MORGANTOWN — A WVU student is suing the property management company and owners of Campus Evolution Villages (CEV) because water damage and black mold in her room was ignored and the room left uninhabitable.
The plaintiff, Shelby Hough, names The Varde Scratch and Dent Holdco, the complex’s owner, and Asset Campus USA, a third-party property management company that manages CEV Morgantown, as defendants in the suit.
Attempts to reach CEV for comment were unsuccessful.
The suit alleges that CEV breached Hough’s lease, breached the warranty of habitability, violated its statutory duty to maintain the premises in a fit and habitable condition and unjustly enriched itself.
The suit seeks judgment to “adequately compensate her for her losses,” pre-and-post-judgement interest, attorney’s fees, courts costs and other relief the court deems appropriate.
According to the suit:
Hough, a student at West Virginia University, signed her initial lease, for one bedroom in a four-bedroom apartment at CEV, in January 2017. She renewed her lease in July 2019, to end July 27, 2020.
On April 6, 2020, a leak in one of Hough’s roommate’s bathroom damaged Hough’s bedroom and personal possession and caused black mold to form, “which rendered the room uninhabitable and forced her to move out almost immediately.”
Hough was current with rent at the time and also paid her May rent on time.
Because of the damage, Hough had to find a new place to live.
She “repeatedly” asked for her lease to be terminated and her security deposit refunded, “but [the company] has not done so, despite its assurances to the contrary.” Her April and May rent payments were also not refunded despite Hough being forced to move out in early April.
On July 6, CEV sent Hough a “first late notice” and advised her rent was past due.
