Jessica Coulombe, a third-year student at Vanderbilt Law School, filed a lawsuit against Balfour Beatty Communities LLC, the joint owners with Axium Infrastructure of The Broadview at Vanderbilt, on April 10 for negligence, premises liability, fraudulent concealment and failure to warn about the presence of mold in her apartment.
Coulombe is suing BBC for compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial — specified as no less than $40,000 — as well as non-economic and punitive damages.
“We intend to defend ourselves vigorously,” a BBC spokesperson said in an April 11 email to The Hustler.
According to The Broadview’s website, though Vanderbilt provided land for The Broadview’s construction, the university does not own nor operate the building.
“BBC/Axium secured financing for the Broadview, which they have developed, and will operate and maintain as a public-private partnership (P3) with the university,” the website reads.
Initial concerns with apartment air quality
Coulombe moved into The Broadview with her service dog in mid-September 2023. Over the following six weeks, she said she and her dog developed respiratory illnesses.
“He [Coulombe’s dog] was one and a half [years old] at the time, a golden retriever. He was so sick and could barely breathe,” Coulombe said. “I would have to carry him out to go to the bathroom. I was forcing food and water down his throat. It was just a horrible situation.”
Suspecting the dog may have gotten sick elsewhere, Coulombe took him to see a veterinarian, who prescribed a course of antibiotics for pneumonia. After completing the course of medication, however, her dog became sick again, leading her to suspect an issue with her apartment’s air quality.
Coloumbe filed a maintenance report on Oct. 14, 2023, that specifically cited concerns with her air conditioning unit, which she recalled “smelled rotten.” She said she requested mold testing, but only moisture and humidity tests were conducted on Oct. 16, 2023. In an Oct. 26, 2023, letter to Coulombe, BBC President Robert Shepko said that building staff performed a “comprehensive visual, temperature, humidity and moisture measurement review” of Coulombe’s unit to assess “any moisture or mold-related observations.”
“This form of inspection process is considered a best practice [in] ruling out the most typical type of air quality concerns related to mold,” the letter reads. “From that inspection, no visible mold was identified… [and] moisture readings taken in the unit also did not indicate atypical moisture conditions, and no unusual odors were noted throughout the unit.”
A spokesperson for BBC told The Hustler on April 9 that the staff who conduct these inspections follow a checklist developed “with advice from environmental health experts” and that complies with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
In light of these findings and because the unit is “not considered a damp indoor space,” Shepko told Coulombe that air quality testing for mold is not required, per guidance from the EPA and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The AC unit was also inspected by its manufacturer, who determined that the unit “appear[ed] to be working normally.”
“It’s important to note that our team doesn’t conduct air quality testing as part of regular inspections. Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the EPA recommend[s] routine sampling for mold, including sampling for mold in the air,” a BBC spokesperson wrote in an April 9 email to The Hustler.
Within the same week of the initial complaint, management offered to transfer Coulombe to another unit without penalty, pay the cost of a third-party moving company and provide her a rental concession for the new unit, which she accepted. They also consulted a third-party environmental testing agency, Exponent Inc., to “assess the air quality review process” for Coulombe’s old and new units. This assessment process included a review of property construction records to identify any materials or components “that would warrant air quality testing.”
Exponent’s Nov. 6, 2023, report determined that there were no specific building products or components that would serve as “a viable candidate for environmental testing,” but noted a limitation that only materials with “potential for release of chemical components” were investigated.
Coulombe said that the ordeal has taken a significant toll on both her physical and mental health.
“[Now], a year and a half later, my dog still has a cough. I still have respiratory issues. Since [the initial illness], my mental health has just been in the toilet — [because of] being forced to still live there and [given] the anxiety that situation produced,” Coulombe said.
Maintenance disclosure of black mold
In a March 18 conversation with a maintenance staff member who had been addressing an issue in her new unit, Coulombe said she had been inadvertently made aware of black mold in her former unit.
“I was talking to [the maintenance staff member] about that situation with my dog, and he — I assume not knowing it had been covered up — was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember that. They found black mold in the walls,’” Coulombe said. “I was like, ‘What? No one told me that.’ He explained to me that they found that the AC in that apartment had been installed incorrectly, so the moisture was dripping into the interior walls and had formed toxic black mold.”
Coulombe said she subsequently brought the matter to the attention of management, who directed her to BBC corporate. According to Coulombe, the latter refused to take liability, claiming that she lacked proof.
“Now they are keeping the maintenance man away from me. They said I’m not allowed to talk to him. They took him off my work orders,” Coulombe said.
A BBC spokesperson denied allegations of a faulty AC unit in an April 9 email to The Hustler.
“At no point was it determined that Ms. Coulombe’s AC unit was incorrectly installed. After she raised concerns about the system, our operations team tested the unit and found it to be working properly. Experts from the company who installed the air conditioning unit also inspected it and confirmed it was installed correctly and was functioning properly,” their statement reads.
Coulombe said she visited the current tenant of her former unit and discovered that they, too, noted issues with the air quality, deciding to install an air purifier and keep the windows open whenever possible. According to Coulombe, the current tenant also said they try to limit their time in the unit and have experienced disruptive, poor-quality sleep.
Using an at-home test kit, Coulombe conducted mold testing of the AC unit on March 30, which yielded results suggestive of penicillium or aspergillus — two of the top five most toxic mold categories. The current tenant told Coulombe that a recent maintenance inspection of the unit found no mold, which the BBC spokesperson confirmed to The Hustler, though noted that they believe maintenance inspected only the corners of the room but not the AC unit itself.
The BBC spokesperson denied other major instances of mold in units at The Broadview at Vanderbilt.
“We have received a very small number of work orders related to moisture concerns at The Broadview at Vanderbilt since the building opened in summer of 2023,” their email reads. “In each of these cases, our operations team identified minor leaks that were immediately repaired, and any resulting mold growth was remediated according to industry standards.”
Past legal action against Balfour Beatty
In 2021, BBC pled guilty to one count of major fraud against the U.S. Armed Forces, agreeing to pay $33.6 million in criminal fines and over $31.8 million in restitution to the military. BBC had been under investigation for lying about maintenance repairs and falsifying records.
Concerns involved in the lawsuit included blocked sewers, water leaks and the presence of toxic mold — all of which were alleged by military service members at Fort Bliss, Texas, and their families to have been ignored by BBC. As of May 2024, BBC was among 14 private companies that owned 99% of military family housing.
Alison Winters contributed reporting to this piece.
