A crawl space with no ventilation openings and no vapor barrier over the soil is:

Soil under a crawl space releases water vapor continuously, and a crawl space needs a strategy for handling it. There are two accepted strategies and they are alternatives, not options to skip. The traditional approach vents the space so outside air carries moisture away; the modern approach seals and conditions the space with a ground vapor barrier and often insulation at the perimeter walls. A crawl space with neither has no mechanism at all: vapor rises from the soil, condenses on cool framing and ductwork, and sustains the moisture content at which mold and decay fungi become active. The inspector reports the absence of both and the moisture consequence, without prescribing which of the two approaches the owner should adopt.

Soil moisture needs either ventilation to carry it away or a vapor barrier to stop it entering, and this crawl space has neither. That absence is a moisture problem in its own right, independent of whether damage is already visible.

Crawl spaces are managed either by ventilation to the exterior or by sealing with a ground vapor retarder and conditioning. Bare soil is a continuous vapor source, and elevated moisture in a crawl space reaches the framing, insulation and ductwork above it.

Vent It or Seal It, Never Neither. Two valid strategies, one invalid choice — leaving bare dirt in a closed box.

Do not require visible mold or rot before calling this. The absence of any moisture strategy is itself the reportable condition.

• •Treating the problem as conditional on whether the space is heated
• •Accepting the condition because it matches original construction
• •Calling an unsealed, unvented crawl space a sealed-crawl design