California seller disclosures, and what they require of you

What disclosures does a California seller have to give?

A San Diego County seller of one to four residential units must deliver a Transfer Disclosure Statement under Civil Code §1102, a Natural Hazard Disclosure under §1103, a Mello-Roos and assessment-district notice under §1102.6b, the statutory Megan's Law notice under §2079.10a, and — for any home built before 1978 — the federal lead-based paint disclosure and pamphlet.

Several more attach depending on the property: deaths on the property within the past three years under §1710.2, water-conserving plumbing fixture compliance, smoke and carbon monoxide alarm compliance, and a supplemental property tax notice. Homes in a designated fire zone carry their own set, covered further down.

The Transfer Disclosure Statement is the center of it. You complete it yourself, in good faith, covering what you actually know: foundation, roof, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, drainage, additions and their permits, easements and shared driveways, soil movement, neighborhood noise, and litigation affecting the property.

Does selling by owner reduce what I have to disclose?

Disclosure duties in San Diego County belong to the seller, not to the agent, so selling by owner changes nothing about what must be disclosed. The Transfer Disclosure Statement is the seller's own statement in every transaction; an agent adds a separate inspection and their own visual disclosure rather than taking the seller's place.

What selling by owner removes is the person whose job includes noticing the omission — the unpermitted patio cover, the roof repair four years ago, the fact that the property sits in a hazard zone the seller has never had reason to look up. The duty is unchanged and the safety net is gone, which is the opposite of the intuition most sellers start with.

What happens if disclosures reach the buyer late?

Delivering a disclosure to a San Diego County buyer after they have made their offer hands them a fresh right to walk away: Civil Code §1102.3 gives the buyer three days from personal delivery, or five days from delivery by mail or electronic record, to terminate in writing. A material amendment to a disclosure already given restarts the same clock.

That is the practical reason to assemble the package before the home is listed rather than while an offer is pending. A seller who discovers a required disclosure late in escrow does not merely inconvenience the buyer — they reopen the buyer's exit at exactly the point where the seller has the least leverage and has often already committed to their next purchase.

Failing to deliver at all does not void the sale, but it leaves the seller exposed to the buyer's actual damages, and that exposure outlives the closing.

What extra disclosures apply in San Diego County fire zones?

A San Diego County home in a High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone carries defensible-space obligations under Civil Code §1102.19, added by AB 38 and in force since 1 July 2021: the seller must give the buyer documentation of compliance, or the two may agree in writing that the buyer obtains it within a year of closing.

Since 1 July 2025 there is more. Sellers must also provide information on low-cost fire-resistant retrofits, drawn from the State Fire Marshal's published list, and state which of those retrofits were done during their ownership.

This is not a marginal rule in this county. Large parts of Ramona, Valley Center and Fallbrook sit inside these zones, which is also why insurance is a live question there — we cover that in what the FAIR Plan actually covers.

Do I have to disclose Mello-Roos when I sell?

A San Diego County seller whose property sits in a community facilities district must make a good-faith effort to obtain the district's disclosure notice and give it to the buyer, under Civil Code §1102.6b. The notice comes from the levying agency, so the request has to go out early enough for the agency to answer.

Districts are easy to miss because the special tax appears on the property tax bill rather than in the title report, and a long-term owner may simply have stopped noticing the line. Our district lookup lists the active districts by community from the County Auditor's own roll, which is the fastest way to find out whether your parcel is in one before a buyer's agent finds out for you. Sellers considering clearing the balance first should read whether paying off Mello-Roos early is worth it, because usually it is not.

Who is exempt from the Transfer Disclosure Statement?

Some San Diego County transfers are exempt from the Transfer Disclosure Statement under Civil Code §1102.2 — among them transfers by court order, sales through probate, many transfers by a trustee who has never occupied the property, foreclosure sales and transfers between co-owners or spouses.

Exemption is narrower than it sounds, and it is routinely overread. It removes the TDS form; it does not remove the Natural Hazard Disclosure, the federal lead-paint disclosure, or the underlying duty to disclose known material facts that affect value. A trustee selling an inherited home who concludes they need disclose nothing has usually misread which of those the exemption reaches.

Inherited property carries a separate question worth settling early, which is what happens to the assessed value — see our page on Prop 19 and inherited San Diego property.