# Property Disclosure > What a seller must disclose under Texas law, and how the federal lead-paint rule layers on top. **Source:** https://www.texasreprep.com/learn/texas-real-estate/texas-property-disclosure **Published:** 2026-08-24 **Updated:** 2026-09-02 Texas RE PREP™ — independent practice for the Texas real estate license exam, National (Uniform) and Texas State portions. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) or Pearson VUE, who administer the actual exam. --- Disclosure questions test a specific, practical skill: knowing what a seller actually has to tell a buyer, and what happens when they don't. ## The Seller's Disclosure Notice Texas generally requires a seller to complete a Seller's Disclosure Notice covering known conditions and defects — flooding history, structural issues, past repairs, and more. This is a disclosure of what the seller *knows*, not a guarantee or warranty about the property's condition; a seller isn't required to investigate or discover problems they're unaware of. Common trap If a seller has actual knowledge of a past flooding issue, Texas disclosure practice generally requires disclosing it — even if the issue has since been fixed, and even if the seller genuinely believes it's no longer relevant. Actual knowledge is actual knowledge. ## Who's exempt from the Seller's Disclosure Notice Not every sale requires it. Common recognized exemptions generally include: transfers to a co-owner or between spouses as part of a divorce, transfers by a trustee in bankruptcy, transfers resulting from a foreclosure or a deed in lieu of foreclosure, transfers to or from a government entity, and sales of new construction that has never been occupied. The exemptions are specific enough that "is this required" is genuinely worth checking against the actual list rather than assuming a Seller's Disclosure Notice is always mandatory — the exam tests exactly this gap between the general rule and its real exceptions. ## The federal lead-based paint overlay Separate from Texas's own disclosure notice, federal law layers on an additional requirement for housing built before 1978: known lead-based paint hazards must be disclosed, and this requirement applies to a lease as well as a sale — not sales alone. In practice this generally means providing a specific EPA-approved pamphlet on lead-based paint hazards, disclosing any known lead-based paint or hazards in the property, and giving the buyer a defined window (commonly framed as 10 days, though it's negotiable) to conduct a lead-based paint inspection or risk assessment before being bound to the contract. ## What disclosure doesn't cover Disclosure obligations generally don't require a seller to hire an inspector or proactively investigate problems that aren't already within their actual knowledge. That gap is exactly why a buyer's own inspection contingency matters — disclosure and inspection are two different protections, not substitutes for each other. Worth remembering The recurring theme across almost every disclosure question: the standard is the seller's *actual knowledge*, not what a diligent seller theoretically could have discovered. Quick Check A seller knows their property flooded three years ago but had the issue professionally repaired. Under Texas disclosure practice, must this generally still be disclosed? Generally yes — actual knowledge of a past flooding issue generally must be disclosed, regardless of whether it was later repaired Generally no — a fully repaired issue generally no longer requires disclosure Generally no, unless the buyer specifically asks about flooding history Generally yes, but only if the flooding occurred within the last 12 months Texas disclosure practice generally turns on the seller's actual knowledge at the time of the sale — a past flooding event generally still requires disclosure even after repair, since the disclosure is about the property's known history, not a certification of its current perfect condition.