When it rains, it pours, inside Hilda Conley's apartment.
"The damage is coming from there, " Conley says, pointing to the top of the folding door of her laundry area. "It's leaking through the wall, as you can see it's dripping, as I'm trying to do laundry I'm getting soaking wet, this is just from yesterday."
There's a bucket on the floor collecting the water that's dripped through her ceiling, down the closet door, but that's not the worst of it. That title belongs to Conley's daughter's room, which sports peeling, moldy drywall. It looks nasty because it is.
"The bedroom, we're not able to use it at all," Conley says.
That's because it's toxic in there, and this situation has been going on for three years with no relief.
"It has been the worst experience for me, I'm constantly cleaning, the quality of my life is disgusting," Conley told us through tears. "I feel like a third-world country has more rights than people in condos."
Conley lives in Calusa Club Village off Kendall Drive. She pays more than $400 a month in maintenance fees for her first-floor condo, yet even though she and other tennants have sent letters and made numerous phone calls, pleading with the condo association president and All Florida Management to repair their damages, nothing, Conley says, happens. We called the management company, left a message, and got no response.
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Conley, a widow, can't afford a repair bill that approaches 12-thousand dollars. Meanwhile, her daughter has to sleep in the living room because her bedroom has turned into a mold farm.
"All her things have been destroyed, " Conley says. "Her clothes have to be thrown out, her computer destroyed, her TV destroyed, and as a parent, I feel like I'm failing her and it's not even my fault."
The apartment reeks of mildew and mold, and it's so humid inside, with water sometimes dripping from the light sockets, that Conley has already burned out one dehumidifier. She sprays Lysol constantly, but it's like using a Band-aid on a gaping wound.
"I've had to be put on antibiotics several times, I've had sinus problems, respiratory problems, I'm always coughing," Conley says, pointing out the health impacts of living in that environment.
Why doesn't she move? She can't afford to go anywhere. So as the water continues its relentless invasion, Conley's turning to a lawyer for help, but says it should never have come to this.
"There needs to be better laws to protect consumers in condos," Conley says.
