mold, moving?, stomach flu oh my!

MOLD. argh.
That's what we have here at our awesome new apartment. Something of which Ricky is highly allergic too and what the kids most certainly can't be around. Especially when one of those little kids has a severe heart condition and compromised lungs. Totally not cool with using her condition as a crutch, but it's mold we're talking about.

I hate to be kind of the "Debbie Downer" here, but what's been going on lately isn't all peaches and roses. But I can say that things will be okay. It's my job to see it that way. I think that may be what makes me that much more stressed.

Growing up, my house had a HUGE mold problem from the intense leaky roof. The fact that we didn't have a proper working heating system and used a method of boiling water on the stove to keep warm during the colder months only made the black and green fuzzy mold grow worse. To this day, I know why us kids were sick so often and why it was so damn hard to get better. It's actually sickening to even think about it. But it was what it was and I made a vow to myself that I would never let my family live in that no matter what.
And here we are, 8 weeks after moving in and discovering huge growths of mold purposely hidden underneath our living carpets. Only to cover a water problem most likely caused by huge weeds



overgrowing right outside our living room wall and covering our 2 windows. The big problem is that these "weeds" take over everything and roots of these are extensive and have been widely known to damage buildings when proper care is not taken. Thing is, when we originally found this apt. we weren't looking to buy this place, just rent it bit. We did warn the property management that these weeds would create major damage, they pretended to be concerned, even agreeing that "yes you're right these need to be removed immediately", and that was that.
The story of the mold started about 3 weeks ago from a point of which we at least noticed the stinky mildewy smell. We thought for sure it was coming from the leaky pipes underneath our kitchen sink and found out the hard way that that's not the only area. Mildew smell was sure enough coming from there but I kept asking Ricky "why does the carpet all along the wall with the weeds outside smell so bad??" We played detective and looked for the source. We knew there had to be mold somewhere ..but where?
All along I knew it had to be coming from the floor up..I mean god, to sit on the floor and play with the kids got unbearable. The smell would singe your nose and throat..it's that bad. Even with sprinkling baking soda to help the odor.
But exactly where it coming from was the big question. Finally, last Wednesday we had had it. We pulled the carpet away and from underneath the external heaters from the wall and sure enough there it was:
(before)


(what we currently have)

...sorry if that makes you grossed out. I totally understand.
So, without boring anyone with more details let's just say many phone calls have been made and so far, nothing is being done about it. The Building and Housing Code of our area needs us to continue giving them notes and details about the problems here and then we have to go in and sign paperwork, we're hoping, by this Friday and no later than that.
I just can't deal with these 2 idiots supposedly running this property anymore. When we do talk to them, which is rare, they always ask us what they should do! (Seriously asshole, I'm not the one who has your job, you should know what to do..I'm just here to tell you what's wrong). Here's a good example of that: When telling me that to take care of the roach problem in a vacant apt. across the way they need to "bomb it" with store-bought bug bombs I asked "well, why aren't you guys going to call a pest control company to spray every apartment?" I actually had to convince the guy to do the right thing.
One is constantly "out of town" and the other is so rude and so careless that he was supposed to show up Friday to look and assess the problems and never showed up. Then today he was supposed to stop by and never did again. Literally, no call no show.
Nice.
But I can say this, if we have to go to court they are seriously killing their images.
And why to court? Well, because we can't stay here anymore. I can't prove that our kids have had the "stomach flu" for the past 2 1/2 weeks due to the mold problem, but my instincts tell me that the mold does nothing good for them or I. And also, Ricky had a CO state allergy test to determine what Colorado weeds/trees and other little specimens he's allergic to and "cladosporium mold" is one of his highest rankings of allergic reaction. Which basically means, he's highly sensitive to it compared to most people and if around it too much could make him really really sick. And this just may be why he's on super strong antibiotics right now to kill a sinus infection. And he still doesn't feel better after being on them for a week. That is not normal for him.

I hate having to write all of this and sounding so unhappy and annoying with complaints but this is reality and this is what we're dealing with. We have already started looking for a new apartment in case things don't get better here. We're giving them about another week and that's as far as we can go or someone here is going to get real sick.
Oh and here is some great video of our awesome leaking ceiling that runs into our bathroom shower from upstairs:



gross huh? (they've sent in 2 different plumbers and they still can't fix it) insane!!!
This has been going since before we moved in and but they kept saying, "oh it'll be taken care of don't worry." Yeah..whatever.
Note to everyone- never sign a lease until these types of things are fixed. Save yourself the trouble.
And now my question to anyone reading this is-

What would you do in this situation?