Anyone familiar with rules/regulations regarding MOLD being found in a home that we're in contract to purchase? (wood floors)

[crock99]

I'll try to make a long story short.... We're in contract to buy a house in Tosa that's a foreclosure and has been vacant for more than a year. Previously we had an issue with the radiators in the house leaking (the house wasn't winterized properly) so the bank took out all the radiators and installed an HVAC system.
Just today my husband and our realtor were at the house (for an unrelated issue) and they needed to pull up the linoleum floor in an add-on room off the side of the house, and it looks like there's some mold there in the wood subfloor. The old radiators were baseboard radiators in that room and we're thinking the leaking caused this.

Anyone know how to proceed? In the state of Wisconsin, is the bank allowed to sell a house that has mold present? Are they required to take care of the problem before selling it? I'm trying to read up about this online and it's just making me more confused.

Also, is there any way to check for mold in the walls other than breaking the walls down to inspect them? Of course this discovery of mold makes us nervous about what may be lurking behind the walls of the rest of the house (the rest of the house has wood floors so we can't just pull them up).

Just feeling really sad and defeated... this was basically our dream house and it's looking more and more like we're going to have to walk away from it.

[Alces2]

Any progress on this?

Not an expert, but I think this is how it is:
You are allowed to sell a house with mold, but:
a) If you know it, you would need to disclose it
b) If you don't know it, you cannot disclose, obviously and then it is like any other defect in the house, I think. This means, if you buy a house with rusty pipes, you buy the rusty pipes. If you buy it with mold, you buy the mold. That's why you can inspect it.

With foreclosures, bank often sell it "as is" and mostly have a special mold addendum, no matter if there is any or not. They won't accept offers without this addendum signed, which states that the seller/bank has no knowledge and it might be there and they are not to be held responsible for anything and everything.

I've bought some foreclosures from banks, always as is. However, they were in neighborhoods and types of properties where the bank would not bend over backwards and replace an HVAC system to get it sold.