Update on Yippie's Mold Ridden Home - Sad but worth reading

Since 2005, I am still battling my builders and their insurance company. To refresh your memory, there was a number of builders defects on my house. Mainly, no moisture barrier on part of the south side, second and first floor of my home. And again other defects such as no insulation in the attic and more.

It is located approximately 1500 feet from the Gulf of Mexico in Crystal Beach, Destin. This defect, of course, was not discovered until the 2005 hurricane season after two years of horrid storms and nothing drying anywhere. Mold, mold everywhere.

I have worked with my builder and his insurance company to no avail for a year, then as they continued to delay and delay. After I complained to the Okaloosa / Walton builders associatio, I received an e-mail from one of the partners of he building company that I was a back stabbing... and they were never going to step foot on my property again.

At this time, I was forced mitigate my damages as best as I could, and tried to repair the house, financing the entire venture to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I filed a lawsuit over a year ago, which delay after delay has been a common problem.

The court system does not work here. The game is not to do the right thing, but to see who can make the other person go broke first.

In 8 days, I basically lose my home. Not because of non payment, the payments are current, but because now my insurance has non-renewed my policy and there is no one who is wiling insure a damaged non- repaired house. The bank is not wiling to continue to carry a mortgage on a property that is not worth the collaterial and not insured on top of it.

I have spent thousands of dollars trying to repair my home. Nothing seems to work, too many defects, code violations, etc. The mold continues to return for one reason or another, relating to the building defects of the house.

On top of it all, I am allergic to mold and I have now life long debilitating illnesses like diabetes, neuropathy and many more from living in the house as long as I did. This has limited my ability to work long hours and limited my ability to get out of bed each morning welcoming a new day. Sometimes, I don't even want to wake up and feel the constant agony each day. Even my pet was ill. At this time, I can no longer afford to seek expert medical care. It is very expensive to travel to receive care.

I am not independently wealthy and could not pick up and move out of my house and cannot afford to be doing it now. However, also, I cannot afford the financial burden of paying two mortgages, utilities, etc on a house that no one lives in and rent, utilities on a rental house to be healthy in.

Finally at the first part of December I abandoned the house and everything in it, including everything I had assembled as a symbol of my lifelong accomplishments. It is very hard to leave your life behind, very emotional. After 4 months, I am facing financial ruin. It is heartbreaking to me and would be to you if this happened to you.

This has become a very hard time for me because I have worked very hard, and been honest, and upstanding in the community regarding my business and as a resident. I can't believe this is happening to me, or to anyone. And I would not wish this on my worse enemy.

If only my builder would have stepped up to the plate and fixed the problem he caused, this would not have been a problem. Life would have gone on, not depression and an unsure futurel The lifelong problems I am facing possibly would not have been an issue.

But, the builder, who is still building houses, has changed his tune and is denying everything. He has insurance that pays for legal expenses. HOW can you deny a house built against code, especially one with NO MOISTURE BARRIER. I had walls which crumbled in my hands, construted of OSB or a similar material with NO MOISTURE BARRIER. Just vinyl siding nailed right on these walls.

Had they only come up to the plate, admitted the mistake and done what it takes to fix the problem.

Why are people like that anymore. What happened to integrity? What happened to honesty. What happened for caring for others? How can some people sleep at night.

Walking through the grocery story or any store for that matter would be helful.

Thank you for taking your time to listen to this story, but remember. The same thing could happen to you and you may be facing the same uncertain future I am.

I will welcome any comments and answer any questions posted here.