Submitted photoA show belonging to Courtney Williams is covered in white mold. 

THOMASVILLE — Courtney Williams discovered a white, powdery substance on shoes several months ago at her Abbey Lake apartment, then found it on her clothes.

A week or two later, the white powder appeared on a duffel bag she keeps under her bed.

“It was like all over it,” Williams, 22, said.

The substance appears to be a white mold.

It continues to appear on a nightstand, despite Williams’ cleaning attempts to rid her home of the mold. Eventually, it showed up on an upholstered living room chair.

“That’s new,” Williams said, pointing to white mold on the metal base of a lamp.

She has cleaned away the mold multiple times, but it returns.

Williams received medical treatment for sinus issues and throat ulcers she thinks are a result of the mold. She endures coughing spells.

“I have told them it’s a health hazard,” Williams said, in reference to the 2005 E. Pinetree Blvd. apartment complex management. “They said ‘no, it’s not a problem.'”

The Abbey Lake manager did not respond to repeated attempts by the newspaper to contact him. Ridge Robinson, the complex’s area manager in Tallahassee, Florida, did not return a phone call.

Personnel at the Charlotte, North Carolina, office of Sunchase American, the company that owns the complex, referred Times-Enterprise questions to another corporate office in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Daneen Wilson at the Greensboro office said Robinson, a corporate employee, would be the person to talk to about the Abbey Lake mold situation.

“It always starts with him and ends with him,” Wilson said Monday. 

Williams moved to Abbey Lake from Valdosta a year ago. She attends nursing school at Southern Regional Technical College and will graduate in December.

Williams said the $750-a-month apartment was cleaned once while she was away from home. It was to be cleaned a second time, but cleaning personnel did not show up. They were scheduled to arrive between 1 and 3 p.m. but did not. Williams, who waited at home for the people to arrive in the afternoon, said they showed up at 7 that night and wanted to look at the apartment to determine what kind of equipment would be needed.

Williams and her mother Brenda Colton, a Douglas resident, said that if and when the apartment is treated for the mold, Williams should vacate the dwelling, but Abbey Lake refuses to pay for a place she could stay for a couple of days.

Abbey Lake management has offered to let Williams out of her lease.

“I don’t want mold in my apartment,” Williams said. “This is ridiculous.”

On a recent night, Williams was sitting on her living room sofa when she looked down and saw a dark object on the floor — a coiled, small snake. She put a trash can over the serpent and went to a neighbor’s for help. The snake incident was reported to management.

After the indoor serpent encounter, Williams discovered a tiny, dead snake beside the doormat at the entrance to her ground-floor apartment.

Williams’ mother said she is considering legal action, citing health hazards of the mold and a lack of concern by Abbey Lake and corporate officials.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820