I bought a two story condo a year and half ago and turns out it was riddled with mold all throughout the second floor due to an architectural defect from the very beginning of the building 30 years ago. The association just kept ‘patching’ and replacing the roof over and over hoping the leaks would go away (insane) I was lied to by the sellers and association. Non of this was disclosed to me. The sellers painted the whole second floor with a fresh coat of mold resistant paint so no one could see anything. It’s true that once you see it on the walls that’s only the very tip of the iceberg and it’s likely much much worse inside the walls. I was also a naive first time home buyer on my own and didn’t pay for the extra mold inspection. I learned my lesson. I consulted several lawyers and they all came to the same conclusion. The sellers would file for bankruptcy and you’ll get no resolution and spend thousands in legal fees. So I threatened to make holy hell rain upon the association in a last ditch effort and finally after three months they relented and a forensic architect was brought in to diagnose and fix the cause of the leaks and decades of mold was remediated. Btw borax and hydrogen peroxide are great options for killing mold. It took an additional three months for them to remediate and rebuild the second floor. They also found a major support beam that was rotted out and needed to be replaced to keep the integrity of the structure. One month later I found that one of my subground walls downstairs in the living room was covered in black mold when I moved a piece of furniture. Turns out this wall was never sealed to code considering half of it is underground. The association fixed the drainage outside the wall to direct water away and replaced the drywall but still waiting for them to properly address this issue. The mold will only return until the outside of the wall underground is dug up and covered in a water proof barrier. It has been an absolute nightmare for me. I cry myself to sleep often. I have no way of selling this place and getting even close to what I owe on it. Also we are all under heavy special assessments now because it was discovered after working on my unit it was at the very brink of being uninhabitable. All units in this building have had the same leakage problems and now all have to be fixed and remediated. I am trying to make the best of it and hope that someday I will be relieved of this nightmare. Attached is my downstairs subground wall when I noticed the mold.

We had been searching for just the right home for a year, making the 1700 mile round trip drive approximately every 6 to 8 weeks. After a particularly rough drive that had us arriving at 4 am, I checked my email before bed. Lo and behold, a new listing that appeared perfect AND vacant (which is nice when waiting for an appointment and a 36 hour visit don't really mix!) Our realtor got us in before our other appointments, and we agreed that with a few cosmetic changes, this was the one. We saw our other showings, went back to the office and wrote up a full price offer. A bit of negotiating after the inspection and it's ours!

@Christine...the vapour barrier is what has caused this...and is the same reason we don't let vapour barriers sit over top of plywood. They trap moisture UNDERNEATH the sheet and then it reemulsifies the adhesives = icky, sticky, stinky mess. Before you covered the asbestos tiles, they were "breathing" well enough. There was enough air movement to continually evaporate the moisture that was moving through the glue/seams. That's all it needed to be happy. Once you placed the plastic on top you "capped" it (that's what it is called = capping). That trapped ALL THAT MOISTURE in one place. There was so much of it, the glue became "liquid" once again. I'm going to guess there were gallons and gallons of water vapour moving through the tiles/seams all the time. The toxic smell you are referring to would have been very much like the smell the installers had to live through = smell of the glue...and the first homeowners as well. That's why these adhesives are banned = nasty, dangerous things. Funnily enough, had you laid the laminate straight over top, most of the moisture would have simply moved through (just like before). It would have been slowed down by the laminate...but still would have had a place to go. It is very difficult to "seal" asbestos tiles/adhesive. It is hard to do, and expensive. That's why they are either left alone (try not to cap them) or pay the piper to get rid of them. Once they are gone you never have to deal with them again.

Full Home Inspection but there was mine subsidence (abandoned coal mine collapses impacting everything above it) in the condo complex that was not disclosed to me until after the deal was done. My furniture hadn't even arrived when i found out. No recourse since it didn't impact my home at the time. Was laid off in June 3 years later and offered a job out of state. Put my home on the market and the complex suffered a recurrence the Saturday before my first open house and this time it impacted every condo in the complex which had to be disclosed. It didn't help that my neighbors were telling people as they got out of the car to see the place. Sold my home for 40,000 less than what I owed. And to add insult to injury, the insurance policy wasn't paid until a year after the occurrence and would only be paid to owner at the time of the payout so of course the bank decided they need to foreclose one month before the payment was due to happen. I ended up selling it and it closed 5 days before the foreclosure was scheduled. The new owner was probably able to pay off the loan with the insurance payment.