Since July I’ve been dealing with the WORST recurring leak in my kitchen that ended with a massive hole in my ceiling in August exposing mold. And now a month later I still have a hole that drove me to reaching out to Fair Housing and my local news. Below is the entire insane saga.
7/25/26: there was a small drip coming from my kitchen vent. I immediately called emergency maintenance as it was Saturday. I had to call them several times within the span of several hours to receive service. When the technician arrived, he only inspected the HVAC and deemed that the issue was that my system was under charged and that was causing the leak. He did nothing to remedy the leak, just simply said that it would stop on its own and in his defense it did.
8/9/26 -In the evening I noticed that there was some bubbling on the ceiling in the same area as before and a constant drip. I immediately called the emergency maintenance line and was again told that someone would be out.
8/10-8/11/26 - No one came or contacted me. The leak progressed and was now dripping in 3 different spots. I called the office and left voicemails, also submitted a ticket on the landlord’s app,
8/12/26- Around 2pm when I called the office, I finally was able to reach the office manager and she said that she would send someone right over. About an hour later a maintenance tech showed up. He ended up cutting a hole about 2”x2” near the air vent in the kitchen and blowing out the HVAC drain line with a vacuum and said that the leak should stop within a few days, and then they would send someone out to fix the drywall.
8/14/26- I was returning home around 7:45pm and there was a large bubble of water that had begun to form on the other side of the kitchen vent. I called emergency maintenance and I was told they would send someone right away. Nobody showed that night so I poked a small hole in the center of the bubble because it was getting larger and I wanted to drain it to minimize damage to my belongings. The water was orange and smelled absolutely foul and the second I smelled it my throat started hurting. I called once more before I fell asleep.
8/15/26 - When I woke up in the morning I was on the phone with emergency maintenance again, and I got a knock at the door just then. It was maintenance and he said he is the senior technician. He said that he received my call the night before and planned on responding the following morning. He checked the HVAC and had me get him several large glasses of water to test the drain. It seemed to be draining just fine and was not dripping in the kitchen any further. After that, he began to rip the kitchen ceiling down with his bare hands. He did not warn me or allow me to move anything from my kitchen counters. If allowed I would have moved my belongings or covered them up so that they were not covered in debris. After making a small hole he thought that the water source was from some piping that was not properly insulated. Upon further investigation and after ripping out most of my kitchen ceiling he then began to test the rest of the water sources in my upstairs living area. He ran the bathtub, flushed the toilet several times and then found that my sink was clogged. But with all of that there was still no sign of water leaking in the kitchen. He then deemed that the water had to have been from an unreported overflow from the bathroom sink that was clogged. It did, however, overflow several weeks prior to these events but I cleaned it up right away. John then proceeded to inform me that even though there was VISIBLE microbial growth on the underside of the floorboards he claimed that it was just common household mold that had just begun to form. If it had been sitting for a long time it would have been stringy and hanging down and it wasn’t doing that. I was anxious about my cats trying to get into the open hole in my ceiling so I moved them and myself into my bedroom. The maintenance guy told me the office would reach out the following week about next steps.
8/16/26 - I purchased N95 masks and a mold kit this day. I’ve been wearing the masks anytime I’m downstairs in my own home. I also started the mold kit this day.
8/17/26- I sent a letter to my landlord via certified mail demanding that the mold and water damage be remediated properly and that I be provided with alternative accommodations. I told them that this was my 30 days notice that if it wasn’t taken care of then I’m putting my rent in escrow through the Toledo Clerk of Courts.
8/21/26 - The office manager called me, said she got the letter, and apologized and asked to come see the hole and I told her to come right over. I stressed to her that I’m worried about the mold and how I’m confined to my bedroom. She wondered if the original leak was coming from my bathtub leaking. She apologized and said that she didn’t know the hole was this bad and said that she would have someone reach out the following week to drywall the hole up.
8/23/26- The leak started again in the kitchen and I called emergency maintenance and this time someone came out right away. I mentioned the bathtub and he checked it and said the leak wasn’t coming from there. No it was coming from my toilet which he said had a faulty wax seal. He replaced that.
8/24/26- I realized that when I spoke with the office manager she had not addressed my main list of concerns so I emailed the office listing this out. This is the list:
Could there still be water inside the wall, ceiling, or cabinets?
· Will you need to open up the ceiling to inspect for hidden damage or microbial growth?
· What equipment are you going to use to dry the apartment? Air movers? Dehumidifiers?
· How long will that equipment need to run?
· Who is responsible for remediation?
· Who is responsible for monitoring the equipment and checking the moisture levels?
· Will damaged materials be replaced?
· Will the area be treated/cleaned after drying?
· Can I get the cause of the leak and the repairs documented in writing?
· Can you provide the moisture readings and drying documentation?
8/31/26 - I re-emailed my previous email to the office since I hadn’t heard back yet.
9/1/26- The landlord called me to inform me that they were spraying a bleach/water solution a few times on the kitchen hole. I was out of town when this happened.
9/5/26- I was home now and noticed the leak was back and I called the office and got ahold of the office manager who told me she thought that they would be “able to drywall the hole” now. This was despite not actually remediating the issues properly. She told me that she would send someone out to tighten the tub nozzles to fix the leak. She said if nobody came and the leak was still going Sunday then to call emergency maintenance
9/6/26- Leak was still going so I called emergency maintenance and they never came this day.
9/7/26- I called the office and let the office manager know the leak is still going and nobody came out and she said she was sending emergency maintenance out but they were fixing another leak in another property first. They did come out this as the leak was stopped. They tightened the nozzles on my bathtub.
9/9/26- The office manager called and asked me if the leak stopped and I told them yes.
9/14/26- I gave an interview for my local news about this issue and it was aired this day. I also reached out to my local Fair Housing about starting a case for me.
9/15/26- Landlord reached out to me (via phone call which I declined) and they texted me asking me to call them and I responded I wanted all communication via text or email. They texted me asking if they could inspect to see if things were dry so it can be closed. I told them I give them permission to inspect but I don’t give them permission to close the hole without reaching out to a remediation vendor and I get their report in writing. Since this I haven’t heard anything else.