That smell in the hallway closet again
If you rent in Inglewood and you've started noticing a musty smell near the bathroom, a soft spot in the carpet by the sliding door, or a faint ring of discoloration creeping across the ceiling drywall, you're not imagining it. This time of year, especially after a run of foggy mornings off the coast or a stretch of marine layer that doesn't burn off until noon, older buildings in this area hold onto moisture longer than people expect. A lot of Inglewood's housing stock dates back to the 1940s through 1960s, built before modern vapor barriers and ventilation standards were common. Stucco exteriors, flat or low-slope roofs, and older window seals all give water a way in that newer construction tries to design out.
What to document before you say anything to your landlord
Before you call or email your landlord, spend fifteen minutes building a record. Take photos in good daylight, not with flash, from a few feet back so the scale of the damage is clear, then close-up shots of texture and color. Date-stamp them if your phone allows it, or at least note the date in a separate text to yourself so there's a timeline.
Write down when you first noticed it and anything that seems to make it worse: rain the night before, running the shower with the door closed, a leak under the kitchen sink you already reported. Smell is hard to photograph, so describe it in plain words: musty, earthy, like wet cardboard. If you've had any respiratory symptoms, headaches, or allergy flare-ups since noticing it, note those too, with rough dates, not as a diagnosis but as part of the record.
Check for obvious moisture sources you can see yourself: condensation on windows in the morning, a dripping pipe under a sink, a gap in caulking around a tub, water stains that trace back to a specific spot on the ceiling. None of this requires special tools, just attention.
More on this from Reading List What A Renter Should Document Before Reporting Damp To A Landlord.
Where a renter's own checking should stop
Here's the line. You can document what's visible and describe what you smell. What you should not do is cut into drywall, pull up carpet, or go into a crawlspace or attic to chase the source yourself. In a rented unit that's not your call to make structurally, and depending on your lease it could create a dispute over who caused what damage. It's also where the job stops being a homeowner or renter task and becomes one for someone trained to assess moisture and mold without disturbing a material in a way that releases more spores into the air you're breathing.
Why this matters more in Inglewood than it might elsewhere
Inglewood sits close enough to the coast that humidity swings are real, even though total rainfall here is modest compared to wetter parts of the country. The problem isn't usually heavy rain, it's prolonged dampness: a wall that gets a little wet and then sits inside a stucco shell that doesn't breathe, or a bathroom exhaust fan that was never properly vented to the exterior and just pushes moist air into the attic instead. Add a flat roof with aging tar and gravel or an older built-up roofing system, and you've got a building that can hold a slow leak for months before anyone notices a stain.
Older multi-unit buildings, which make up a good share of Inglewood's rental housing, often share plumbing walls and ventilation systems between units. Damp in one apartment can trace back to a leak two units over. That's part of why documentation matters: it gives whoever inspects the building a starting point instead of a guess.
Getting a proper inspection on the record
Once you've reported the issue with your photos, dates, and notes, ask whether the landlord intends to bring in a mold inspection. A proper inspection involves moisture meters, sometimes air sampling, and a look behind the material in question done by someone who isn't guessing from a doorway. If your landlord is slow to respond or dismisses it, your own documentation is what protects you, both for your health and for any dispute that comes later about whose responsibility the repair was. Keep copies of everything you send, and keep your own photos even after you report it, because once walls get opened for repair, your original evidence disappears.