For a number of years Illinois REALTORS® has offered among its many disclosure forms one that dealt with the presence of mold.

In the latest revision of the forms, which are available on the association’s website, the mold disclosure form is no longer available. The form was dropped after a legal review for three main reasons, according to Illinois REALTORS® Legal Hotline Attorney Betsy Urbance. 

1.       There is no statutory requirement to provide a mold disclosure form. For Radon and lead, there are statutory requirements that sellers provide disclosure forms. But there are no state or federal statutory requirements that sellers provide mold disclosure forms. 

2.       There’s no set scientific standard for what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable levels of mold in a structure. With Radon, for instance, there are set, scientifically accepted thresholds that trigger concern and remediation. Not so with mold.

3.       Finally, existing disclosure rules require homeowners to disclose underlying physical defects in a property. In the case of mold, not only could there be the presence of the substance itself, but there is likely an underlying condition causing moisture damage and mold is one of the effects of this. If a seller has a mold issue, it’s up to them to disclose and/or take care of the entire problem.

As Urbance notes: “… Mold disclosure or notice introduces ambiguity into the transaction while also taking the focus off what are truly the important issues to the parties.”

 As always, the Residential Real Property Disclosure Report which requires a seller to disclose any known physical defects – including issues involving moisture — to a potential buyer is available through the association’s website.