With Some Hope. . .

Jerry, Montreal Quebec, Canada
13 July 2002

I own and operated a food wholesale business in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and have been renting this small 2000 square foot warehouse/office for the last 8 years. My problem with toxic mould started when I did not demand the landlord renovate my bathroom before signing the lease and accepting the terms and conditions. Today, I am almost certain that the small water leak under my bathroom sink began with the previous tenant and they knew of and neglected to do anything about it.

When I first took over these premises, the landlord did spruce up and paint the offices but did nothing for the bathroom which is directly behind the office walls. The small but continuous water leak did not come to my attention for a month after we moved in but it was too late. I immediately stop the water leak, thinking cleaning up the spill would suffice. The problem which at the time I was totally ignorant of, was the water seeped behind the walls and even into the office area. The conditions were in place to allow the mould to spread. All this was occurring, not knowing or understanding, toxic mould was growing in the bathroom and office areas. I have been here almost 8 years, all that time, I was suffering from immense headaches. Especially for the last 6 months, severe headaches would attack me, I had to pop 3 or 4 extra strength Aspirins. I kept asking myself why am I getting these headaches?

Was it my age? My poor digestive system? My weight? My eating habits? My stressful job? My working hours?

Luckily or unluckily depending who you are looking at this, my neighbour recently contacted the landlord to inform him of a rotting baseboard. This led them back to my bathroom where they called in some experts to take samples. They confirmed it is toxic mould and which then explained my headaches. They going to begin cleaning it up this week. Finally, after 8 years, I going to get some relief.