The family reached out to Local 4 after the station published several stories about issues plaguing communities like theirs<\/a>.<\/p>\nFrom the roof to the underbelly, Brian Bartenbaker says his home was filled with black mold, and the underbelly was rotten. <\/p>\n
He says management refused to help. <\/p>\n
The issue led his kids to the hospital countless times, and they\u2019ve got the paperwork to prove it. <\/p>\n
\u201cUpper respiratory infection, acute,\u201d Bartenbaker said, holding a stack of sick-visit summaries. <\/p>\n
Bartenbaker and his family moved into the home at Oakland Estates four years ago. <\/p>\n
He\u2019d lived in the community years ago and decided to come back and rent. <\/p>\n
Part of their choice to rent was because management would help with any maintenance, or so they thought. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not our problem, \u2018Hey, if you lease, we don\u2019t operate like that no more, either buy the place or move out,\u2019\u201d Bartenbaker said, describing what management often told him when he asked for help. <\/p>\n
Bartenbaker says there were two undeniable issues: mold that spread and a floor that failed.<\/p>\n
The mold got so bad that they ran an airborne test.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we took those tests, within seconds, these things mushroomed up. It was so disgusting,\u201d Bartenbaker said. <\/p>\n
Bartenbaker\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s mom had cancer and noticed the mold immediately. She died last summer. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer last wish was for us to get out of here because she knew something was wrong with this place,\u201d Bartenbaker said. <\/p>\n
Since the day they moved in, they say the underbelly was rotten. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf our feet are going straight through the floor and there is no insulation,\u201d Bartenbaker said. \u201cSo, if there is a hole in the floor, then the animal can come right through. The kids are terrified to use their own bathroom because they think they are seeing eyeballs of creatures under the trailer.\u201d<\/p>\n
It became a greater hazard every day. <\/p>\n
\u201cI came running, \u2018What now?\u2019 and all you see is her foot halfway through the floor, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Are you kidding me?\u2019\u201d Bartenbaker said. <\/p>\n
It got so unsafe that the family decided to leave a few weeks ago. <\/p>\n
They say the management company wants to collect this month\u2019s rent. <\/p>\n
Local 4 reached out to the company that manages the manufactured home community and did not hear back. <\/p>\n
The company has also not responded to Local 4\u2019s requests for comment for previous stories.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUBURN HILLS, Mich. \u2013 An Oakland County family said their kids were sent to the doctor\u2019s office nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3443,143,904,145,144],"class_list":["post-252753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-auburn-hills","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}