AUSTIN, Texas — When Simon Yarmowich first moved into the Salado Apartments in Austin's West Campus last August, the last thing he expected was for his unit to have black mold.
Yarmowich said it was apparent the apartment had issues and, at first, he could not find the source. It started after he noticed a musty odor, stuffy air and black marks surrounding the carpet.
Yarmowich contacted the property managers, who at the time were All County Capital. He noted he, his roommates and their parents had to step in and hire mold experts to address the situation.
"We alerted the building. They didn't do anything about it. We eventually got our own mold testing, and it showed that there was traces of black mold and mold in the air vents," Yarmowich said.
The owner and property manager of All County Capital told KVUE that testing was done and, "A utility closet at this building tested positive for extremely minor levels of black mold. Out of an abundance of caution a licensed remediation contractor (Big Guys Restoration) was hired to remedy the situation immediately."
The property manager referred to it as a "routine remediation project," and noted that "ambient mold" is found across Austin.
"And from time to time will find its way into a residential unit. Texas property code requires us to take action quickly on these situations once made aware, although we regret any impact that remediation has on residents," they said.
Yarmowich said management said it was OK for them to live in the apartment during the project – which was confirmed to KVUE – but the mold experts they had hired had told them otherwise, forcing them into Airbnbs.
In response to this, All County Capital said the following:
"At no point were the students told they could not live on site, and they continued to use the premises throughout the project. In fact, this delayed the work as students refused contractors entry to the spaces multiple times, broke containment barriers multiple times, and caused work to stop by smoking marijuana in the unit while contractors were trying to work. At one point the parents also stepped in and insisted we delay the work as the students had upcoming tests.
Without being told to do so, the parents elected to purchase them an AirBNB. When asked about the cost of the AirBNB, we offered to assist them with that claim through their renters insurance. They later asked the building owners to reimburse them, I presume this means that the insurance claim was rejected but I have no information on that. We made the owners aware of the request from the students parents to be reimbursed for their AirBNB, but never approved us to submit any payment. We parted ways with the partnership that owns the building since then."
However, according to Yarmowich, the problems worsened during the project as plumbing in the kitchen failed and flooded the living area.
Although the situation is somewhat resolved, Yarmowich said it is up to management to address issues firsthand and get to the bottom of problems.
"They claim that this was an Act of God, that they had no idea that they that they couldn't control this. But it's crazy to me to say that they couldn't control this," Yarmowich said.
KVUE learned that the property is now under new management. G&B supervisor Steven Bilyeu explained that they have yet to fully fill their roles as they are still awaiting keys from the previous owners, but said the owners of the building had alerted them to some of the issues.
Although unfamiliar with Yarmowich's situation, Bilyeu said whatever the problem or cost, the new property managers will address it immediately.
"I believe the owners here do want to put money into it and want to take care of everything," Bilyeu said. "I just think the [previous] property management company did not know what they were doing."