What exactly is a home seller in California legally required to disclose?

California sellers are legally required to disclose known material facts, meaning specific information that affects a property's value or desirability to a reasonable buyer, on a document called the Transfer Disclosure Statement, commonly abbreviated TDS, required under Civil Code section 1102. Beyond the TDS itself, sellers must also generally provide a separate Natural Hazard Disclosure covering things like flood zones and fire hazard areas, and for the large majority of homes built before 1978, a specific lead-based paint disclosure addressing the health risks associated with older paint in pre-1978 construction.

The legal standard of "material" here is deliberately broad, covering essentially anything a reasonable buyer would genuinely want to know about before deciding whether to purchase the property, which extends well beyond just structural or safety-related issues to include things like neighborhood disputes, past insurance claims, or known issues with neighboring properties that could affect the home's desirability.