ORANGE, Texas — Two weeks ago 12News spoke to a resident of an apartment complex in Orange who said she was dealing with mold. But the complex said the issues didn't exist.
Now the City of Orange is stepping in at the Velma Jeter Manor and says that there is a big problem they found during their investigation.
When you walk inside of Petesy Adams home at Velma Jeter Manor, you're greeted by an overwhelming smell of mold. Adams says it's a public health concern and she's worried about her health and the safety of her young kids.
"The whole floor is still full of water... the whole thing is like it's gone end up falling in," said Adams.
When 12News first spoke to Adams, she said she had trouble getting the maintenance crews from the complex to clean the mold and fix water leaks in her unit.
"I have been chasing them down, going down the road for three and four weeks. [Asking if they are] going to send somebody to fix the leak," Adams said.
At the time, the company who owns the complex in Orange, ITEX, sent a statement to 12News.
"Upon receiving the complaint, we engaged service master to investigate. While no mold was found, moisture from a leak was detected. Consequently, we arranged for plumbers to fix the leak and for service master to place fans to address the moisture," part of the statement said.
The City of Orange has now gotten involved.
"They actually cut a hole up in the ceiling and that's when we actually saw the mold spores," said City of Orange Building Official Marvin Benoit.
City officials are saying they should have been notified about the issue earlier.
"If in fact they got someone to go and do a test, they should provide that test to us, at the same time they should come in and get a permit in order to do the work," Benoit said.
Adams didn't know that and she had reached out to the city for a second opinion.
"Because everybody that was coming in here was pointing out mold to me. Like up there in my wall and I said okay I'll just contact Orange County and see what they say about it," said Adams.
The city's inspector also found mold spores in the joist. This means mold has gotten into the foundation of the building, according to the city's report.
"In this case we need to make sure that all that mildew and mold is cleaned up. Some of the direction was for them to take out the entire ceiling, not just cut a hole," Benoit told 12News.
Now, Adams is facing another problem. She's facing violations from her Velma Jeter Manor.
"She retaliated against me. Like the next day after the news people left, she gave me those two lease violations," Adams said.
One violation says "failure to let plumbers do their job to find and fix the leak by screaming at them when they were trying to do their job."
Adams claims she never did that.
"I have never had a lease violation," she told 12News.
Although some work has been done, Adams says a lot of the mold is still there. Adams also says she hopes she doesn't get another leasing violation for doing this story.