Help My Sister Ashley Escape Her Mold-Infested Lennar Home and Financial Nightmare
Hi, everyone. My name is Heather, and I’m reaching out with a heavy heart to ask for your help. My sister, Ashley Frazier, is facing a heartbreaking and life-altering situation that no homeowner should ever have to endure.
Ashley bought a new construction home built by Lennar Homes in August 2022, a mere few days before she started in the very first cohort for the Dual Doctoral Program at UTMB Galveston for Family Nursing Practice (FNP) and Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nursing Practice (AGACNP). She hoped to have a safe place to call home—somewhere she could build her future while furthering her education, free from the stress of major repairs. Instead, her dream home has turned into a nightmare. Her home was built the same year she bought it, in 2022, and she did have it properly inspected prior to moving in.
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS
It all started in May 2024 when she noticed water pooling in the ceiling light fixtures, the microwave started having condensation, and the vents all started dripping water, which prompted a warranty request with her home builder. Further investigation in the attic revealed a severe condensation problem with the AC unit. Water was literally accumulating on all of the ductwork across the entire attic, dripping off and soaking the insulation and going down the interior walls. We do have video footage of how wet the AC unit was below. Ironically, the only dry spot in the attic was the drip pan meant to collect condensation.
Picture of light fixture with water:
Picture of water dripping from the vents:
Picture of the condensation on the microwave:
Link to video showing the water on the AC unit:
Ashley put in a warranty request to her builders on May 28, 2024, and the earliest the builders were available to send someone out to look at the AC unit was 10 days later, on June 7th, 2024. About 7 days after the initial request on June 4th, 2024, Ashley started seeing small spots of mold appearing in the bathroom and kitchen cabinets despite purchasing and running seven dehumidifiers 24/7 in an attempt to mitigate further humidity damage. She called the warranty company again on June 4, 2024, and left a message saying she is now starting to see mold in all the cabinets and she was extremely sick. The warranty company called back on June 5, 2025, and said they would send someone out on the 6th to take a look.
Warranty request placed on May 28, 2024:
Dehumidifiers ordered on Amazon:
Lennar reaching back out on June 5th, 2024:
The start of mold in the kitchen above the microwave:
What the mold grew to by June 15:
On June 6th, Lennar sent a Mold Removal Specialist who, we were told, would be doing the actual manual labor to repair the damage to the house. Per his judgment, just from looking at all of the visible mold and testing the moisture levels in the ceiling with a moisture gauge, all the cabinets and walls behind the cabinets needed to be removed and replaced. As well as a lot of the ceiling from water damage. The moisture gauge levels are supposed to be below 12, and he was getting levels between 18 to 30 almost everywhere and as high up as 45 by the front door. He told us the high levels, especially the area reading 45, would definitely need to be replaced as there is no way it can dry out with humidity levels in the high 70s without growing mold.
However, the next day, on June 7th, Lennar sent a "Mold Assessor" to test the levels in the house. Ashley mentioned what all the Removal Specialist from the day prior had said needed to be replaced, and we were then told by this man, "We should not listen to the guy from the day prior because he does not know what he is talking about." Somehow, in 24 hours, from June 6th to June 7th, and before ANY repairs had been made to the AC unit, the ceiling was now considered to be "dry". The AC repairman Lennar hired came on the same day as the Mold Assessor (on June 7th). The AC repairman showed up after the Mold Assessor had already gotten to Ashley's house and started running tests and stayed hours after the mold assessor had already left.
The moisture gauge the Mold Assessor brought was somehow reading mostly dry levels in the ceiling everywhere except 1 square foot, but we were told it was soaking wet the day before by the Mold Removal Specialist Lennar sent. This was while the thermostat humidity was still reading 78% inside the house and before ANY repairs were made by the AC repairman. This was a HUGE red flag to Ashley and our entire family as it just does not make sense how the ceiling dried out before the AC was fixed and how the man Lennar sent the day prior showed it was wet.
Multiple pictures of moisture gauge readings were taken by the inspection company Ashley hired on June 11th, 5 days after her builder's inspector told her it was "dry" and only 1x1 square foot of drywall needed to be replaced.
Ashley's inspector, showing he doesn't even have to touch the moisture meter prongs to the wall to show the moisture levels were high in the house:
The AC repairman who came on June 7th, about halfway through the mold assessors appointment, stated a few things were going on with the AC unit. He said he could not find any leaks anywhere in the attic unless it was a microscopic leak he could not find, but her freon level was somehow very low. He did not specify what it was supposed to be at, but he did say it was weird that it was so low. He's not sure if it was ever even charged up to begin with, and he had to charge it up on June 7th. He also stated that her coil was not getting cold enough to pull the humidity from the air, and he had to replace it. Also, the builder never sent her a report for the AC to show what they even "fixed", so she cannot confirm they did what they told her they did. She even had to REQUEST the mold report for them to send it to her.
Since Lennar's AC "expert" came and “fixed” the AC on June 7th, 2024, it has now broken another 3-4 times in a few different ways since initiating the lawsuit. After it was charged up with freon and the coil was replaced, it took weeks for the humidity levels to come down in the house. Mold can start growing with humidity levels consistently above 60%, and her house reached a staggering 80%, which slowly came down over 4 weeks. During the 4 weeks it took for the house to dry out, Ashley's builder did not do any further mold inspections, even though the mold was still actively growing with the humidity above 60%. The builders just wanted to come in and repair only the VISIBLE mold that was seen in the report on June 7th. They were already trying to come in to repair the damages on June 12th when we were told NOTHING could be repaired until the humidity was below 60%, so the mold would stop growing further. You can see Lennar's mold report shown a few pictures below. There are also text messages/voicemails of them trying to come in and do the mold remediation on June 12th, even though we told them the humidity was still high. The mold now infests every cabinet in the bathrooms and kitchen and behind every wall in the house.
Picture of the humidity level on the thermostat on June 7th:
Picture of the humidity level on the thermostat on June 8th AFTER the AC was repaired:
Picture of the humidity level on the thermostat on June 11th, showing it was still elevated to levels conducive for mold growth:
Water still dripping from the vents on June 11th:
The water in the light fixture had already turned into mold by June 11th:
She now has mold accent circles inside ALL of her light fixtures:
The voicemail showing Lennar trying to come into the house on June 12, 2024, to do the MINIMAL repairs noted a few pictures below:
Another voicemail was left 1 hour after the first one:
Texts to Ashley's contractor stating they could NOT start the remediation the next day as the humidity levels had still not come down yet:
Texts showing we had to request the mold report because they still had not sent it but were trying to schedule the remediation:
SUMMARY OF THE BUILDER'S DISMISSAL ON JUNE 7th
On June 7, 2024, the warranty company sent the samples they collected to their own lab. After lab testing, they declared the house to be "safe," citing that the HIGHEST spore count in the house was 573 spores per cubic meter, which they claimed was below toxic levels and even lower than the outdoor control sample. However, their testing was limited to air samples taken in the middle of the rooms; they did NOT test for mold behind the walls. When she questioned why, the warranty contractor for Lennar dismissively stated, "It was not part of the protocol to check behind the walls." Then, seeing Ashley’s shocked reaction, he condescendingly asked her, "Oh, sweetheart, do you not know what the word 'protocol' means?"
Picture of the Lennar's mold report:
Picture of what Lennar stated needs to be repaired as well as the cause of the mold:
Lennar's recommendation report below shows on the 3rd bullet point that the recommendation is to have the sheetrock removed as it is porous and conducive to mold growth even though they were saying in the above picture that it is "surface mold" and they were only going to replace the cabinets without checking or replacing the sheetrock behind them:
Picture of the areas considered to be damaged, highlighted by Lennar:
THE DEVASTATING TRUTH
Following the dismissive interaction with the warranty company's contractor, she hired her own independent mold inspection company, knowing that a proper mold assessment includes testing behind the walls. Just a few days later, on June 11, 2024, her inspectors confirmed her suspicions: testing behind the walls IS standard protocol. Their subsequent lab results painted a drastically different picture. Her home was declared "uninhabitable," requiring immediate evacuation. The independent testing revealed MILLIONS of mold spores per cubic meter squared throughout the entire house and in every room. Mold was found in rooms the builder said were completely clear and free from mold because they were only looking for visible mold. The extent of the mold damage is devastating; she'll likely have to discard most, if not all, of her clothing and furniture. Any entry into the house now requires personal protective equipment with a MINIMUM requirement of an N95 mask, and the remediation will likely involve taking the house down to the studs.
To make matters worse, she discovered on the neighborhood Facebook page that several others who had allowed Lennar's warranty company to come in and initiate repairs before their coverage expired experienced recurring mold issues within a year. Now, with their warranties expired a year later, they were left to cover the repair costs themselves. That is one of the main reasons she decided to sue. She did not want a bandaid repair on a home she was already getting sick in. She wants what any homeowner would want: ALL of the mold removed and everything repaired correctly and thoroughly in her brand new house that should not have even gotten mold in the first place within 2 years of there.
Picture of Ashley's mold inspection company's report:
Picture of all the mold counts put into her floor plan:
Specific levels in each area of her house:
Picture of the letter stating the evaluation site has been deemed uninhabitable:
Pictures of a guitar case found in a room Lennar stated was mold-free:
Here is an up-close image of the guitar case so you can see the color is supposed to be dark brown:
Picture of the back side of the guitar case showing mold colonies and the original dark brown color:
Pictures of the mold underneath her cabinets:
Mold literally ice sickling down underneath the cabinets because it was dripping from the high humidity levels and condensation:
Mold growing inside cabinet drawers:
Mold growing in the frame of every door to the exterior only on the interior side of the frame, but per Lennar, "the mold levels outside are higher":
Black light showing mold hidden with the naked eye in rooms Lennar said were free from mold:
Mold growing in the crevasses of walls:
Mold growing out of the crevasses of the vents:
HEALTH EFFECTS
Even before the visible mold and condensation appeared, she began experiencing health problems in the house. She developed breathing and gastrointestinal issues, and her childhood asthma returned with multiple daily attacks. A chest X-ray revealed a nodule on her lung, prompting her physician to recommend immediate evacuation for health reasons. She was prescribed a six-week course of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and breathing treatments, requiring a follow-up CT scan to monitor the nodule. Her illness was so severe that she was unable to breathe properly for months and had to take six weeks of FMLA leave from work to recover.
Picture of Ashley's Doctor's appointment:
Picture of chest x-ray results showing Ashley's lung nodule:
Picture of Doctor's recommendation letter for FMLA:
FINANCIAL DEVASTATION
Forced to leave her home with only essential belongings, she sought legal counsel with a team in Houston to help her navigate this devastating situation. At just 28 years old and a first-time homeowner, she is completely overwhelmed and struggling to cope. This is a nightmare scenario she never imagined she'd face. She purchased this new home with the expectation of having fewer maintenance issues compared to an older property, allowing her to focus on her demanding school studies. Instead, the reality has been the complete opposite. Her legal fees have already exceeded the estimated maximum amount of $75,000, and her dual doctoral degree so far has cost $60,000. Meanwhile, she is still paying a $2,616 monthly mortgage plus the other household expenses for a home that has been deemed uninhabitable, making it impossible to afford any alternative housing. She hasn't heard from the builders since initiating the lawsuit, which has been stalled since July 2024. I'm reaching out on her behalf for help and hoping that some media attention might spur some action, as she can not financially sustain this for an unknown amount of time, because the litigation process could be dragged out for years if the builders refuse to respond.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Ashley is currently pursuing a Dual Doctorate at UTMB Galveston, following a five-year career as a critical care nurse. Her nursing experience includes positions at Memorial Hermann in the trauma ER, at UTMB as a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, at HCA as a Neuro Trauma Intensive Care Nurse, and also as a Cardiac Pre-Op & Recovery Nurse. She worked incredibly hard to reach this point in her education and career, and she is determined to overcome this hardship.
Ashley’s only goal is to get the builder to buy back her home so she can walk away from this nightmare. She doesn’t want to go through a full gut renovation because she knows the builder could possibly cut corners again, and she will never feel safe living there.
She desperately needs financial help to:
- Continue legal action to force the builder to take responsibility.
- Pay for ongoing medical care and treatments caused by mold exposure.
- Afford temporary housing while she fights to be free from this disaster.
PLEASE DONATE AND SHARE
Ashley has included documentation to support her claims, including mold and moisture level reports, medical records (doctor's notes, chest X-ray), the builder's report for comparison, invoices, and other relevant materials. She purchased this home at the age of 25, believing it was a wise investment for her future. Instead, it has become the biggest nightmare of her life, and she is now concerned about the impact on her graduate studies and her future. So far, she is still passing with flying colors, but she is having to work more hours to try and cover legal fees and home inspections, which are taking a toll on her ability to maintain her studies.
Ashley’s life has been turned upside down by something completely out of her control. No one should have to fight this hard just to have a safe home.
If you can donate anything at all, it will go directly toward helping her escape this nightmare.
Whether you can donate or not, please share this campaign so we can get her story out there and hold Lennar accountable.
Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting my sister through this devastating time.
