California Homebuyer Disclosure Checklist

Why disclosures matter more when you are self-represented

California sellers of 1-4 unit homes owe every buyer a Transfer Disclosure Statement under Civil Code 1102 and a Natural Hazard Disclosure under Civil Code 1103, plus a lead-based paint disclosure on pre-1978 homes and a Megan's Law notice in the contract. Delivery is due as soon as practicable before title transfers, and late delivery hands you a short written termination right.

A buyer's agent usually helps chase documents, flag odd details, and remind you what needs deeper review. Self-represented, you need a repeatable process instead, and it helps to know which documents are legal duties and which are just customs. This checklist is that process: every required form, the statute behind it, the deadline attached to it, and the questions worth asking before your money is committed. The self-represented buyer rights guide explains what the seller side owes you across the whole transaction.

One thing to internalize early: none of these duties evaporate because you skipped representation. California's disclosure obligations attach to the sale itself. If you're working the whole purchase solo, the full guide to buying without an agent walks the process end to end; this checklist covers the paperwork avalanche in the middle of it.

Core documents to request

Ask the listing agent for everything that exists, in one email, early. Put the request in writing so there's a record of what was available and when, and ask directly which documents will only arrive after acceptance, because that answer should shape the review windows you write into your offer. The full request list:

• Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS), the core statutory seller form, with contents fixed by Civil Code 1102.6.
• Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD), the six-zone hazard statement required by Civil Code 1103.
• Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ) when provided. It's common in California packets but separate from the statutory forms.
• Agent Visual Inspection Disclosure (AVID), the listing agent's own written inspection findings.
• Lead-based paint disclosure and the EPA pamphlet if the home was built before 1978.
• Preliminary title report from the title company, showing who holds title plus recorded liens and encumbrances.
• Any existing inspection reports: pest, home, roof, sewer lateral, chimney, pool, or foundation.
• HOA documents if the property is in an association: budgets, minutes, reserves, litigation notices, and rules.
• Mello-Roos and special assessment notices, permit history, and any local ordinance or retrofit information that applies.

The Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS)

The TDS is the anchor. Civil Code 1102 and the sections that follow make it mandatory on sales of 1-4 unit residential property, and Civil Code 1102.6 prescribes the form's contents word for word. Sellers don't get to improvise the format. The statute is the template, and the seller's job is to answer it honestly.

Delivery timing is statutory too. The Civil Code requires the TDS "as soon as practicable before transfer of title." The standard California purchase agreement, the C.A.R. RPA form, turns that into a concrete habit: its default has the seller delivering disclosures within 7 days after acceptance.

Now the load-bearing buyer right. If the TDS, or an amended TDS, is delivered after you signed the offer, Civil Code 1102.3 gives you the right to terminate: 3 days after delivery in person, 5 days after delivery by mail, or 5 days after electronic delivery, exercised by written notice to the seller or the seller's agent. That window is short and unforgiving, so note the delivery date and the delivery method the moment a late disclosure lands. How it arrived decides whether you have 3 days or 5.

And the duty is unconditional. You with an agent, you without an agent, seller with or without one: the TDS is owed either way.

The Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD)

The NHD statement, required by Civil Code 1103, answers one question six ways: does this property sit in a mapped hazard zone the state cares about?

A yes on any line isn't a verdict on the house. It's a research assignment: what does the zone require of owners, what would coverage cost, and what will a lender or insurer say. Chase those answers inside your review window, not after it closes. The six statutory zones:

• Special flood hazard area.
• Dam inundation area.
• Very high fire hazard severity zone.
• Wildland fire area.
• Earthquake fault zone.
• Seismic hazard zone.

Lead-based paint on pre-1978 homes

California statutes aren't the whole stack. If the home was built before 1978, federal law adds a lead-based paint layer under Section 1018 of Title X, the 1992 federal housing law, and it arrives with its own paperwork and its own clock.

If the home was built in 1978 or later, this section is a non-event. If it's older, fold the 10-day lead window into your inspection planning instead of treating it as a separate errand. The federal rule requires:

• The seller must disclose known lead-based paint and lead-based paint hazards in the home.
• You get the EPA's informational pamphlet on lead hazards.
• The contract must include a federal Lead Warning Statement.
• You're entitled to a 10-day window to inspect for lead, adjustable by mutual written agreement.
• Sellers and agents must keep records of compliance for 3 years.

Megan's Law and deaths on the property

Two disclosures live in the awkward corner of the packet, and both have precise rules worth knowing cold.

First, the Megan's Law notice. Civil Code 2079.10a requires every residential sale contract entered after April 1, 2006 to carry a statutory notice about California's sex offender database, citing Penal Code 290.46 and pointing you to www.meganslaw.ca.gov. Read it for what it is: the notice tells you where to look, not what you'll find. The looking is on you.

Second, deaths. Civil Code 1710.2 draws the lines. There's no duty to disclose a death on the property that occurred more than 3 years before your offer, and there's never a duty to disclose that an occupant had HIV or AIDS. But the statute gives no protection for an intentional misrepresentation in response to a direct inquiry.

Translation: the seller side doesn't have to volunteer an old death, but they can't lie to your face about it. If it matters to you, ask directly, in writing, and keep the answer.

The listing agent owes you a disclosure too

Here's the one self-represented buyers most often miss. The seller's agent has their own disclosure duty to you, and it doesn't depend on you having representation. Civil Code 2079 requires the listing agent to conduct a diligent visual inspection of 1-4 unit residential property and disclose what it turns up, in writing. Unrepresented buyers are exactly who this protects, so don't be shy about expecting it.

That written disclosure shows up in two places. Section III of the TDS is the agent's inspection section, and the longer stand-alone version is the AVID form, which the standard purchase agreement references by name. Ask for the AVID specifically. A filled-out one tells you what a licensed professional saw when they walked the property.

The listing agent also owes you honest and fair dealing, good faith, reasonable skill and care, and disclosure of known facts that materially affect the property's value or desirability, under Civil Code 2079.16. Their loyalty runs to the seller, and it should. But working for the seller has never meant free to hide the cracked slab.

Read the AVID against the TDS. When the seller checks no known issues and the agent's own inspection notes staining on a ceiling, that mismatch is exactly the thread to pull.

The preliminary title report: read it like a disclosure

Early in escrow, a preliminary title report shows up, and buyers routinely skim it. Don't. The title industry's own definition is precise: a prelim is "an offer to insure," not title insurance and not a complete history of the property. What it shows is the current recorded state of title: who owns the property, and the liens and encumbrances attached to it.

The purchase agreement gives this document its own clock. The RPA's default gives you 17 days after acceptance, or 5 days after delivery, whichever is later, to review the prelim, and 5 days to review any revised report that follows. The form also states you're entitled to an ALTA or CLTA Homeowner's Policy of title insurance where available.

Read it for liens that must clear before closing, recorded items that shape how you can use the property, and anything that contradicts what the seller's forms told you. A revised report landing late in escrow is not a formality. That 5-day window exists because revisions can change the deal.

California-specific items to check

Beyond the statutory forms, California layers on local and financial quirks. Check these before your review window closes:

• Special tax assessments, including Mello-Roos or other district obligations that change your real monthly cost.
• Local ordinances and conditions that could affect use, cost, safety, retrofit work, or neighborhood expectations.
• Structural and appliance information, especially older systems, replacements, warranties, and known defects.
• SPQ answers. The SPQ is separate from the statutory disclosure forms; read it next to the TDS and note where the stories differ.
• Pest reports if available, including Section 1 findings, further inspection recommendations, and repair estimates.
• HOA health when the property is in an association: budgets, reserves, minutes, litigation notices, and rules that change how you can use the home.

Read for patterns, not just scary words

One repair is a fact. Repeated water intrusion, roof patching, drainage work, and musty comments across multiple documents can be a pattern. So can insurance claims, permit gaps, foundation movement, pest findings, and unpermitted additions.

This is why the forms get read against each other. The TDS, the SPQ, the AVID, the pest report, and the prelim were written by different people with different incentives. Agreement across them is reassuring. Disagreement is information.

Make a defect log with three columns: what the document says, why it matters, and who can verify it. A row might read: SPQ mentions a roof repair, matters because patch history plus the ceiling staining in the AVID suggests an ongoing leak, verify with a roofer. That keeps your questions specific and easier for professionals to answer.

Timing matters

Two clocks run at once, and mixing them up is how buyers lose leverage.

Clock one belongs to the seller: the statutes require disclosure as soon as practicable before transfer of title, and the purchase agreement's default requires the seller to deliver the disclosure package, TDS, NHD, and SPQ included, within 7 days after acceptance. Clock two belongs to you: the RPA's document-review contingencies default to 17 days after acceptance, or 5 days after delivery, whichever is later, and the general investigation contingency defaults to 17 days.

That whichever-is-later phrasing is your friend. If the HOA documents show up on day 16, you aren't compressed into one panicked evening; you get 5 days from delivery. And if a required statutory disclosure like the TDS arrives after you signed, the Civil Code 1102.3 termination right stacks on top: 3 days in person, 5 by mail or electronic delivery, in writing.

Also worth internalizing: contingency removal in California is active. A deadline passing does not strip your protections. You remove contingencies in writing, and until you do, the seller's move is a Notice to Buyer to Perform, which itself must give you at least 2 days to act. Don't treat that as slack. Treat it as the reason there's never an excuse to sign a removal while unread disclosures sit in your inbox. The deadline calculator turns your acceptance date into each of these dates, weekend rolls included.

And if disclosures exist before offers are due, read them before writing whenever the process allows, especially if you're considering a short inspection period or a non-contingent offer. The offer guide covers how disclosure timing should shape your contingency terms.

Questions to ask before you write or remove contingencies

• Have all available seller disclosures and reports been provided, including the TDS, NHD, SPQ, and AVID?
• Are there known defects, insurance claims, repairs, leaks, pests, or permit issues?
• Are any disclosures expected only after acceptance, and do your review windows leave room for them?
• Do the reports recommend further evaluation by a licensed specialist?
• Do special taxes, local ordinances, HOA rules, or retrofit requirements change your monthly cost or closing obligations?
• Does the preliminary title report show liens or encumbrances nobody has explained?
• Does the inspection report identify major repairs or safety issues that should change your offer terms?
• If the home was built before 1978, does your timeline account for the 10-day federal lead window?
• Have you asked in writing about anything the forms leave ambiguous, including a death on the property if that matters to you?
• Do your offer terms preserve enough time to inspect, read, and respond?

How Ohvii helps

Ohvii gives disclosure risk a place to land. Upload a disclosure packet to your offer and Ohvii extracts the text automatically, so the assistant can summarize it in plain English, pull out key dates, and surface potential missing-information items when the document text supports it; the judgment calls stay with you and your professionals. You set your inspection and review contingency days yourself, with quiet nudges about the standard California defaults, and once you confirm ratification a contract dates timeline tracks deposit, inspection, appraisal, loan, and closing with alerts before each deadline. Ohvii won't make the judgment calls for you, and it isn't your inspector, attorney, or agent: when a document points at structural, legal, insurance, tax, or safety risk, that's a professional's call. Ohvii's job is to make sure you see it in time to act on it.

Questions buyers ask