When a water leak turned into a mold infestation in their Fort Worth apartment this spring, a couple waited for months for the property management to remediate the mold.
Cody Perez and Emily Finch say living in the space has damaged their health, their belongings and drained their bank accounts — ultimately forcing them to postpone their wedding.
When asked to spell her last name, Finch said it was “F I N C H.”
“Could have been Perez,” she said.
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Perez and Finch moved into their apartment at Mystique at University Heights in June 2024.
Almost a year later on May 14, a water leak from the HVAC system flooded their bedroom closet, causing the surfaces in their home to develop mold, Perez said. They informed the property management about the leak, he said, and a couple of days later the management sent a worker who fixed the HVAC system but did nothing about the mold.
That set off a trail of damage to their health, wealth and surroundings, the couple said, that they are still fighting to reclaim.
“The only thing they did was spill water all over the carpet and open the drip pan,” Perez said. “Then they put a fan in there, and that was it.”
A resident looks for mold on the ceiling fans in their unit at the Mystique at University Heights apartments on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
The mold spread quickly, getting to their shoes, clothes, prized rodeo jackets and other belongings and creeping across almost every surface in the apartment. They said they repeatedly reached out to apartment management to fix the problem, but nothing was done.
“It is always us reaching out to them,” Perez said. “We had to pretty much like beg them to get a mold inspector out here.”
Mars Residential, the property management company that owns and manages their apartment building and 14 other properties in Dallas-Fort Worth has not responded to their complaints, Perez said. In mid-June, the couple hired a lawyer and are preparing to file a lawsuit seeking $500,000 in compensation for the damages, said David Dodd of JD Dodd Law.
Exterior view of the Mystique at University Heights apartments on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
The Dallas Morning News reached out to the property management, the owners of the property and the law firm the management company retained several times over several months through phone calls, emails and text messages and did not receive a response.
Mold is a beast
At the end of June, Perez said the management sent someone to conduct a mold assessment of the apartment. Over the next months, they sent several other folks to conduct mold assessments, but never provided the couple with the results.
“They’ve gotten numerous tests from numerous companies; no one has done anything yet,” Perez said.
The Environmental Protection Agency suggests that if there is visible mold there is no need to test. The assessments were conducted because the management did not believe that there was mold, Perez said.
After repeated attempts to get information about the mold assessment that their apartment complex carried out, the couple paid for their own assessment by Redline Emergency Solutions. The results increased their concern.
The species of mold in the couple’s apartment that has the highest concentration is called aspergillus or penicillium, according to the mold inspection report provided by Perez to The News. The assessment said more than 810 spores of the mold were found in the apartment.
The report said the safe or acceptable amount of this species of mold that can be present in their apartment is 130.
“With these levels of mold, it is safe to say that the mold is not only present in your home but thriving,” the report said.
A resident displays a professional mold assessment of their unit at the Mystique at University Heights apartments on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
Redline recommended the apartment be remediated immediately by a licensed mold professional and gave them a quote of $15,750, according to documents provided by the couple. The mold assessment alone cost the couple $650 out of pocket, Perez said.
He said they informed the property management about the result of the assessment.
“The property manager said that she, quote, unquote, couldn’t get a hold of the owners, and then they pretty much just continued to just blow us off,” Finch said.
No remediation has been done.
Both Perez and Finch have suffered with health conditions like bronchitis since June, according to medical records provided by the couple to The News.
A health-conscious couple now facing medical conditions
Perez said he and his fiancée lead a very healthy lifestyle and have hardly ever faced serious medical issues until now. In their kitchen, bottles of health supplements — creatine, collagen, vitamins and more — line the counter.
“We go to the gym five days a week,” Finch said. “We’re highly active.”
Now, Finch said, even having a regular conversation is difficult — laughing and talking cause a strain on their throat.
“It’s like we’re coughing our lungs up,” she said.
The couple also has two service dogs — Josie and Olive — and said they are very worried about their health. Finch said her mother couldn’t stay over at their place to protect her health.
Perez said their primary care physicians advised them to move out of their mold-infested apartment.
Sindhu Veettil, a family nurse practitioner at Environmental Health Center-Dallas said mold can affect all parts of the body and even alter the DNA in cells if it’s in the body for a long time.
She said breathing pulls mold into the lungs and the spores can travel deeper into the respiratory tract and into smaller vessels. This causes the mycotoxins — toxic chemical compounds — in the fungi to spread and cause ailments like bronchitis and pneumonia.
“If there’s no change in the environment, then it’s hard for the body to fight, and eventually it breaks down,” she said.
What can a renter do if their home is infested with mold?
A renter is not without rights when it comes to issues with their apartment.
Under Texas law, a landlord must make an effort to repair a problem within their property if it “materially affects the physical health or safety of an ordinary tenant,” according to information on the city of Fort Worth’s website and the Texas State Law Library.
The city website also says the landlord must make repairs in a reasonable time or provide a written explanation for the delay on or before the fifth day after receiving the tenant’s letter or communication.
This, however, does not specifically address mold remediation.
A resident points out water damage and mold in their closet at the Mystique at University Heights apartments on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
There is no federal law that covers a landlord’s responsibility when it comes to mold, according to an article about rules regarding mold in rental properties in Texas published in Nolo, an online legal self-help encyclopedia.
The article also says that tenants who believe they have been affected by mold in their apartment can try to get compensation from their landlord in court and leave it up to the judge or jury to decide if the landlord’s negligence is the reason behind the problem.
A canceled wedding and a financial burden
Perez and Finch, who have been dating for three years, got engaged in February 2024. They planned to get married in January 2026. The financial burden of fighting the mold and the apartment management company has forced them to postpone it.
Invites had been sent, the venue was booked, preparations were made. Now, it has all been put on hold.
The mold is creeping into every corner and surface of their home and across their belongings. The couple has been active in the rodeo and show horse world. Several jackets that they won, custom cowboy hats and other items such as a saddle are prized possessions.
“They’re all finalist jackets,” Finch said. “You can’t buy them, you have to win them.”
The jackets now need to be cleaned which, Perez said, was going to cost them $150 dollars a piece, but they lost the $8,000 worth of cowboy hats to irreparable damage.
A resident at the Mystique at University Heights apartments shows the quotes he received to professionally clean clothing impacted by mold in their apartment unit on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
“Anything that was porous was pretty much deemed ruined because of the time frame and how long it had sat in there,” Finch said. This included their furniture, clothes and other belongings.
Their lease ends on Nov. 20, and moving out and into a new apartment is another expense they hadn’t planned for, Perez said. Due to the piled up of medical and housing expenses, the couple said they could not keep up with the wedding.
Finch said they have paid almost $10,000 in preparation for the wedding — a payment that is nonrefundable. She said they can push their wedding to a later time and still hold the venue.
“There were two very large homes there that we were going to rent out for a wedding party,” Finch said. “The stress and anxiety and everything alone with all of this has been just insane.”
Their current plan is to move the wedding to some time in 2027.
For about three weeks in October, the couple had been finding shelter in hotels and homes of their friends while they waited for a resolution. Now, they finally moved to a new home and had to start over from scratch with a new set of furniture and clothing — a move that cost them another $15,000.
“We took nothing from the old house,” Perez said.
“It’s absolutely just ruined at this point,” Finch echoed.