The Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice: What San Antonio Sellers Must Reveal (and What Trips Them Up)

Under Texas Property Code § 5.008, almost every seller of a single-family home in Texas has to give the buyer a written Seller's Disclosure Notice — on or before the effective date of the contract. In practice, San Antonio agents deliver it with the listing paperwork so buyers see it before they write. The standard form is TREC's OP-H (also published by TAR as a longer version most SABOR-area listings use). Skipping it, backdating it, or filling it in vaguely is the single fastest way to turn a clean closing into a lawsuit.

The disclosure is a statement of the seller's actual knowledge. It is not a warranty, not an inspection report, and not the agent's opinion. That distinction is where most of the trouble starts.

What § 5.008 actually requires

The statute applies to sales of residential real property with not more than one dwelling unit. There are narrow exemptions — transfers between spouses, transfers to an estate, foreclosure sales, new construction from the builder, and a few others listed in § 5.008(e). If you inherited the house and never lived in it, you still have to disclose what you know; you do not get to write "N/A" across the whole form because you were not the occupant.

The form itself walks through:

• Appliances and systems, item by item (HVAC, water heater, dishwasher, garage door opener, etc.), and whether each is present and functional to the seller's knowledge.
• Structural conditions — roof, foundation, walls, windows, slab, driveways.
• Environmental items — asbestos, lead-based paint (pre-1978 homes trigger the separate TREC OP-L addendum), radon, previous flooding, wetlands, hazardous waste.
• Known defects and known repairs, with room to explain.
• HOA information, assessments, and any pending litigation involving the property.

Foundation, roof, and the San Antonio clay problem

Bexar County sits on expansive clay soils — the same reason so many homes in Alamo Heights (78209), Terrell Hills, and older Northside neighborhoods have foundation history. If your slab has ever been leveled, piered, or had a plumbing leak under it, that is a material fact. Disclose it. Attach the engineer's letter and the transferable warranty if you have one; a lifetime warranty from a foundation company is often assignable to the buyer for a small fee and turns a scary item into a solved one.

Same logic applies to roofs. Hail runs through this market — the 2016 and 2021 storms rewrote a lot of roofs across Stone Oak (78258), Shavano Park, and the far Northwest. If you filed a claim, disclose it. Buyers' insurance carriers pull CLUE reports and will see prior claims anyway; the disclosure is your chance to frame the repair, not hide it.

Flooding: the 2019 rewrite that still catches sellers

After Hurricane Harvey, the Legislature expanded § 5.008 to require specific flood disclosures. Sellers must state whether the property:

• Is located in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain (FEMA SFHA).
• Is located in a floodway.
• Has flooded from a natural event, and how many times.
• Has ever had a flood insurance claim or FEMA assistance.
• Currently has flood insurance in place.

Olmos Park, parts of Leon Valley along Huebner Creek, and low-lying blocks near Salado Creek and Olmos Creek all have known flood history. "I've never seen it flood in the three years I owned it" is not the question. The question is whether the property has ever flooded to your knowledge — which includes what the prior owner told you, what neighbors told you, and what any prior inspection revealed.

MUDs, PIDs, and the Boerne / Cibolo / Schertz belt

If your home sits inside a Municipal Utility District or a Public Improvement District — common in newer developments in Cibolo, Schertz, Bulverde, and the far Northwest edge of Bexar County — you have additional statutory notices. § 49.452 requires a MUD notice; PIDs have their own § 5.014 notice. These are separate from the OP-H disclosure and get missed constantly because the listing agent assumes the title company will handle it. Title will catch it eventually, but a buyer who learns at closing that the tax bill includes a $1,200/year PID assessment is a buyer who walks or renegotiates.

HOA items buyers actually care about

For deed-restricted neighborhoods — most of Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, Rogers Ranch, Cibolo Canyons, and virtually every subdivision built after 1990 — the disclosure needs the HOA name, contact, dues, transfer fees, and any known violations. Order the resale certificate early. In Texas, the HOA has up to 10 business days to produce it under Property Code § 207.003, and they will use every one of those days.

Disclose any open violations. If the fence stain does not match the ACC-approved color and you have a letter about it, that letter goes to the buyer. Hiding it is how sellers end up paying to re-stain a fence after closing plus attorney fees.

What most people get wrong

• Treating "unknown" as a safe answer. Marking every box "unknown" on a house you have lived in for 12 years reads as evasion. Use "unknown" only when it is actually true — for a system you have never used, an area you cannot access, or a condition that predates your ownership and was never inspected.
• Assuming the inspection replaces disclosure. The buyer's inspector reports what they can see in three hours. You are on the hook for what you actually know, whether or not the inspector finds it. A slow leak you caught with a bucket in the attic last spring is a disclosure item even if it is dry the day the inspector shows up.
• Forgetting past claims. Insurance claims, FEMA assistance, and prior repair invoices all live in databases the buyer's side can pull. If you replaced the roof after a hail claim in 2021, say so — and include the receipt. It helps the appraisal and shortens the negotiation.
• Signing before updating. Sellers fill out OP-H at listing and forget it. Then the AC dies in July, gets repaired, and no one updates the disclosure. Any material change between signing the listing agreement and the effective date of the contract requires an updated notice. Use TREC form 39-9 (Amendment) or reissue OP-H.
• Letting the agent fill it out. The agent can hand you the form and explain the boxes. The agent cannot answer the questions for you. It is your statement of your knowledge, and your signature.
• Ignoring the death-and-disease question. Texas does not require disclosure of a natural death, suicide, or a death by accident unrelated to the property's condition (§ 5.008(c)). But a death caused by the condition of the property — a fall from a rotted balcony, a CO leak from a defective heater — is disclosable. When in doubt, disclose.

When to loop in a Texas real estate attorney

For a standard resale where you know the property well, the TREC/TAR forms are enough. Call a Texas real estate attorney before signing when any of these apply:

• The house is in a probate or estate sale and you never lived there.
• There is known unpermitted work — a converted garage, an added bathroom, a covered patio built without a City of San Antonio permit.
• There is active or threatened litigation involving the property, the HOA, or a contractor.
• You are selling to an entity that is pressuring you to sign an "as-is" waiver of the disclosure. § 5.008 is not waivable in most owner-occupied resales.

An hour of an attorney's time is cheaper than a DTPA claim two years after closing.

The practical workflow

1. Fill out OP-H yourself, in pen, in one sitting, with the systems in front of you. Test the garage door. Run the disposal. Check every burner.
2. Pull your repair receipts and staple copies to the back — roof, foundation, HVAC, plumbing, appliances.
3. Order the HOA resale packet the day you list.
4. If pre-1978, add TREC OP-L for lead-based paint.
5. Add the § 49.452 MUD notice or § 5.014 PID notice if applicable.
6. Reissue any time a material condition changes before contract effective date.

A clean, specific, well-documented disclosure closes deals. A vague one invites renegotiation, termination during the option period, or a lawsuit years later.

When you are ready to list, you can put your San Antonio home in front of local buyers directly at /list-your-home, or find an experienced SABOR-area listing agent at /agents. More seller guides live at /resources.