A New York City-based influencer has laid bare her dire experience of renting in Manhattan’s tony West Village neighborhood, claiming that her “cursed” building left her battling illness for six months— because it was filled with mice and mold.
Sophie Balardo has become well known for flaunting her glamorous New York lifestyle on TikTok, where she has amassed 22,000 followers.
But in a recent clip, she exposed a much less pleasant side of life in one of the Big Apple’s most sought-after areas—which is home to numerous celebrities, including Bravo star Andy Cohen and “Sex and the City” actress Sarah Jessica Parker.
While strolling past her former building, where rents average around $3,600 a month, according to records — Balardo claims that living inside the dwelling, where she paid $3,000 a month, left her suffering from a myriad of mysterious health issues.
“PSA: If you are looking for a West Village apartment, consider this your warning,” she wrote on the screen, before detailing the various issues she claims to have experienced while living there.
“I’m passing my old apartment building right now. I have never been so sick in my entire life,” she says while staring into the camera.
“I think I took six antibiotics in a matter of six months. I had random rashes everywhere. My friend also moved into this building and he moved within a month because he got so sick.”
“It’s cursed, do not move into this building. You will get so sick,” she went on.
The content creator claimed that, during her time in the apartment, for which she had to pay “a broker’s fee,” she “dealt with mice, cockroaches, wasps, and lantern flies.”
The caption of the video went into further detail about her alleged experience, with Balardo stating that she was not the only person who suffered from illness while residing in the building.
“Everyone’s immune system can react differently to specific environments, but both my friend and I became very ill living here (we are both healthy individuals),” she wrote.
Balardo went on to elaborate in the comments section, telling one person that her apartment grew increasingly damp any time there was inclement weather, writing: “I lived on the top floor and every time it rained water dripped down the brick…INSIDE the apartment!”
When asked what symptoms she suffered, she said that she would wake up suffering from inflammation and that her “lymph nodes were swollen 24/7.”
The building’s management company did not response to repeated requests for comment from Realtor.com®.
“After I moved out, other previous renters in the co-op with similar issues reached out. That said, there are some people who have lived in the building for years (literally forever) and claim they’ve had no problems, so rent at your own risk, haha.
“For full transparency, I also dealt with mice, cockroaches, wasps, and lantern flies, and my rent for the studio was around $3K, plus a broker’s fee…. so, like I said, rent at your own risk. Disclaimer: This is based on my personal experience; take it with a grain of salt.”
Social media users flocked to her comment section and expressed their shock, with many branding the story “crazy,” while one user claimed she used to reside in the same building and was forced to move out because of a “mouse” problem.
According to the CDC, “exposure to damp and moldy environments may cause a variety of health effects, or none at all,” with symptoms of a mold-induced illness ranging from a stuffy nose and sore throat to itchy eyes and skin rashes.
“In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people; with asthma symptoms in people with asthma; and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition,” the organization’s website states.
