Trafalgar renters asked to call the health department over apartment mold

A Facebook post circulating this week is asking people who live in Trafalgar apartments — and who have mold or moisture problems — to contact the Johnson County Health Department.

The share itself is a video post. Facebook would not load the page without a login, so the exact caption, the original poster, and which building was named could not be independently verified from the public link. What can be confirmed is the setting: Trafalgar is a small Johnson County town, and the ask matches how Indiana renters usually escalate a habitability complaint when a landlord is not fixing water or mold.

There is no published official statement from the Town of Trafalgar, the Johnson County Health Department, or an apartment owner specifically about a current complex-wide mold outbreak. That does not mean the complaints are false. It means the matter, so far, is circulating as a resident call for inspections rather than as a completed government finding.

The apartments in town

Trafalgar does not have a large roster of complexes. The two names that show up most often in rental listings are:

Trafalgar Pointe Apartments
711 and 703 W. Trafalgar Pointe Way
1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom units, pond views, bark park, on-site parking. Listings put 1-bedrooms around $1,100 and larger units higher. Public listing pages do not clearly name a well-known national owner. Management appears local or lightly branded. No independent news archive turned up a prior mold investigation at this address.

Copperfield Apartments
211 S. State Road 135
Affordable 1- and 2-bedroom family housing with a playground and on-site laundry. The property is managed by Justus Property Management.

Justus is a real Indiana company, not a fly-by-night Facebook landlord. It was started in 1989 by Steven K. Walters, now lists Mitch Walters as president, and says it runs more than 140 affordable communities and 4,000-plus units across Indiana, including HUD, Rural Development, HOME, and Section 42 properties. The Better Business Bureau gives Justus Property Management Inc. an A+ rating, but it is not BBB-accredited. Tenant and employee reviews are mixed: some describe ordinary affordable-housing friction, others complain about slow maintenance, waiting lists, and site-level management. None of those reviews, on their own, prove a current mold problem at Copperfield in Trafalgar.

A 2024 Daily Journal story about mold in Trafalgar was about Town Hall, not an apartment building. That building was cleaned and later described as “perfectly clean.” It should not be confused with this week’s rental complaints.

What the health department will actually do

Johnson County Health Department is the right office for this. Its own FAQ is blunt:

• It does not specifically test for mold.
• It will inspect a home or business for indoor air quality and help identify the moisture problem.
• The inspection is free for Johnson County residents.

That matters because Indiana has no standalone residential mold law and no official “safe mold level.” County health departments cannot wave a magic number and shut a building. What they can do is inspect for the conditions that grow mold — leaks, standing water, failed ventilation, sanitary-code problems — and create an official record. That record is often what forces a landlord to act.

Johnson County Health Department
Environmental Health: (317) 346-4365
Indoor air quality contact listed by the county: Betsy Swearingen, (317) 346-4374, eswearingen@johnsoncounty.in.gov
Office: 95 S. Drake Road, Franklin
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Residents who call should be ready with the address, unit number, how long the problem has been there, photos, and whether they already notified management in writing.

What the law actually requires

Indiana Code § 32-31-8-5 says a landlord must deliver and keep a rental “safe, clean, and habitable,” follow health and housing codes, and keep plumbing and HVAC in working order. Mold is treated as a habitability and moisture problem, not as its own special statute.

Practical steps for tenants are the unglamorous ones:

1. Photograph and date the mold and any leak.
2. Put the landlord on notice in writing.
3. If nothing happens, ask the health department for an inspection.
4. Keep copies of everything.

Indiana generally does not let a tenant simply stop paying rent over repairs. Withholding rent without following the statute is how people end up in eviction court. A written complaint file is the stronger tool.

What is known, and what is not

Known: Trafalgar renters are being told, in public, to call the county health department about apartment mold. The county will inspect indoor air issues for free. Two complexes dominate the local rental market. One of them, Copperfield, is run by a large statewide affordable-housing manager with a long paper trail and mixed reviews. Indiana law requires habitable housing even though it does not mention the word “mold.”

Not known from official sources: which building the Facebook video named, how many units are affected, whether inspectors have already been inside, or whether management has issued a statement.

If residents follow through, that is how a Facebook warning becomes a paper trail. In a town this size, a handful of inspection requests is often enough to get the county through the door.