Collaborative Post | Buying a home means you enter into a plethora of legal responsibilities, and most buyers do not look at their responsibilities too closely until something goes wrong. Every state has seller disclosure laws, meant to give buyers the information needed to make a more informed choice.
What sellers must reveal depends on the location of the home, and the exact wording can vary widely. Then, when a defect shows up only after closing, what a buyer can do does not just involve one simple action.
Inspection contingencies remain common in home purchases. Zillow’s 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report found that 65% of buyers said their final offer was contingent on the property passing a home inspection.
Defects are not always obvious during a home purchase. Some problems, such as termite damage, may remain hidden until after closing. That is why it is important to know how to spot termite damage so you can learn to fix it effectively.
What Sellers Are Required to Disclose
Most states require sellers to fill out a disclosure form that identifies known material defects about the property. A material defect is a condition that changes the property’s worth, or it steers the buyer away from purchasing the home in the first place.
Structural problems, water intrusion, roof damage, mold, plumbing and electrical failures, foundation issues, and earlier fire or flood damage usually land within the range of what needs to be disclosed. Title X and EPA/HUD’s lead-based paint disclosure rule require lead-based paint to be disclosed in homes built before 1978, and they also provide buyers with a ten-day inspection window before the buyer gets locked into an agreement.
“Known” is the operative word here. Sellers generally do not have to disclose problems they genuinely did not know about. The real question in most non-disclosure cases is not just whether a defect existed but whether the seller was aware of it.
In this situation, it is important to have evidence that will support your case. This may be records of past repairs or emails or texts with contractors. Even statements from neighbors or tradespeople who worked on the property can support your case.
What Is Not Required to Be Disclosed
Disclosure requirements have well-established limits. Most states exclude latent defects that require expert knowledge to identify. A seller is not generally required to disclose a condition they could not have known about without specialized inspection.
Patent defects, things a buyer can see during a fair walkthrough, are usually left out because buyers are expected to rely on their own eyes and instincts. Therefore, if someone goes through the inspection period and sees a cracked foundation wall just in plain view, they generally cannot later say they were not told about the defect. However, some states do still require sellers to disclose patent defects.
Psychological stigmas do vary by state, and in some places there are actual rules that say you must disclose if a home was the setting for a death or a violent crime, but only within a set timeframe. A real estate attorney in the relevant state can identify what the jurisdiction requires and what it excludes.
Inspection Rights and the Closing Window
The inspection contingency is the buyer’s primary protection. A standard purchase agreement usually gives the buyer a set timeframe, often around ten to fourteen days, to bring in licensed inspectors, take a close look at the property, and then either talk through repairs and credits or back out of the deal entirely. However, if the buyer waives the inspection contingency, or if they do not conduct an inspection in the allotted time, the options remaining drastically reduce once closing happens and later defects show up.
Termites, Pests and the Disclosure Gap
Termite and other pest damage can become a significant post-closing dispute. Standard homeowners insurance almost never covers it, since insurers treat termite damage as a maintenance issue rather than a sudden, accidental loss.
The National Pest Management Association puts the annual cost of termite damage across the U.S. at roughly $6.8 billion. If a seller knew about a previous infestation, earlier treatment, or continuing damage, applicable disclosure laws may require that information to be provided to the buyer. If a buyer does not obtain a separate inspection for wood-destroying pests during the contingency period, hidden damage may not be discovered until renovations begin.
These are the warning signs that a buyer’s inspector should be looking for during the contingency period and that a post-closing expert may use to establish when the damage first appeared and whether the seller knew about it.
Remedies When the Seller Did Not Disclose
A buyer who notices a material defect after closing and can show that the seller knew about it and concealed it or did not disclose it has a real legal path. The exact legal theories shift a bit from state to state, but they usually line up with fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and various statutory violations tied to disclosure. The awarded damages might cover the cost to fix the home, the reduced value or diminished worth of the property, and in a scenario involving intentional fraud, it could even include punitive damages.
For buyers dealing with a potential nondisclosure or fraud dispute, Bozeman real estate lawyer Albert Jones and the firm handle property litigation involving sales conflicts such as non-disclosure and fraud, as well as other disputes involving boundaries, contracts, easements, adverse possession, eminent domain, and title issues.
The challenge in these cases is evidence. Buyers need to establish that the condition existed and was known to the seller before closing. A licensed expert who can testify that the damage they observed is years old is more credible than the seller’s claim of ignorance. Documentation of prior treatments or repairs, contractor records, utility bills showing remediation costs, and home inspector reports from previous sale attempts are all discoverable and can establish the seller’s knowledge.
Claims based on non-disclosure also have statutes of limitations that are shorter than many buyers expect. A buyer who suspects concealment is best served by getting a legal evaluation of the claim and preserving evidence before the defect is repaired and the documentation is lost.
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