Buyers beware! That used to be the case and to some degree it still is. When buying or selling real estate, disclosures are an important part of the transaction. The paperwork might feel overwhelming yet, finding things out after you bought the property, realizing you didn’t read the disclosures is worse. Or, as a seller not disclosing important material facts is a major cause of ongoing law suits. When I started out in real estate, one of the first transactions came with an interesting disclosure. The TDS mentioned that about every 10-14 days, the police ‘visited’ a home across the street due to domestic issues. Deal breaker? No… my client contacted some neighbors and asked them how bad it was. All together it was something that was not a reason for him not to buy the house. Had he found out after close of escrow… the situation would have been different… Stuff like this is a ongoing reason for law suits.
That’s why we have disclosures, these are different per state/county. In CA, sellers have to fill out statutory disclosures –The TDS is only one of them.
Sidenote: a buyer can not refuse or waive these disclosures required by law, you can find this in California Civil Code section 1103 (d). This means that ignorance is not bliss, so the waiver or refusal of these disclosures is void and not a valid reason to sue.
One other important disclosure is the Natural Hazards Disclosure, in CA a seller is required to provide this, this is done by providing a NHD report. One of these providers is for instance Property ID, there are others, personally I like this one since it’s easy to read and understand and very comprehensive. There are other reliable sources for this report.
These reports inform a buyer about natural hazards like flood zones, high fire hazard areas, landslide areas, protected species etc etc. All these important to know before you buy a property, it might affect insurance rates/policies, or possibilities to build a pool to name just 2.
When I moved to California, the family asked why we would move to an area prone to earthquakes. Our response was that 60% of Netherlands is below sea level, we simply exchanged natural hazards;) However, every so often, the Russian Rover causes flooding too 😉
Bottom line: always work with a real estate agent familiar with the local area and the local mandatory/required/custom disclosures and laws.
Mirjam