Seller disclosure
Seller disclosure, in Virginia, refers to the residential property disclosure statement the owner of residential property of one to four dwelling units furnishes the purchaser. The Real Estate Board publishes the form, and it lists matters the owner makes no representations about, for the buyer to beware of, rather than the defects the owner knows of.
A buyer-beware statement, not a questionnaire about defects
The words seller disclosure suggest a form where the owner writes down everything wrong with the house. Virginia's version works the other way. Va. Code 55.1-703 says the owner furnishes the statement "for the buyer to beware of certain matters that may affect the buyer's decision to purchase such real property."
The statement itself is provided by the Real Estate Board on its website, and its items are phrased as things the owner is not promising. The first one sets the tone. The owner makes no representations or warranties about the condition of the property or its improvements, or about recorded covenants and restrictions or conveyances of mineral rights, and purchasers are advised to exercise whatever due diligence a particular purchaser deems necessary, under the terms of the purchase contract but in any event before settlement.
That item names three examples of that due diligence:
- a home inspection
- a mold assessment by a business that follows U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines
- a residential building energy analysis
What a seller's licensee knows travels under a separate rule: a written disclosure duty in the licensing statute, Va. Code 54.1-2131, not a line on the statement. Each item on the statement, with its deadlines and a buyer's remedies, is walked through in Virginia's seller disclosure, explained.
Homes of one to four dwelling units, with or without an agent
The Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act covers transfers of residential real property of not less than one nor more than four dwelling units. It reaches a sale, an exchange, an installment land sales contract and a lease with option to buy, whether or not a licensed broker or salesperson is part of the deal.
Because the Act needs at least one dwelling unit, a tract with no house on it sits outside the statement altogether. What a land seller still owes a buyer is a separate question, taken up in whether you have to disclose problems with land you sell.
A manufactured home on its owner's land can raise the scope question too. Once the owner files an affidavit of affixation with the circuit court where the land lies, Virginia law deems the home real estate, conveyed as real estate from then on unless it is later severed and retitled. Whether the Act reaches the sale of a particular home is an attorney's question; how the conversion plays out in a sale is covered in selling a manufactured home together with its land.
Due before the contract is ratified, current on the day it is delivered
Timing is where the statement touches the contract. The owner must provide notification of the required disclosures before ratification, which the Code defines as "the full execution of a real estate purchase contract by all parties." The disclosures must be current as of the date of delivery.
What counts as notification, and the limited right to terminate that follows when the disclosures arrive after ratification instead, are set out in Va. Code 55.1-709.
DPOR's page for the statement heads it as effective July 1, 2026. On DPOR's disclosure forms page, the acknowledgement form sits with other items under the heading "Selling Homeowners MUST complete". That capitalized MUST is the department's page wording; the statute's own test is notification, by acknowledgement or by delivery.
Lead-based paint on housing built before 1978 runs on a separate federal track with its own timing, set out in lead paint disclosure on older homes.
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Questions about this term
Does Virginia's seller disclosure statement say whether a house has a septic system?
No. Va. Code 55.1-703 B 8 says the owner makes no representations about the presence of any wastewater system on the property, including its type or size or the maintenance responsibilities that go with it, and it advises purchasers to exercise whatever due diligence they deem necessary under the purchase contract's terms, but in any event before settlement. One septic item works differently: where a system was granted a waiver under Va. Code 32.1-164.1:1 B, the owner must deliver a separate written disclosure before a purchase contract is accepted.
Is lead-based paint part of Virginia's seller disclosure statement?
No. Lead-based paint disclosure comes from a separate federal rule that reaches target housing, which is housing built before 1978 with listed exceptions. The Virginia statement's lead item, at Va. Code 55.1-703 B 15, concerns plumbing instead: the owner makes no representations about whether the property contains pipe, fittings, fixtures, solder or flux that does not meet the federal Safe Drinking Water Act definition of lead free.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 55.1-703, Required disclosures for buyer to beware; buyer to exercise necessary due diligence Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-701, Applicability Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-702, Exemptions Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-700, Definitions (notification, ratification) Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 55.1-709, Time for disclosure; termination of contract Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 54.1-2131, Licensees engaged by sellers Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 46.2-653.1, Conversion of manufactured home to real property Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 32.1-164.1:1, Validity of certain septic tank permits Code of Virginia
- 40 CFR 745.103, Definitions (target housing) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Residential Property Disclosures Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- Disclosure Forms Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation