9:00 AM – Confrontation at the corporate office
We take the mold test results to Coastline’s corporate office and are greeted at the door by one of Jimmy Ordaz’s colleagues. We stand outside the door as Jimmy is put on speakerphone and the mold test results are emailed to him for inspection. Jimmy insists that there is no mold and we’re ready to move back in as soon as an air clearance comes back which was scheduled for 8 AM that morning. He becomes defensive when we explain that his company simply patched over the mold without remediation and he demands Robert’s number, owner of Ameriflood Environmental.
9:51 AM – Jimmy lies in an attempted gaslighting
Jimmy Ordaz calls. He says he just spoke to Robert on the phone and that Robert didn’t do a mold test. He only did a moisture test with a “cheap meter that you can buy at Home Depot.” Jimmy says this as we hold the 17-page mold test results in our hands.
9:58 AM – We call Robert
Confused, we call Robert to ask if he did, in fact, perform a mold test. He confirms that he did.
Late Morning – “Lying piece of shit”
A series of calls are made between us, Coastline and Robert to confirm a conference call at noon. Jimmy becomes more and more upset as the results of the mold test sink in. During one notable call, Jimmy Ordaz tells us that he’ll use the upcoming conference call to expose Robert Soto of Ameriflood Environmental as a “lying piece of shit.”
11:44 AM – Robert calls
Robert calls us to ask what the conference call might be about. During the call, Robert asks the building’s age. The complex was built in 1969. He then says that we should demand an asbestos test in the unit, and that the unit itself needs to be tested even if other units in the building have come back negative. He tells us that he’ll bring this up with Coastline if they are being particularly awful during the upcoming conference call as a sort of code.
12:00 PM – Conference call
Us, Robert, Jimmy, Coastline’s contractor and Gloria patch into a conference call. Jimmy continues to insist that we can’t sue him and that Coastline has done everything right. Jimmy brings up his wife and kids as evidence of him being a good person. He continues to be the only one talking about lawyers and lawsuits as if he’s used to Coastline being sued.
Robert explains Coastline’s shortcomings in dealing with the situation, and what must be done moving forward. He then sends out the code that Coastline is being defiantly difficult — he asks about asbestos testing. Jimmy gets upset while stating Coastline does not own building’s with asbestos.
We leave the call in agreement that Coastline will perform Robert’s recommended steps which include:
- Set up negative pressure containment
- Remove the affected areas: living room ceiling, floor and south-facing wall as well as bathroom floor and vanity.
- Dry the area for 48 hours
- Clean the areas with a solution
- Dry the areas again
- Spray sealant on the affected areas
- Perform a mold test to confirm remediation
- Replace the living room ceiling, floor and south-facing wall as well as the bathroom floor and vanity (Coastline does not replace the living room’s south-facing wall which likely hides more mold for the next tenants).
- Professionally fog our belongings (our belongings are never cleaned)
- Professionally clean our belongings and the apartment using a HEPA vacuum (our belongings are never cleaned)
12:00 PM – Coastline Contractor’s conference call lie
During the conference call, Coastline’s contractor claimed to be in our unit and in the middle of removing the bathroom vanity. He was not. Our vanity was still there upon our next visit.
It became clear that Coastline never sent an environmental company to survey the unit. They sent a contractor who is the wrong person for the job, and the contractor simply patched over the problem.
12:21 PM – Direct call with Jimmy
After the conference call, Jimmy calls directly. We agree that we’ll move out on October 7th, and that he’ll extend our hotel stay until all the steps above are complete. He says he’ll have Gloria call with hotel details.
4:04 PM – Hotel not extended
True to form, Coastline does not call back, so we start calling their numbers frantically knowing that they become unreachable at 5 PM Friday for the weekend.
4:25 PM – Chris emails Gloria after many unanswered calls about expiring hotel reservation
1-Email-Fri-Sept-17We finally get texts from an unnamed Coastline representative just before 5 PM who texts us an image of a hotels.com reservation without a name; just a confirmation number.
5 PM – Guessing with hotel management on how to find reservation
Hotels.com prompts you to supply a last name alongside the confirmation number to access to the reservation. We input Nowlin and the site says the reservation cannot be found. We input Heath, Veronica’s maiden name, and no reservation is found. After some thought, we input Ordaz and the reservation is finally found. Jimmy had made the reservation in his name in order to accrue hotels.com and credit card points for himself, and we were only able to access the reservation with a guess. We would have been homeless for the weekend once again without that guess.
The new reservation is only good for another week until Sept 25.
5:11 PM – Gloria finally responds but we’ve already guessed right to find reservation
2-Email-Fri-Sept-17The person who text us the reservation number with no name at 5 PM was presumably Gloria’s assistant.