9 AM – Workers finally prepared to do job but destroy apartment
Workers tear open the living room ceiling to expose wires, a rotting frame and moldy joists. The handymen are not licensed to deal with mold, so they fail to set up a zero-pressure containment area with a vacuum. Instead, they haphazardly tape up a flimsy plastic sheet while tracking and leaving debris all over our apartment and belongings.
Coastline workers specifically and personally advise Veronica, who is seven months pregnant at the time, to vacate the unit due to the mold.
Noon – Workers leave a disaster area
Presumably for lunch.
12:01 PM – A walkthrough of the destruction
No communication with workers.
12:47 PM – Rotted Living Room Ceiling
A look inside the molded area underneath a slow leak in the bathroom above.
12:48 PM – Exposed wires
Water leaking off of exposed wires torn from the ceiling.
12:48 PM – Call made to Coastline’s emergency number in Beverly Hills
Woman on phone says nothing can be done and no managers can be contacted.
1:03 PM – Documented destruction
Leaking electrical wiring, rotted joists holding up the tub and toilet above, and tracked debris past destroyed belongings after no answer to our emergency calls.
1:33 PM – Hazards left behind
The upstairs bathroom was left destroyed. Rusty upturned nails on the floor protrude requiring a stepover on the way to the toilet and shower.
2:15 PM – Call made to Ben the electrician
In a frantic attempt to contact Coastline, we call Ben the third-party electrician Coastline hired to address our sky-high electric bills a few weeks prior hoping that he has a Coastline executive’s phone number. Ben does not answer.
2:16 PM – Call made to workers
We inquire as to why the apartment has been left unlivable. Handymen state they will return to finish the job and arrive soon after, but they leave the apartment destroyed — with a collapsed living room ceiling and a torn open bathroom floor featuring protruding upturned nails — and do not comlete anymore work. They simply collect their tools, tell the pregnant Veronica to leave once again, and vacate a hazardous unit.
2:30 PM – Saul Arrives
Saul, an unbranded maintenance worker driving a personal vehicle, arrives with a dehumidifier. We’d later be told by Robert Soto of Ameriflood Environmental that the dehumidifier is obsolete and useless against mold.
Saul surveys the damage, says the smell of mold “hits you right when you walk in,” and tells Veronica that she cannot be inside the unit. He brings another 10-gallon bucket, sets up the dehumidifier, and instructs us to empty the wastewater bucket twice a day.
Coastline forced us back into the apartment twice per day or the dehumidifier would’ve overflowed to cause more damage and mold.
3:05 PM – Local Hotel Booked. Never reimbursed.
After exhausting all avenues to contact management and being left with an unlivable apartment, we decided to pay for a nearby hotel for Saturday and Sunday nights: Redondo Pier Inn. We are never reimbursed for the $389.51 cost of the hotel or the $36 in daily hotel parking fees.
8:03 PM – Black mold falling out of ceiling
We return to the apartment to empty the dehumidifier’s wastewater bucket. Black mold from the ceiling had fallen into the bucket in chunks.