy apartment, try to be persistent. Document problems, take pictures, phone the city, etc. It sounds like a lot of landlords will crack, especially if their negligence has been exposed.