Saskatoon mom scrambling to keep a roof over her head after finding mould in her suite

A Saskatoon mom is desperately fighting eviction after she discovered mould in her suite and reported it to her landlord.

Lily Isaac has lived in her Riversdale basement suite for a year and a half with her two children under the age of two-years-old. In that time, she says they’ve had cockroach issues, and now she’s in a battle over mould. With two small daughters, one of whom has a severe brain condition and is immunocompromised, the situation is deeply troubling for her.

“One night, like, we couldn't even get our floors to dry and when the mould inspector came in, the humidity was at 85 per cent and said 35 per cent is normal,” Isaac told CTV News.

That was determined in a report from the Saskatoon-based company Got Mold?

Areas including a windowsill in the children’s room were confirmed to have mould, and a ceiling area — due to a leak from the suite above. Issac also did her own mould analysis with a home kit.

“There were six different types of mould in this container,” she said.

The landlord sent maintenance staff to the suite and Issac says when she mentioned mould, they warned that everyone had to vacate.

“He pretty much told me to shut up or get out.”

The most recent development is an eviction notice asking them to be out by the end of this month.

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“We were never given any option of coming back,” she says.

With the current affordable housing situation in Saskatoon, moving is a stressful proposition.

In an email to CTV News, building owner Steward Properties said it would be too difficult to remediate the mould issue with Isaac’s family living in the suite.

“Due to health issues with the tenant’s child and the work that needs to be completed in the suite, the landlord will need the tenant to be out, as it’s too difficult to work around the tenant’s belongings to complete the work, and the safety of their immunocompromised child is a concern.”

A company spokesperson confirmed the family is being asked to move out and find another place to live because they can’t offer another similar suite to rent.

Stewart Properties said reached out to the health inspector to inform them it would not complete the ceiling repair by the deadline because it did not intend to complete the work around the family and their belongings “due to concerns of health.”

Currently, Issac pays $1100 a month plus utilities, and because she has to stay home to care for her daughter, finances are tight.

“We have to constantly be paying for cabs to go back and forth from the hospital for our daughter, plus her medical equipment. We just don't have the extra cash to pay more than what we're paying here.”

The fire marshal has been on site and indicated issues with the fire alarm and window screens, which have since been fixed. That report also confirmed mould issues and water damage.

The City of Saskatoon told CTV News that although they can identify mould being present in their report, monitoring mould concerns is up to the health department.

At this point, Isaac says she’s going to see if a lawyer can help.

“They're going to be going over, like, what some options are because, yeah, Stewart Properties isn't going about it the right way.”

She hopes to be able to stay in the only home her daughters have known, and will be alright having to move out for a short time while work is being done, but that wasn’t proposed as an option at this point.

CTV reached out to the Office of Residential Tenancies about Isaac’s situation. It said it would not comment about an individual case, but indicated it was available to provide information to both landlords and tenants about their legal rights and obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act.