Inspection found mold behind a wall we just painted. Now what?

We moved into our first house in Cleveland 3 weeks ago and after a rainy weekend the inspector found black mold behind the living room drywall we just finished painting. Anyone dealt with mold remediation costs on a brand new purchase and how did you handle it with the seller?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionanguyen6d ago

Did you get a home warranty when you bought the place? That saved my cousin in Akron last year when she found mold behind a bathroom wall like a month after moving in lol. She had to fight with the seller for weeks because they claimed it was "pre-existing" but the inspector missed it. Honestly the whole process was a nightmare with all the back and forth, but the warranty ended up covering about half the remediation costs. You should check your disclosure paperwork too sometimes sellers have to cover stuff like this if they knew about it before selling.

ryan_hart386d ago

Fionas warranty story is the exception not the rule most warranties give you the runaround on mold unless theres a busted pipe. Ohio disclosures only matter if the seller actually knew and hid it which is hard to prove unless they patched the same spot before. Youre probably eating the cost on this one so focus on finding the leak source first before throwing money at drywall.

zaranelson6d ago

Get a moisture meter and check the rest of the walls yourself. If the leak is from a pipe or bad flashing, that's your problem now, not the seller's. Check your Ohio disclosures specifically - if they knew about past water issues and didn't mention it, you can go after them through small claims for the inspection and drywall costs. The remediation itself will probably run $800-$2k depending on how far it spread behind that wall, and most home warranties won't cover mold unless it's from a covered plumbing failure.