Mould menace stalks Sydney as record rains trigger health crisis

Toxic mould is on the rise thanks to a humid summer and record rainfall. It’s annoying for some, deadly for others. And a spore point for renters whose pleas to be rid of it fall on deaf landlord ears.

Insidious mould is on the rise in homes across NSW, its toxic spores a health hazard to many. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied

Mould is slowly creeping its way back into homes across the state, after we thought it had been banished with the end of years of La Nina.

But this month’s incessant rainfall has shown it never left, it was just biding its time and waiting for revenge.

Worse, after an El Nino summer that seemed to just bring humidity into our lives, the Bureau of Meteorology this week announced it is on La Niña watch.

Several rainfall records were broken in and around Sydney with more than 300 millimetres of rain, in what appears to be one of the wettest April-May months in 21 years.

James Poon, certified mould testing technician and building biologist, said more people were reporting mould issues in their homes.

Mould on the ceiling of Lou Lysto’s home. Picture: Supplied.

Painted over, the mould busts back through. Picture: Supplied

“It’s something almost for life for some people … it goes from house to house as they move around,” Mr Poon said.

“When you’ve got a continuously hot climate like in Queensland, or a continuously cold climate down south, those houses can be built for that climate and the technology will work.

Lou Lysto has developed a medical condition due to the mould spores in the air in her home.

“But when you’ve got more moderate climates like NSW when it’s hot one day and then very different another – the house can’t suddenly reverse itself to perform in a different climate overnight and that’s why a lot of houses in our state fail.

“They can’t be built for two kinds of weather, we experience a variety of weather and that is a large issue in NSW.”

This means mould is adding extra joy to the lives of renters already fighting with their landlords. And while it can be just annoying, for some people it is life-threatening.

Lou Lysto’s symptoms began with sore and swollen eyes and skin issues, then her hair started falling out and she developed tremors — all caused by mould ravaging and spreading through her rental home.

Terri Cowley returned to her Sydney home to find her clothes covered in mould.

Mould breaks through on a door frame at Sarah Hutt’s Sydney rental.

When she moved in 2020 she was made aware of a “minor mould issue” with the promise of it getting fixed, but that never happened throughout the three years she lived there.

“It had grown so significantly that it was up inside the pantry, so I was inadvertently eating the mould spores, as well as inhaling them,” Ms Lysto said.

“I couldn’t go into the house because every time I’d go into it I’d have reactions and I’d have to go to the hospital.

“There was nowhere to go, I couldn’t get any assistance so I had to sleep in the yard, or when it started to get cold I would sleep in my car in the garage.”

Ms Lysto’s home mould infestation was at evacuation levels but the landlord still refused to address the issue, she said.

The 52-year-old woman was diagnosed with several allergy-based syndromes.

“It ravaged me and my mental health. It gets quite dark because you can’t get any help, the doctors don’t know how to help you and you’re just floating around,” she said.

Ms Lysto went through Fair Trading, NCAT and a civil court case but. with no definitive legislations and rules outlining what levels of mould make a property uninhabitable, she had to leave.

“I was living like a true homeless person with everything I’ve ever owned still sitting in the villa that I was living in and I couldn’t access any of it,” Ms Lysto said.

Julie Quirke and her two children are forced to live in the lounge room, as the other rooms are absolutely full of mould in Shellharbour.

Mould on a window frame at the Quirke home in Shellharbour.

LIVING IN A LOUNGE ROOM

“All my belongings had to be skip binned and taken to the dump to prevent cross contamination and taking deadly mould spores to a new house.”

Shellharbour’s woman Julie Quirke is forced to live in one room with her two children, as it’s the only way to minimise exposure to mould in their home.

“Were all living in the lounge room, it’s become our everything room,” she said.

“My children have had skin rashes, we’ve all got respiratory issues, my little girl has had cold sores all over her mouth.

“All I want to be able to do is tuck my children into their own beds at night after I’ve read them a bedtime story, maybe put my feet up on the coffee table and watch the telly, but instead we’ve got a bunk bed and a single bed in the lounge room.”

NO HELP FROM LANDLORD

For Sarah Hutt, who lives in Sydney, it has been an uphill battle fighting mould on the bathroom door, but with no help from the landlord she has decided to move out.

“This is 110 per cent the landlord’s responsibility to pay and fix the mould – I felt like I was talking to a brick wall over and over,” she said.

“Sanding won’t fix it”: After failed attempts at getting her landlord to fix the issue, Sarah Hutt has decided to move out. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“There’s probably mould deep inside the door, but it just feels like sanding down a bad paint job and putting another paint job over it is not going to fix it.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the next tenant in a few months sees more mould growing out through it, I feel very awful for the next person that has to live here.”

Terri Cowley came down from Victoria to work in Sydney and was repulsed to find mould covering her clothes after spending just several days in Frenchs Forest.

“It looks very bad and doesn’t smell great either and obviously you definitely can’t wear your clothes when they’re like that and even having them in the room is a health hazard.

“You can probably wipe it off very easily, but how you stop it from returning is probably another issue.”

Dr Judith Saw said people are becoming more aware of the health hazards caused by mould.

“For most people the effects are not that serious – it obviously depends on how much exposure you’ve got and what concentration of mould you’re exposed to, but it’s the vulnerable people for whom it tends to be a bigger issue,” she said.

“Whether it’s because of age or immuno-suppressions, they can get infections from spores in the mould and that can be really quite serious. People who suffer from asthma can also react very severely.”