What is the Seller's Disclosure Notice in Texas?

The Seller's Disclosure Notice is a written notice Texas Property Code section 5.008 requires from a seller of residential property with not more than one dwelling unit. It discloses known condition, defects and flood history. If the seller delivers it after the contract is signed, the buyer may terminate for any reason within seven days after receiving it.

Who owes the notice

The duty runs to a seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit. That is the statutory phrase, and it is narrower than people assume — it captures the ordinary single-family house and does not, on its face, reach a fourplex. The seller must give the buyer a written notice in the form prescribed by section 5.008, or one that is substantially similar (Texas Property Code 5.008).

The notice is the seller's. Not the agent's, not the inspector's, not the title company's. A license holder can hand a seller the form and can decline to pass along a notice they know to be false, but the answers on it are the seller's own statements about what the seller actually knows.

The current TREC version of the form is the Seller's Disclosure Notice, form 55-1, effective 05/28/2026 (TREC contract forms). Many brokerages and associations publish their own longer versions. Longer is common; shorter than the statute is not an option.

The seven-day termination right

This is the enforcement mechanism, and it is the part that changes behavior.

If the contract is signed without the seller having given the notice, the buyer may terminate the contract for any reason within seven days after receiving it (Texas Property Code 5.008). Not for cause. For any reason.

Practically, that means a late disclosure hands the buyer a second walk-away right that can outlive the option period. A seller who signs a contract on Monday and produces the disclosure on Friday has just extended the buyer's exit window past the day the contract was signed, on terms the seller does not control. The fix is boring and it works: the notice goes out with the listing, before anyone writes an offer.

Paragraph 7B: the box almost nobody reads carefully

The statute creates the duty. The contract operationalizes it, and the contract's version has a limit the statute does not spell out.

Paragraph 7B of the One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) is headed "SELLER'S DISCLOSURE NOTICE PURSUANT TO §5.008, TEXAS PROPERTY CODE," and it is a check one box only election with three options (TREC form 20-19, PDF):

(1) Buyer has received the Seller's Disclosure Notice.
(2) Buyer has not received it, and Seller delivers it within a stated number of days after the Effective Date.
(3) Seller is not required to furnish the notice under the Texas Property Code — the exemption box.

Box (2) is the one to read word for word. The form says: if the buyer does not receive the notice, "Buyer may terminate this contract at any time prior to the closing and the earnest money will be refunded to Buyer. If Seller delivers the Seller's Disclosure Notice, Buyer may terminate this contract for any reason within 7 days after Buyer receives the Seller's Disclosure Notice or prior to the closing, whichever first occurs, and the earnest money will be refunded to Buyer."

Two things fall out of that language.

The right is bigger than seven days until the notice arrives. If the seller never delivers, the buyer can terminate at any time before closing with earnest money refunded. That is a live termination right sitting under the deal for its entire length.

"Whichever first occurs" cuts the seven days short. This is the detail most explanations of the Texas disclosure get wrong. The seven days do not extend past closing. A notice delivered five days before a closing date does not buy the buyer a week — it buys five days, because closing arrives first.

Leaving 7B blank is not a neutral act. It is an unchecked election on an executed contract, and which box should have been checked is exactly the kind of question that gets expensive later.

The two paragraphs that sit next to it

¶7C — lead-based paint. The form states that lead-based paint disclosure "is required by Federal law for a residential dwelling constructed prior to 1978." That is a separate federal requirement with its own addendum, not something the §5.008 notice covers.

¶7D — "As Is." The contract defines it: "'As Is' means the present condition of the Property with any and all defects and without warranty except for the warranties of title and the warranties in this contract." Buying As Is "does not preclude Buyer from inspecting the Property under Paragraph 7A, from negotiating repairs or treatments in a subsequent amendment, or from terminating this contract during the Option Period."

So "As Is" is not the trap buyers think it is — it does not waive inspection or the option period. It is also a check one box only election: As Is, or As Is provided the seller completes specific listed repairs. The form prints its own warning on that blank: "Do not insert general phrases, such as 'subject to inspections' that do not identify specific repairs and treatments." A repair line that does not name the repair is not an enforceable repair obligation, and that sentence is printed on the form because it kept happening.

Who is exempt, and what exempt actually means

Section 5.008 lists transfers that are exempt from the notice requirement. They include transfers:

pursuant to a court order
by foreclosure
by a trustee in bankruptcy
between co-owners
to a spouse or to a descendant
by a fiduciary administering an estate
of a new residence that has not previously been occupied

An executor selling a parent's house, a builder selling a never-occupied new home, a lender selling REO — all commonly land in an exemption.

Here is the part that gets misread. The exemption is from the form, not from liability. Being exempt from delivering a section 5.008 notice does not authorize misrepresentation, and it does not erase common-law duties around known material defects or fraud. An exempt seller who affirmatively lies about a foundation repair is not protected by the exemption. How that plays out in a specific dispute is a question for a Texas real estate attorney, not for a real estate agent.

For buyers, the practical read on an exempt sale is different: you are buying with less written history than usual, so the inspection and the option period carry more weight than they otherwise would.

The death-on-the-property carve-out

Section 5.008 states that a seller or a seller's agent is not required to disclose a death on the property by natural causes, suicide, or an accident unrelated to the property's condition (Texas Property Code 5.008).

Read the exception inside the exception. A death related to the condition of the property — a fall from a defective stair, a carbon monoxide event tied to a heater — is not covered by that carve-out, because the underlying condition is exactly what the notice is about.

If a buyer cares about this, the buyer should ask directly and in writing. A seller who chooses to answer must answer truthfully.

The flood questions, and why they were added

The statutory notice was expanded by SB 339, 86th Legislature, mandatory for contracts executed on or after September 1, 2019 (SB 339 bill text). This came out of Hurricane Harvey, and it is the most useful block of questions on the form.

The flood-related items include whether the property is:

in a FEMA 100-year floodplain
in a FEMA 500-year floodplain
in a reservoir flood pool
whether the property has flooded at least once in the past five years
whether it has been repaired for flood damage
whether the seller has received flood insurance proceeds

The two floodplain terms have specific meanings:

100-year floodplain is a Special Flood Hazard Area — FEMA Zones A, V, A99, AE, AO, AH, VE or AR — carrying a 1% annual chance of flooding.
500-year floodplain is a moderate flood hazard area, shaded Zone X, carrying a 0.2% annual chance.

"100-year flood" is a bad name for a 1%-per-year event. Over a 30-year mortgage, a 1% annual chance is not a remote possibility. In the Hill Country, where a lot of the flood risk is flash flooding off creeks rather than a slow river rise, a property can flood without being mapped into a Special Flood Hazard Area at all. The disclosure answers the mapping question and the history question separately for a reason. Read both, and take the insurance question to an insurance agent rather than assuming the flood zone answers it.

What a buyer should actually do with the notice

Treat it as a lead sheet, not a warranty. It tells you what the seller says they know. It does not tell you what is true.

Cross-check every "yes" against the inspection report.
Ask for repair invoices, permits and warranty documents named on the notice.
Note every "unknown" on an item a long-term owner would normally know, and ask about it.
Compare the disclosed flood answers to the actual FEMA map for the parcel and to the elevation of the structure relative to the nearest drainage.
Do it inside the option period, while a clean exit still exists.

An inspection finds condition. The disclosure finds history. They are different tools, and the gap between them is usually where the real problem is.

Questions about a specific property?

Call or text 830-446-3847 · Email heath.shepard@kw.com

This page explains how the Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice works. It is not legal advice. Paragraph 23 of the promulgated contract says it plainly: "TREC rules prohibit real estate brokers and sales agents from giving legal advice. READ THIS CONTRACT CAREFULLY." For how section 5.008 applies to a specific sale, an exemption, or a disclosure dispute, talk with a Texas real estate attorney.