Former executive assistant Nancy Hughes is locked in a battle with BaptistCare over her unit in Wingara Hamlet on Macquarie Road in Springwood.
Ms Hughes, 73, says ongoing "pale green mould" issues in the flat over the last five years have left her with serious health issues, despite efforts to remediate the property.
She says she's been hospitalised three times and needed heart surgery and she now wants compensation of about $13,000 to make up for damage to her furniture, carpets and clothing.
"It's made me so ill," she said. "I was perfectly healthy and I had to live in this mould," she said, adding during one bout of illness "they left me homeless for nine days and eight nights".
In March this year, Mike Furner, the general manager of BaptistCare, wrote Ms Hughes a letter advising they would replace the carpet, fumigate furniture and treat her floor rugs and also replace her bed mattress. In return they expected Ms Hughes to de-clutter her apartment and reinstate fortnightly maintenance payments. Ms Hughes says she will not pay a balance of about $3000 in maintenance payments "until they pay me" and while some of those issues had been seen to, she was still waiting for the return of her rugs.
She has documents from the NSW Ambulance Service and her doctor to testify that her illness was caused by fungi spore and also from Archicentre outlining the unit's former ventilation problems which were then "well below minimum requirements of the national brickwork code".
She says other residents have had problems "but didn't want a fuss".
Ms Hughes says her home contents insurer believes BaptistCare's insurer is liable for damages to her goods "and so do I".
Attempts to reach Mr Furner were unsuccessful but a media spokeswoman for BaptistCare, Elizabeth Byrne, issued the following statement to the Gazette.
"BaptistCare is unable to comment in regard to the situation concerning Nancy Hughes, a resident at BaptistCare Wingara Hamlet, as the matter is currently with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
"BaptistCare is committed to the wellbeing of all of our clients, and the organisation is focused on resolving this situation with Ms Hughes."
