Mold, midlew, misunderstanding - one Savannah woman's story

Mold. It can be a scary word for most of us. One Savannah woman says she stored her belongings for six months and when she opened the container, furniture and personal items had mold and mildew on them. "It would have been different if it had been one or two items, but it was pretty much through the whole unit," Linda Sanchez tells me. When I ask her if she's convinced the problem was the storage unit, she replies "yes, no question."

This all started in mid-December when the storage container was transported to her new home. (It had been stored since June at the company's warehouse.) Sanchez says when the movers opened the container, "all of us were shocked." She says there was mold on at least half of her furniture and there was also mold and mildew on shoes, clothes and linens that had been stored in boxes.

Sanchez say she and her mover assumed there was some kind of leak in the unit that had allowed moisture to build up. "I took pictures of what looked like some kind of rust at the top of the unit, about halfway back," she told me.

At this point, Sanchez says she called Service Master, a local company that deals with mold. She also called one of the owners of Go Mini's Savannah, Dana Gaudry. She says he came right away. "Dana looked at everything and he said "obviously you know it was our fault something has happened' and we'll be responsible," Sanchez tells me.

Sanchez says she also talked to the other owner of the company, Bob Schmelzer, by telephone. "And he was concerned, too," she says.

However, a few days later, Sanchez says she received a call from Schmelzer who told her they had checked the container and found no leaks. "He told me their insurance company wouldn't pay," Sanchez says.

At that point, Sanchez says about 20 boxes of clothing and other items like linens, had already been sent to a textile cleaner in Jacksonville. "It will cost $2,100 to have those items cleaned," she tells me. "And I was also billed for the work Service Master did ($1,200) which Go Mini's said they would pay for," she tells me. "Oh, and don't forget the fact I paid about $1,300 to rent the storage container to begin with."

Sanchez says she's also out about another $500 because she had to buy a new box spring and mattress for her daughter (she says the one in the storage unit was not useable). "They told us the day we moved we could leave the mattress and box spring in the container and then they charged me $50 for leaving it there," she says.

Sanchez still believes that something happened during the storage of her belongings and that the owners should pay her for damages.

Bob Schmelzer of Go Mini's Savannah definitely has a different perspective. I went to the warehouse where Sanchez's unit was stored for six months. First, he showed me around. "As you can see it's well insulated above and all the walls are insulated," Schmelzer said.

He also pointed out that the units are seven inches off the ground. "So moisture can't get in from below," he says. And he told me that the containers have a heavy, steel frame and are "welded pressure treated plywood decking."

Schmelzer and Dana Gaudry, who was at Sanchez's home that day, then showed me the container they said that Sanchez had rented. We saw a box spring and mattress at the back, but Schmelzer said there was nothing wrong with either the mattress or box spring. Again, Sanchez says the mattress and box spring were so damaged they couldn't be used and that Gaudry allowed them to leave it in the container.

Schmelzer and Gaudry said once they got the container back they did several tests and determined there was no leak. "No one checked the top that day," Schmelzer told me. "We ran water for half an hour on the top a couple of times. It doesn't leak. There's nothing wrong with the container."

Both men told me they had initially agreed to assume liability because they took Sanchez and the mover at "their word" that the container must have a leak. "So that's how we progressed until we determined that the unit is in perfect shape, there is no leak at all whatsoever," Schmelzer says. "There's no way we could have contributed to moisture in this unit."

Schmelzer gave me the name of a woman who rented the container prior to Sanchez. Sheila Dudley told me she had the container for a period of several months and had stored in it her back yard. Dudley said she had no problems.

Schmelzer did tell me he has had two other complaints of what he termed "minor" mold, in units stored in the warehouse. "We went back and checked and those were the only two instances of mold in four years in business, with 1,500 customers," he says. "We just couldn't be in this business if we had mold in every unit that we rented."

Schmelzer and Gaudry say Sanchez must have introduced the mold herself in her belongings and that perhaps some of her furniture was damp or there were damp items packed in a box.

Dr. Sara Gremillion from Armstrong Atlantic State University is a mycologist, which means she studies fungi. "So mold is a fungus and it typically reproduces by very tiny spores," she told me. Gremillion says there are mold spores everywhere, on your clothing, in your office and likely in your home. So, she says there were likely some spores on Sanchez's belongings. "But the spores can't grow into a fungus unless they have water, they have to have water a constant source of water and most of them like a cool dark environment," she says.

Gremillion says mold will grow as long as there's a water source. She says once the water is used up, the mold stops growing. She told me if Sanchez's furniture was put it wet that would be one thing. If it was put in dry, Gremillion says "it should not be moldy unless there was humidity somewhere."

Sanchez's mover, Eddie Bolch, wrote a letter saying he'd loaded her belongings on June 11, " a hot, dry sunny day."

Schmelzer and Gaudry say their warehouse is climate controlled, meaning it's ventilated with fans, which they say run four hours each and every day. In his letter, Bolch said when the storage container was opened "it was obvious that her belongings had been exposed to very high humidity. Many of her boxes were sagging and a wooden drawer was badly warped from what looked like water damage."

Dr. Gremillion doesn't know Sanchez or the owners of Go Mini's Savannah and has not been to the warehouse. She told me again "some kind of water is the key, the key component. You definitely have to have water for the fungus to grow and if you have a lot of fungus, there was a lot of water."

Sanchez's rental contract says the company isn't responsible for damage. But she says contract or not contract, the owners of Go Mini's Savannah "have gone back on their word. They told me that day what they would do."

Sanchez says she's learned the hard way the customer is not always right. Schmelzer says the customer is right, "but only to a point." He says they delivered a clean, dry unit to Sanchez and says this situation "is unique to Sanchez and her contents." That's despite the fact he said there were two cases of mold (he termed minor) reported in the warehouse prior to Sanchez's complaint.

Schmelzer did tell me that if he and Gaudry thought they were wrong that would be one thing. "But we're not," he says.

Sanchez by the way is a realtor who says she has moved on many occasions and used professional movers many times. She also says she has used storage units in the past without problems which is why she didn't purchase insurance for her contents. Her rental agreement with Go Mini's Savannah does state that the company is not responsible for any damage to contents. "All I know is what they said that day when they saw the damage," Sanchez tells me.

Schmelzer also told me that the storage unit had been delivered to Sanchez's home On June 1 and was not returned until June 12. "So I don't know what she might put into the unit or done in those 11 days," he told me. However, Sanchez dispute that. In an email she told me that the container was delivered on June 10, loaded on June 11 and picked up on June 12.