8 Things California Home Sellers Have to Disclose That Surprise Buyers

Most home sellers expect to mention a leaky roof or a cracked foundation.

But Californians selling a house may be surprised how much more the law asks them to tell a buyer.

Here’s what to know before you list.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Disclosure rules and forms are subject to change.

1. Noncompliant Plumbing Fixtures

Your disclosure duty covers the toilets, showerheads and faucets in your house.

Under Civil Code section 1102.155, you have to tell a buyer in writing whether the property includes any noncompliant plumbing fixtures.

Civil Code section 1101.4 required owners of single-family homes to replace those fixtures by January 1, 2017.

The law defines a noncompliant fixture by how much water it uses.

A toilet rated for more than 1.6 gallons a flush qualifies, and so does a showerhead above 2.5 gallons a minute.

An interior faucet above 2.2 gallons a minute does too.

2. Former Ordnance Locations

Home sellers can owe a buyer notice about land once used for military training.

The law defines an ordnance location as land an agency has identified as once used for military training that may contain potentially explosive munitions.

If you have actual knowledge of a former federal or state ordnance location within one mile of your property, Civil Code section 1102.15 requires written notice before title transfers.

In 2021, the Army said cleanup of the former Fort Ord’s munitions impact area had eight to 10 years to go.

3. A Death on the Property

A death in the house can fall inside your disclosure duties, and the law draws a three-year line.

Civil Code section 1710.2 says you don’t have to tell a buyer about a death that happened more than three years before their offer.

Inside that window the statute gives you no such protection, and the general duty to disclose material facts can apply.

A 1983 California appeals court decision dealt with a seller’s silence about a death.

The buyer sued after learning the seller never mentioned that a woman and her four children had been murdered at the house 10 years earlier.

The court said a seller has to speak up about facts that materially affect a home’s value or desirability when the seller knows them and the buyer can’t readily learn them.

4. Water Heater Bracing

A home seller’s water heater has to be braced, anchored or strapped to resist falling or horizontal displacement in an earthquake, under Health and Safety Code section 19211.

The rule applies to standard water heaters up to 120 gallons.

You also have to certify to the buyer, in writing, that your water heater meets that rule.

That certification can sit in the sales contract, the receipt for deposit or a transfer disclosure statement.

5. A Megan’s Law Notice

Seller disclosure in a contract for a one-to-four-unit home has to include a Megan’s Law notice in type no smaller than 8-point.

The notice points buyers to the Department of Justice website at meganslaw.ca.gov.

Depending on an offender’s criminal history, the site shows either an address or a community and ZIP Code.

You deliver the notice with the contract, and after that you aren’t required to give a buyer more information about registered sex offenders nearby.

6. A Supplemental Property Tax Notice

Your disclosures to a buyer include a notice about supplemental property tax bills, under Civil Code section 1102.6c.

Under California property tax law, the assessor revalues a home when ownership changes.

Because of that, the buyer may receive supplemental tax bills, depending on when their loan closes.

If a buyer pays property taxes through an impound account, the lender won’t pay a supplemental bill, so the buyer pays the tax collector directly.

You hand over the notice; the bill is your buyer’s.

7. Natural Hazard Zones

Your Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement tells a buyer which hazard zones your house sits in.

Under Civil Code section 1103.2, the statement covers special flood hazard areas, dam failure inundation areas, fire hazard severity zones, wildland areas with substantial forest fire risk, earthquake fault zones and seismic hazard zones.

A licensed expert who prepares a natural hazard report has to add more notices when they apply, and three of them stand apart.

The first covers a house in an airport influence area.

The second flags farm or ranch land on a county Important Farmland Map within one mile.

The third applies within one mile of a mine that has reported its location.

You deliver the statement to your buyer.

8. The Transfer Disclosure Statement

The Transfer Disclosure Statement is the form California’s seller disclosure article prescribes, and Civil Code section 1102 applies that article to single-family residential property.

You have to deliver the completed statement as soon as practicable before title transfers.

If the statement reaches the buyer after an offer, the buyer gets a cancellation window, and it runs shorter for in-person delivery than for mailing.

The clock starts only when Sections I and II of the form, plus Section III if an agent represents you, are completed and delivered.

What Sellers Can Leave Out

Seller disclosure in California has limits, and Civil Code section 1710.2 draws two of them.

You don't have to tell a buyer that an occupant was living with human immunodeficiency virus or died from complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The statute treats that, like a death older than three years, as not a material fact that requires disclosure.

The death rule comes with a limit.