Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice (OP-H) Explained (2026)

The Texas Seller's Disclosure Notice is a written statement of a home's known condition that Texas Property Code Section 5.008 requires most sellers of residential property with no more than one dwelling unit to give the buyer. The standard form is TREC Form OP-H, and the statute requires the notice on or before the effective date of the contract. If the seller delivers it late, the buyer gets a 7-day window to terminate for any reason. For an agent, the practical rule is simple: the seller completes the form, not the agent, and it speaks only to what the seller actually knows. The form is a disclosure of known conditions, not a warranty. Where it gets dangerous for licensees is knowing about a material defect and staying silent, which is the territory covered in disclosure obligations and liability and in our guide to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The statutory source is Chapter 5 of the Property Code, which is a favorite exam source. If you want the wider context, see Texas Property Code Chapter 5: Conveyances.

Section 5.008 applies to a seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit. That covers a single-family home, a condo unit, or a townhome, but not an apartment building or a multi-unit investment property of two or more dwelling units. The seller must deliver a notice, signed by the seller, that discloses the condition of the property "to the best of the seller's belief and knowledge" as of the date the notice is signed. Three timing and content rules come straight from the statute and are worth memorizing: 1. The notice is due on or before the effective date of an executory contract binding the buyer. 2. If the seller does not know an answer, the seller must say so on the form rather than leave it blank or guess. 3. The seller is only responsible for what the seller knows, so there is no duty to hire an inspector or investigate before completing the form. The statute also lists the categories the notice must address: the condition of the structure, systems, and fixtures; environmental and legal issues; and a set of flood questions added by Senate Bill 339 in 2019. The seller answers items as working, defective, or unknown, and flags conditions such as previous foundation repairs, roof problems, or termite damage.

TREC publishes the statutory notice as Form OP-H, and the current version applies to contracts entered into on or after September 1, 2023. The statute does not force the seller to use the TREC form; a seller may use a different form as long as it substantially complies with Section 5.008. In practice, virtually every Texas residential transaction uses OP-H, and it is the form the exam expects you to recognize. The form is organized around a few blocks. First it asks whether the seller occupies the property and for how long. Then it walks through the features and systems of the home: appliances, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roof, foundation, and similar items, each marked as working, not working, or unknown. A conditions section asks about items such as previous roof repairs, foundation movement, water penetration, previous fires, unpermitted additions, and insects or termite damage. The form also covers environmental and legal matters, including lead-based paint, asbestos, radon, wetlands, easements, unrecorded liens, and homeowners' association dues. The form ends with a set of flood disclosures. The seller must say whether the property is in a 100-year floodplain, a 500-year floodplain, a floodway, or a flood pool or reservoir, whether any flood damage has occurred, and whether the seller filed a flood insurance claim or received federal disaster assistance. Flooding questions are the ones buyers and their lawyers read first in a market that has seen major storms, so this block of the form draws the most scrutiny after closing. One practical note for listing agents: sit down with the seller and go through the form line by line before it is signed. Sellers often forget repairs made years earlier, and the OP-H asks about them directly, including previous roof repairs, past water penetration, and any work done without a permit. A seller who thinks a $600 leak repair from six years ago is irrelevant is the seller most likely to check the wrong box. Ten minutes of questions at the listing appointment costs far less than a post-closing dispute over what the seller knew.

Section 5.008(e) lists transfers where no seller's disclosure is required. The exemptions are largely about who is selling or how the transfer occurs, not the type of house, and they are a frequent exam trap. The notice is not required for transfers: - Under a court order or foreclosure sale - By a trustee in bankruptcy - To a mortgagee by a mortgagor, or to a deed of trust beneficiary by a trustor - By a lender that acquired the property through a power-of-sale foreclosure, a court-ordered foreclosure, or a deed in lieu - By a fiduciary administering a decedent's estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust - From one co-owner to another co-owner - To a spouse or to someone in the direct line of descent of a transferor - Between spouses under a divorce decree, legal separation, or property settlement agreement Vacant land is outside the statute for a different reason: Section 5.008 covers residential property with a dwelling unit, so an unimproved lot does not trigger it. Note that a bank-owned home sold after foreclosure is exempt, which is why REO listings usually come with no seller's disclosure at all. That does not mean the property is free of defects, only that the lender has no statutory duty to complete the form, so buyers need to rely on inspections.

Delivery timing changes the legal consequences. If the seller hands the buyer the notice on or before the effective date of the contract, the buyer signs with the disclosure in hand. If the seller delivers it after the contract is signed, Section 5.008(d) gives the buyer the right to terminate the contract for any reason within 7 days after receiving the notice. A buyer who terminates on time is entitled to a refund of the earnest money. Two details matter here. First, the 7-day clock runs from the buyer's receipt of the notice, not from the contract date, so agents should document exactly when and how the notice was delivered. Second, the termination right is tied to the timing of delivery. It is separate from the option period, which is negotiated between the parties and paid for with an option fee. The two rights are easy to confuse, so compare them in Texas Option Fee vs. Earnest Money. Practical advice from the listing side: deliver the OP-H before or with the offer package. A listing agent who waits until after acceptance hands the buyer a free walk-away right, and a deal that could have been locked in can fall apart over a defect the seller knew about all along.

The seller signs the OP-H, but the agents on both sides have duties around it. A listing agent must not counsel a seller to hide a known material defect, and a license holder who knows about a defect and fails to disclose it risks a TREC complaint and a civil claim. TREC's standards of conduct also require honesty with the parties, a theme taught in standards of conduct and in the property conditions and environmental chapter. The mistakes that lead to claims are quite consistent: 1. Checking "unknown" when the seller actually knows. A false "unknown" is treated like a misrepresentation, not a neutral answer. 2. Skipping a prior repair, such as foundation work or a past roof leak, because it was "fixed." Prior repairs are exactly what the form asks about. 3. Letting the seller's answers go stale. If a new defect is discovered before closing, the safe practice is to update the buyer promptly in writing, since a known, undisclosed problem is the root of most post-closing suits. 4. Treating the OP-H as a substitute for an inspection. It is a statement of the seller's knowledge, not a report on the house. My view as a study guide: the OP-H is the single most litigated document in a routine Texas sale, and the reason is almost never the form itself. It is a seller who answered from memory, or an agent who did not ask a follow-up question. If you build the habit of asking "what have you repaired, and when" for every section, you will avoid most of the exposure.

The Texas sales agent exam tests Section 5.008 as part of the state portion, and most questions come from a small set of facts. Expect to be asked which form is used (OP-H), what the statute requires the notice to say (the seller's belief and knowledge), and which transfers are exempt, especially foreclosure sales, estate administration, and transfers between co-owners or to family. The 7-day termination right after late delivery is another common question. A quick memory device: the notice covers condition, not price and not value, and it is the seller's statement rather than the agent's. The chapter on seller disclosure requirements walks through these rules, and sales contracts shows how the TREC forms reference the notice. Day One generates fresh, full-length practice exams that mirror the exact Texas TREC weighting, so you can test disclosure questions alongside every other state topic.