Mold Found During the Option Period

Where You Stand

The Texas option period gives the buyer an unrestricted right to terminate for a negotiated fee over a negotiated number of days. If mold surfaces during that window, the buyer holds most of the leverage — they can walk for the price of the option fee.

That leverage is time-limited. Once the option expires, terminating gets far more expensive. Both sides are working against a short clock, which is why these negotiations move fast and often badly.

What Buyers Should Do First

A general home inspector is not a mold assessor. A note in an inspection report saying "possible microbial growth" is a prompt to investigate, not a diagnosis and not a basis for a repair number.

Get a licensed mold assessment before you negotiate. You need to know the affected area, the moisture source, and a real scope of work. Negotiating from a guess means either overpaying for a minor issue or accepting a credit that does not cover a major one.

What Sellers Should Do First

Resist the reflex to dismiss it or to immediately offer a large credit. Both are expensive. Ask for the actual findings, and if the evidence is thin, propose a licensed assessment to establish scope.

Understand that you now have knowledge. Even if this buyer terminates, you know about the condition — and that knowledge attaches to your disclosure obligations with the next buyer. Walking away does not make it go away.

How These Usually Resolve

The Trap: Fixing It Too Fast

Sellers under deadline pressure sometimes hire whoever can start tomorrow. In Texas, if the affected area is 25 contiguous square feet or more, the work requires a licensed mold remediation contractor and TDLR notification.

Rushed, undocumented work creates a worse problem: a known mold history with no paperwork proving it was handled correctly. That follows the property.