The Texas Seller’s Disclosure: What You Have to Tell

The seller’s disclosure is the document most likely to follow you after closing, and the instinct it produces in most sellers, which is to say as little as possible, is exactly backwards.

Disclosure protects you. A defect a buyer knew about and accepted is not a claim. A defect you knew about and did not mention is.

The Requirement, and the Buyer’s Remedy

Texas Property Code section 5.008 requires a seller of residential property to give the buyer a written Seller’s Disclosure Notice. There are limited statutory exceptions, including some transfers by an executor, trustee or lender - if you are selling out of an estate, the probate side of that decides who is even authorised to sign before the disclosure question arises. The statute sets a minimum: TREC publishes its own Seller’s Disclosure Notice form, which asks for more than section 5.008 strictly requires and is what most North Texas sellers actually complete.

The contract attaches a remedy at paragraph 7B, and it is stronger than most sellers realise:

• If the buyer never receives it, they may terminate at any time prior to closing and the earnest money is refunded.
• If it is delivered late, they may terminate for any reason within seven days after receiving it, or before closing, whichever comes first.

That is a termination right which can outlive the option period entirely. A disclosure delivered on day twenty of a contract with a ten-day option hands the buyer a fresh seven-day walk-away. Every exit in the contract.

So: complete it and deliver it early. Ideally before you have an offer, as part of the listing package.

What Is Actually On the Notice

The form covers several categories, and it asks about your knowledge in each:

• Systems and appliances present, and whether they are in working condition.
• Known defects in the structure, roof, foundation, plumbing, electrical, HVAC and similar.
• Conditions affecting the property, including prior flooding, water penetration, termites or wood rot, previous structural repair, and hazardous materials.
• Legal and title matters, including known encroachments, easements, unrecorded agreements, disputes and litigation.
• HOA and special district information.
• Insurance claims history on the property, which in this region generally means hail.

Two Changes Landing in 2026

The disclosure landscape moves, and 2026 brings two changes worth knowing about before you complete a notice this year.

• An updated Seller’s Disclosure Notice, TREC No. 55-1, which adds disclosures covering insurance, private roads the buyer would be responsible for maintaining, aboveground storage tanks, and conservation easements. Private road maintenance in particular is a live issue on acreage property at the edges of this metro.
• A new mandatory form, TREC No. 61-0, Seller’s Disclosure about Groundwater and Surface Water Rights, which is wired into the contract at a new paragraph 7I. Relevant anywhere a property has a well, a pond, a creek or severed water rights.

Use the current form for the date you are signing, and do not work from a copy saved on your computer from a previous sale. That is the single most common way a seller ends up on a superseded version.

If you are selling land or acreage, the water rights form deserves real attention rather than a quick tick: what changes on a land transaction.

Know, Suspect, and Aware Of

The notice asks about what you are aware of. That is broader than proof and narrower than speculation, and it is where most sellers get stuck.

• You know the roof leaked in 2021 and you had it repaired. Disclose it, and attach the invoice. This is the easy case and sellers still agonise over it.
• You noticed a crack that got longer and never had it looked at. You are aware of a condition. Disclose what you observed, factually, without diagnosing it.
• A neighbour once mentioned the street floods. You are aware of a report. Disclose what you were told and that you have no direct knowledge.
• You have no idea whether the slab has ever moved. Say so honestly. On an inherited or investment property this is a legitimate answer. Selling a house you never lived in.

The safe rule when you are uncertain: describe what you observed, in plain factual terms, and do not offer a diagnosis you are not qualified to give.“A crack in the brick on the north elevation, first noticed around 2022” is a good disclosure. “No foundation problems” is a conclusion, and if you are wrong it is your conclusion.

The Questions Sellers Find Hardest

1. Foundation repair. Disclose it, and present the engineering report and any transferable warranty. Buyers discount uncertainty far more than they discount a documented, solved problem. Why documentation beats silence.
2. Prior flooding or water penetration. Disclose, including how it was resolved. This is one of the categories most likely to produce a claim later.
3. Insurance claims. Disclose. Insurers can see the claim history on a property anyway, so the buyer will find out during their own underwriting. Why claims history matters here.
4. Unpermitted work. Disclose. An addition without a permit is a known condition, and it can affect insurability and financing.
5. A death on the property.Texas law provides that a seller need not disclose a death by natural causes, suicide or accident unrelated to the condition of the property. A death related to the property’s condition is different. If you are unsure which you have, ask an attorney.
6. Neighbour disputes and boundary disagreements. If there is an ongoing dispute or a known encroachment, it belongs on the form. How boundaries get established.

How to Fill It In Properly

1. Do it early, before you have an offer, so it can be delivered with the listing rather than triggering a fresh termination right mid-contract.
2. Use the current form. Not the one from your last sale.
3. Answer every question. Blanks read as evasion and can restart the clock.
4. Attach documents. Invoices, warranties, engineering reports, permits. Attachments turn a worrying answer into a resolved one.
5. Do not guess or speculate.“Unknown” is an honest answer where it is true.
6. Update it if something changes between completing it and closing.
7. Keep a signed copy with a delivery record.

One more thing worth saying plainly. Selling as-is does not remove any of this. As-is describes your willingness to make repairs. It does not remove the statutory obligation, and it does not protect you from a claim for failing to disclose a known material defect. Sellers conflate the two constantly and it is one of the more expensive misunderstandings in Texas residential real estate.

If you want to know what a buyer’s inspector is likely to find before you complete the form, a pre-listing inspection is the direct answer: whether it is worth it.