Help the Stoodley family start over in a safe home

We are changing the goal of our fundraiser. We have been talking with a neighbor about purchasing his house, or making a rent to own agreement until we are able to purchase it.  The house is relatively small, and needs some work. But it would suit our family's needs and the work can wait, as it is cosmetic. It is safe and solid and has a lovely yard in an excellent neighborhood.  It is perfect for us. His asking price is $150,000 which seems a bit high, but fair in the current market.

We can't possibly come close to this asking price, even if we sell the house and all of the supplies we have available for full price. We are taking a huge loss financially, given all that has happened. We initially listed our house for $115,000 after speaking to a realtor and the town assessor. We were told the house is worth the assessed value of $110, 200 even in it's current condition. After testing the market for a month and getting no offers, we lowered the asking price to $105,000. We currently have several interested buyers. We were waiting on an updated estimate for the abatement and remediation so that they could see if the numbers would work. We got that estimate yesterday and it wasn't as helpful as what we had hoped for. The original estimate for professional asbestos abatement was 38K, plus 22K for the mold remediation. The new estimate includes BOTH the abatement and remediation in the 38K price, which is great, but is still a large chunk of money. As of yet, we have received no reasonable offers. We are trying to be patient, but we are running out of time. 

We need to be out of here and move the camper by the end of October. That is 6 weeks away. And we have no definite plan for a place to live. We are hoping and praying with all our hearts that we can buy or rent to own the house mentioned above. But it is difficult to make a potential offer when we haven't yet gotten an offer on our house.  Plus, the contractor who has $5600 worth of our supplies is still refusing to give them to us so we can sell them. We listed these items for sale and we have had people interested in buying them. But we need our hands on them first. We also have a friend who is breaking her lease and offered us her apartment. We looked at it and filled out an application several weeks ago. But we have not yet been officially approved and we have not even been told the rent amount. 

Our goal here is to raise money so that we can make a reasonable offer on the house we want to buy. Any donations and prayers/positive thoughts would be greatly appreciated. We are trying not to panic, but it is getting more difficult as we get closer to October. Multiple times every day I remind myself to "let my faith be bigger than my fears." I give this all to God while still doing everything I can do to solve this, trusting that my choices and solutions will be presented to me when they are meant to. 

Regarding whether or not we will file lawsuits... That has been put on the back burner as we are focusing on securing safe housing before our deadline. We can't spare any money for legal fees at this time, as much as it angers us that people are currently off the hook for the harm they have done. Keeping our family safe is our number one priority. 

Namaste.


Original Story:

My name is Lisa Stoodley, my husband is Tim, and we have a 4 year old daughter named Meira. Our 3 senior pets are Noodle, Lily Mae and Bee. And we are currently in a living nightmare. It is very difficult for us to ask for help, but at this point we are desperate and are willing to explore every avenue we can think of to find the help we need to move forward in a positive way and to solve our problem. In a nutshell, we are essentially homeless, due to no fault of our own. We are living in a camper on my parents' property in North Springfield and are permitted by the town to stay here until November 1st. We are unsure of where we will go after that.

Although our story is a lot more intense and involved than what is portrayed here, the following is an abbreviated version of our experience. I understand that even this shortened version is quite long. But I feel it's important to share the most pertinent details so it is clear that we have been doing our very best to avoid having to ask for help.

Here is our story. We owned a sweet home in Springfield, Vermont, that we all loved. During our last year there, the neighborhood took a turn for the worse with increased drug activity and violence. When we found a needle in the road near our driveway, it was the last straw. We needed a safe place to raise our daughter. She is our world and her well being is our top priority. Due to our financial constraints, we were unable to get a traditional mortgage, and instead received private financing from family members. We found an ugly house in a lovely neighborhood in Springfield that we were told by the realtors and our inspector was a solid house that needed only cosmetic updating. We believed we could fix it up and make it a cute, comfortable home for our family. We closed in November of 2020. The night of the closing we found mold, moisture and water damage when we tore up the one carpet in the house to start the remodeling process. We contacted our realtor who said that, because it was a foreclosure, the seller would do nothing. We had the floor and adjacent wall remediated, but we continued to find mold and water damage in every room of the house. We now know that, without exaggeration, there is mold in every single wall, ceiling, and floor of the house from the attic to the basement. It is severe and has likely been growing for decades. We hired an industrial hygienist to help us make a plan for remediation due to the severity and complexity of the problem. His testing confirmed that there are several strains of toxic mold present in the house. (Because our house is unfit for habitation, we searched in vain for an apartment within an hour's drive of Springfield. The housing market is so tight, there was nothing available. So we eventually bought the camper as a last resort.) Due to the presence of vermiculite in the attic (a type of insulation used in the 1950's when the house was built which often contains asbestos, which is highly toxic), he helped us create a plan to move the vermiculite away from the outer walls so the mold could be addressed safely. We had received a quote of $18 - 20,000 to have the vermiculite addressed professionally, which was not in our budget. In Vermont, homeowners are allowed by law to move or remove asbestos as long as certain safety precautions are followed. So we bought all the necessary equipment for the project. Tim built a decontamination chamber in the house and spent over 80 hours in the attic wearing a full face respirator and tyvec suit to move the vermiculite two feet away from the outer edges of the walls. Once he completed this work, we were ready to start the mold remediation process. The first step was to remove the affected areas of walls and flooring. We had hired a contractor to help us with the remodeling, but ended up needing him to do demolition. However, he complicated matters greatly with his mistakes. Even though he was instructed not to touch certain parts of the ceiling due to the presence of vermiculite in the attic, and was given a written copy of the remediation and abatement plan, he removed parts of the ceiling that caused vermiculite to spill throughout the living space of the house. He also performed illegal asbestos abatement by using his shop vac and a broom and dust pan to "clean up" his mess, thereby making the problem worse by spreading the microscopic fibers further. The new estimate for asbestos abatement is $38,000, which has to be completed before mold remediation could begin. Our most recent estimate for professional mold remediation is $21,000. We simply don't have that kind of money. We had spent all the money we had on replacement windows, kitchen cabinets, appliances, a garage door, and flooring - all of which is non-returnable. Our homeowner's insurance denied any mold coverage as it was "pre-existing" and are currently looking into the vermiculite spill. We tried for weeks to find a lawyer without luck. Then we found a national consulting group, who specializes in these types of situations. After vetting them out we hired them. They collected and compiled the evidence for our case, and wrote a case summary report. (We have 4 physical binders plus a digital copy of our case). Their process included conducting environmental testing as well as medical testing. They found multiple strains of toxic mold present in the house, as well as high levels of harmful bacteria that occurs in water damaged homes. The medical tests revealed that toxins are present in our bodies that directly correlate to the mold in the house. (We are all under doctor's care for mold toxicity and have spent several thousand dollars for medical bills. Tim's health was the most affected, and he is currently undergoing imaging tests to determine the extent of the damage to his lungs in particular.) Once our case was built, we began the search with our consultant's help for a Vermont attorney who has complex litigation experience and a willingness to take our case on a contingency fee basis. I have personally contacted dozens and dozens of lawyers. Some names I was given by the Vermont Bar Association attorney referral line. I also reached out to The Vermont Association for Justice and the president did a query asking all of her contacts if they would take the case, and she received no interest. I also called many of the lawyers listed on their website. Some lawyers were recommended by word of mouth. I continue to hear over and over from the attorneys I speak to that we have clearly been wronged, our case is strong with multiple liable parties, but that either 1) they don't have time to take our case, or 2) they will take our case if we pay a retainer and an hourly fee. (We are now living paycheck to paycheck and have no savings for a retainer.) We have come to understand that, because we bought our house for $109,900, that this, plus the money we have spent related to this situation, currently adds up to about $200, 000, which isn't much in the eyes of a successful lawyer. Basically, the bottom line is that it's not "a slam dunk" that the attorney will make a lot of money off of us. While I understand that $200,000 is not a lot of money to many people, it was everything to us, and we now have nothing left. Making matters worse, all of our belongings, aside from some clothes and personal care items, were originally being stored in the basement of the house while we were working on remodeling. Once we found the mold and understood the severity of the problem, we took our industrial hygienist's advice and put everything into two 20 foot storage containers on the property. It is all contaminated with mold. We have used mold bombs in the storage containers, and while they helped to decrease the mold spores, it continues to grow back. We have learned that we will need to dispose of and replace all of our "soft" belongings that are not washable and treatable, such as mattresses, couch and recliner, stuffed toys, etc. We are in disbelief and heartbroken that we have, thus far, been unable to find an attorney to help us. We were assured in the beginning by our consultant that finding a lawyer would be the easiest part of the process and that the majority of their cases are take on a contingency fee basis. Why, then, is no one willing to help us? We are now in the process of brainstorming and exploring all possible options of moving forward, so that our family has a safe place to live. Ideally an attorney will agree to help us and we will settle outside of court, as we have been told is the probable outcome of our case. All we want is our money back so we can start over in a normal, safe, healthy home. But time is running short. Winter will be here before we know it. We cannot declare bankruptcy - we intend to pay our family members back the money they loaned us. But we cannot continue to pay the mortgage, taxes, and insurance and afford to rent an apartment on top of that. We could potentially sell the house, as it is, at a loss. But we would rather not if we don't have to. We are hoping to raise money here to put toward the asbestos abatement and mold remediation so that we can sell the house for what we bought it for and get our family members' money back to repay them. If our insurance company decides to cover any of the damages, we would use money raised here toward an apartment or to replace essential items (mattresses, etc.) Any donation amount is welcome and would be greatly appreciated. Even a small donation would help tremendously by restoring my faith in humanity. I have been emotionally broken by this experience. My greatest hesitancy about sharing our story publicly and asking for help was not just my pride (although of course that played a big part.) It was the fact that I would be making myself much more vulnerable to being hurt again. What if nobody cared enough to help? I spoke to a realtor about our situation today and she reminded me that there are indeed good people in the world, and that we deserve help. She recommended I set up a Go Fund Me account. Her big heart impacted me, and so I am trying her idea. If you cannot donate, I ask you to please say a prayer for our family's healing and safety, and that we find a solution to this mess. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.