PARKVILLE, Md. — Instead of a honeymoon present one couple was given a major mess to clean up at home.
Last fall, Melanie Ramjohn and Brian Toelle were thrilled to tie the knot, but days later a sewer rehabilitation project went awry.
That’s when dirty, raw sewage filled their basement and covered their personal belongings, some irreplaceable. Four months later they still have not been able to move back in.
“I think this is one of the worst things I’ve ever been through in my life,” Toelle said.
The subcontractor hired to conduct the work for Baltimore County was Insituform using the “Cured in place Method” or CIPP. About two weeks prior, Toelle says that there was a small back-up, and informed the on-site team that he had a simple fix that would prevent it. He just needed a heads up.
“I gave them my phone number,” he said. “I’m a plumber by trade. I can plug all the pipes,” he explained.
But it never came.
His neighbor John Nelson was home at the time when work started again.
“I would take Saran wrap and wrapped the toilet bowl in that, put a towel down on the Saran wrap, put the seat down and then put a plate on top of it,” Nelson explained.
When Ramjohn arrived home after work on October 14, she found a complete disaster waiting for her. Nelson says he could smell the foul odor from his property.
“It’s just unimaginable. I mean, can you imagine your basement completely flooded with raw sewage?" Nelson said.
Three other homes in the neighborhood were impacted, but Toelle’s the worse.
According to DPW spokesperson Ron Snyder, the county has received similar reports of smaller issues “normal to the CIPP process.” The county continues to work with the contractor and no disciplinary action has been taken at this time.
“This is crazy.If this company can't be trusted to remediate one small home that they destroyed in a timely fashion, maybe 1 month, maybe 2 months, I don't know. I don't destroy homes for a living. How can they be trusted with our infrastructure?” Toelle said.
Since October, they’ve been going through the claims process with Azuria Water Services, which owns Insituform, and its insurance, ESIS. But they say they’ve been dragging their feet.
The Toelles have lived with relatives and in and out of Air Bnbs, moving to a new one every two weeks, as they wait for the remediation process to complete.
That meant nearly every first major holiday as newlyweds was spent in a temporary place.
By Valentine's Day, they were hopeful for some sweet news, but instead lab results showed fecal bacteria lingered in their home.
Though, Toelle says the company has refused to pay for more cleaning or to hire help in cataloging the damaged items from their basement, that now sit in their backyard under a tarp.
“We haven't even been demanding some crazy settlement or anything like that. The only thing we've asked for the past four months is please sanitize our home, verify that it's safe, and let us move back in,” he said.
In the meantime, they’ve been paying out of pocket to continue the work and hope they’ll be able to be back soon, so they can get back to building their lives together telling WMAR-2 News they've depleted their savings and racked up credit card debt in the process.
Though according to an email from October 23, provided by Toelle, DPW Chief Inspector Jason Sims assured them there would be no out-of-pocket costs after a meeting with Azuria. Sims also explains in the email that the county “has a limited advocacy role in this process.”
Now, despite the latest test results, they say their housing is running out and they don’t know if it will be renewed.
“They're holding us hostage in limbo through their inaction,” Toelle said. “We need accountability so this doesn't continue to happen. I mean, this is crazy.”
WMAR-2 News reached out to Azuria and ESIS, but have not heard back by the time this article was published.