UCF Admits Mold Infestation After We Ask Questions
Housing, News, Safety — By Andrew Stein on February 28, 2010 at 7:04 pmKnightNews.com’s Questions:
from KnightNews.com
to Chad Binette
date Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 12:59 PM
subject Questions for story we are working on
Chad,
We got a tip from our new KnightNews.com Fights for You section about Pegasus Landing forcing students to move to the Towers in the middle of the semester.
The student, who is allowing us to use his name in the story, says he is upset because he no longer has his own bathroom, his life was disrupted, he wasn’t given the help he was led to believe he would have in moving and had to have a friend drive over with his vehicle to help move, because his car was too small.
The bathroom is a big issue for him, because privacy was important to him, and he also is facing tough financial times and now has to buy his own toilet paper, whereas in Pegasus Landing it did not — that’s how hard off he is. We wanted to confirm that toilet paper policy with you, however, because it did sound a little weird. He also says he was first told to leave everything he wanted in storage in his Landing bathroom, only to have to come back a second time days later and move it all over to the new place, because they changed their minds. He says it has disrupted his academic studies as well.
He also says he was not allowed to get out of his contract to move to a cheaper place. He is from Columbia, and his parents still live there. They’ve fallen on very tough times, and he had hoped to live with a friend, and is upset he is being told he can’t get out of his contract, even though he was forced to move into a one-bathroom facility.
Here are our questions:
1. How come Pegasus Landing’s contract is not voided when Pegasus Landing/UCF Res Life have forced him to move?
2. Why wasn’t he given the option to move to a cheaper place?
3. How long is he allowed to stay in the towers? Will he get the same amount of time on his lease?
4. How many students are impacted by this?
5. How much notice as given?
Also, please let Grant know we are discussing our options with our attorney as well as the ACLU and FIRE, and we have been advised not to do that phone conversation with him until they have more time to review our situation. Tell him we apologize for that, but it’s now gotten out of our hands.
We will hold off on this story until the end of the day at least, to give you guys time to respond. If we need to go into the weekend, that’s fine.
Sincerely,
Andrew Stein
UCF Statement:
UCF Requests Property Management Company Relocate 21 Students from Pegasus Landing
ORLANDO, Fla – The University of Central Florida has requested that College Park Management TRS, Inc., the property management company that operates Pegasus Landing apartments, relocate 21 students after mold was discovered in one building.
UCF and College Park Management were informed on Feb. 23 that water intrusion into one part of Building 4 at Pegasus Landing led to mold being detected in seven apartment units. More work is needed to determine the full extent of the damage, and out of an abundance of caution, UCF requested that the property management company move the residents out of those seven units.
Several of the students already have been relocated. UCF’s Spring Break begins Friday, and students will be moved prior to that. College Park Management and UCF are assisting students with the move.
College Park Management told UCF it has taken air-quality samples in several of the affected units, and air-quality results were within acceptable limits.
Pegasus Landing is a UCF-affiliated housing complex. College Park Management is responsible for operating the complex. UCF police officers patrol the property, and the university provides resident assistants and academic advisors for students.
Pegasus Landing houses about 2,500 students in 595 apartments in 34 buildings. The complex includes two-, three- and four-bedroom units. Building 4 is part of Pegasus Landing Phase I, which was built in 1996.
Residents are students at higher education institutions in the area. About 90 percent of the residents in fall 2009 attended UCF.
Residents who are moving can relocate to other parts of Pegasus Landing or other area accommodations.
Although some of the alternate locations have higher rents, students who relocate will not pay more. The rent for a student to live at Pegasus Landing is $545 per month for a four-bedroom unit, $565 for a three-bedroom unit and $640 for a two-bedroom unit. Each resident has a private bedroom and private bathroom.
As a precaution, UCF has requested that College Park Management immediately perform air-quality tests in comparable units in the other Phase I buildings at the Landing. Phase I houses about 750 students in 10 buildings.
UCF also has requested that College Park Management immediately develop a comprehensive plan on how to address this issue. Residents who have further questions can contact College Park Management at 407.362.5190 or 407.362.5194.
Tweet This
Digg This
Share on Facebook
Stumble it
17 Comments
Hi, i just considered i’d submit and let you understand your blogs layout is truly messed up within the K-Melon browser. Anyhow maintain up the very good operate.
I live in Building 4 of pegasus landing, I first reported mold a year and a half ago. 5 throat infections later and two hospital stays later i finally got pegasus landing to check out my wall which was crumbeling. Three days later i get a call saying i had to move to the towers, they gave me no other options. Albert is a good friend of mine and lives on the other side of my wall, we were the first people moved and we had no help what so ever no boxes and no movers. Further more my roomates in pegasus landing were notified they had to move (but have yet to do so) I was told i had 3 days to get everything out and turn in my keys. I told pegasus landing I would need help moving my tv out if i was to do this, they said they would have somebody do this free of charge. the next day my roomates get $282.50 target gift cards and i get nothing because someone had to help me with my tv(free of charge) The managers are liars and criminals. My brother lives in pegasus landing too and has a damn pasture growing on his exterior wall and he lives in bldg 7. This is going to be a huge problem real soon. I signed a lease saying i was gonna live in a safe clean apartment- lease violation! The managers have called me many times and lied to me and continue to do so. If you want to be treated like an idiot and lied to, if you want to be a patient not a resident, if you wanna get moved out durring midterms than pegasus landing is the place for you. Ps any leased room in an infected bldg is void.
For future reference check your spelling on countries. His family lives in COLOMBIA,South America not Columbia, South Carolina. Two different continents. It’s really offensive to Colombians when their country’s name isn’t spelled right.
You should focus more on reporting the correct story and checking your spelling instead of publishing stories with missing facts.
I lived at Peg Landing 3 years ago and there was mold in our AC unit and we were constantly sick but never complained..I am sure there was mold in other places we could not see… With the prices they charge each student for a shitty, out of date apartment you would think they would make it a nice apartment complex.. When I lived there I lived in a 4 bedroom with 4 others and paid 510 a piece so for a 4 bedroom apartment we were paying over $2,000… You can rent a nice home or find a NICE apartment to live in for so much CHEAPER! What a waste of $$$! It’s about time they renovate but instead of one building they should do the whole complex!
UCF has had problems with mold before.
http://www.wftv.com/news/4667266/detail.html
Lol this is hilarious I’m sure kn is exactly the reason they told the tenants about the mold….. notttt .. no one reads this website accept for the few facebook fans you have get over yourselves
You are a dumbass.
They knew there was mold on 2/23. They admitted it to your gf Saturday AFTER KN asked about it and was gonna do the story.
They probably helped her more because she was a girl, and this other kid was screwed. If KN didn’t ask questions, you’d never know there was mold.
This story is ridiculous! My girlfriend lives in the building and she was called by Pegasus Landing weeks ago and asked to temporarily relocate for renovations. They asked her if she needed help and when she said yes, they gave her boxes to pack, helped her pack and load her things and arranged travel on campus. They called her Saturday and explained that when completing renovations, they found mold in the apartment, which was going to cause the repairs to take longer and asked if she wanted to stay at Towers, go back to Landing, or go to one of the other properties they own. They never once asked her for more money, kept her informed the whole time, and assisted her every step of the way. On top of that, they did tests and said there was more mold in the outside air than inside, so they were just being “precautionary”. I don’t know what’s up with the kid in the story, but it sounds like BS to me! I’m with David, KnightNews is a JOKE!
If you want to talk about mold on campus, visit Libra. My boyfriend got strep throat 6 times while living there, and respiratory issues the entire time. It ALWAYS smelled like mold in there, and nothing ever dried in his room. Now that he lives in a house off campus, he hasn’t had any breathing problems. UCF talks about campus safety a lot, but that isn’t just about being careful where you walk at night. Tons of people are severely allergic to mold, and not fixing the problem is just going to make more people sick.
I think UCF should let him out of his lease. It’s disgusting they just want more money. He could have lived with a friend for free!
Yet another reason why I will never live in campus-affiliated housing or on campus ever again. And David, he definitely was deceived…”standard renovations” is not the removal of a mold infestation problem. It’s especially bull that they didn’t help him move at all, when it’s their fault he had to move in the first place.
Maybe he felt deceived because he may have had health problems from the mold, and was never told about it. Why keep that shit secret?
How has this person been deceived? He was moved out for renovations. If someone renovates an old building, they repair and improve it and get it back into good condition… how is getting rid of mold not a renovation? I used to like Knightnews a while ago, now you guys are a joke
Mom, thank you for the comment, we will start investigating this as well.
If you have more details you can share please e-mail us at news@knightnews.com. If you need to be anonymous you can use this link: http://knightnews.com/send-your-story/
If you know of anyone who has gotten sick as a result of this, have them contact us.
You may wan to hav them check for mould in tower 4 after the fire 2 years ago and the water damage there haas been mould in ceilings of a number of nits and rather than checking on it or repairing they have been painting over the ceilings to cover the mould