Alabama Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal

No Alabama statute requires a seller disclosure form for a home resale. For a used house, caveat emptor applies: the seller “ordinarily has no duty to disclose” defects, unless a hidden defect threatens health or safety, the buyer asks directly, or the parties are fiduciaries. Misstating a material fact that the buyer acts on remains fraud.

Caveat emptor in Alabama: the rule comes from case law

The Code of Alabama contains no general seller-disclosure section and no state disclosure form. A search of the full Code text on the Legislature’s ALISON site for “seller disclos,” “property disclosure,” “buyer beware” and “caveat emptor” returns no section. The rule is judge-made. In Nesbitt v. Frederick, 941 So. 2d 950 (Ala. 2006), the Alabama Supreme Court put it this way: “Alabama has abrogated the rule of caveat emptor in the sale of a new house; however, the rule still applies to the sale of a ‘used’ house. … Thus, a seller of used residential real estate ordinarily has no duty to disclose to the purchaser any defects in the property.”

So silence is the starting point, and a buyer who wants information has to ask for it or inspect. Printed seller-disclosure forms do circulate. The Alabama Association of REALTORS® tells its members that a seller who completes one is “voluntarily providing the property information to prospective buyers.” It is a private trade-association document, not a form set by the state.

When the seller of a used house has to speak

Nesbitt lists three exceptions, each drawn from earlier Alabama decisions:

• Fiduciary relationship. “If a fiduciary relationship exists between the buyer and the seller, then the seller has a duty to disclose known defects.” The statutory base is Ala. Code § 6-5-102: suppression of a material fact that a party must communicate is fraud, and the obligation “may arise from the confidential relations of the parties or from the particular circumstances of the case.”
• Health or safety. The duty applies where the seller “has knowledge of a material defect or condition that affects health or safety and the defect is not known to or readily observable by the buyer” (quoting Fennell Realty Co. v. Martin, 529 So. 2d 1003 (Ala. 1988)).
• A direct question. “If the buyer specifically inquires about a material condition concerning the property,” then “the seller has an obligation to disclose known defects.”

Misstatements, concealment, and the two-year clock

Alabama’s fraud statute reaches more than deliberate lies. Section 6-5-101 treats as legal fraud a misrepresentation of a material fact “made willfully to deceive, or recklessly without knowledge,” and also one “made by mistake and innocently,” so long as the buyer acted on it. Section 6-5-103 sets a narrower rule for keeping quiet: “Mere concealment of such a fact, unless done in such a manner as to deceive and mislead, will not support an action.”

Timing matters. Under § 6-2-3, a fraud claim “must not be considered as having accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the fact constituting the fraud, after which he must have two years within which to prosecute his action.” The Alabama Supreme Court reads that test objectively: the claim accrues when the buyer discovered the fraud “or when the plaintiff should have discovered the fraud in the exercise of reasonable care” (Foremost Ins. Co. v. Parham, 693 So. 2d 409 (Ala. 1997)).

What an “as is” contract does to a buyer’s question

An “as is” clause can defeat a claim built on the specific-question exception. Nesbitt left standing the Court’s earlier rule that “[w]here a purchaser’s direct inquiry would otherwise impose a duty of truthful disclosure, this Court has held that a purchaser’s fraud claim is precluded by language in a sales contract stating that the purchase is ‘as is.'” The Nesbitts had asked about angle-iron braces in the basement, but they had signed an “as is” contract saying they relied on no representation, and they had “ample opportunity to inspect.” The Court held they could not use the specific-inquiry exception.

For a buyer, the inspection period is where the protection lives. For a seller, the clause is no reason to answer a question falsely: Nesbitt turned on that contract’s wording and the buyers’ chance to inspect.

Licensees answer to Ala. Code § 34-27-36

Real estate licensees work under a statutory disclosure rule that sellers do not have. Section 34-27-36(b)(3) prohibits a licensee from “[m]aking a material misrepresentation or failing to disclose to a potential purchaser or lessee any latent structural defect or any other defect known to the licensee,” counting only defects “that would be a significant factor to a reasonable and prudent person in making a decision to purchase or lease.” It sits in the section on disciplinary action against licensees and binds the agent, not the owner. Under § 34-27-86(a), a seller is not liable for an agent’s misrepresentation unless the seller “knows or should have known” of it or the agent is repeating the seller’s own. Both sections were last amended by Act 2025-380.

Condominium units: the resale certificate in § 35-8A-409

For a condominium unit, the Alabama Uniform Condominium Act adds a document duty on resale (a sale that requires an offering statement is handled separately). If the buyer asks in writing within 14 days of signing the contract, the unit owner must furnish copies of the declaration, bylaws, rules and regulations, plus a certificate, before conveyance and in any event within 15 days of the request. The certificate covers assessments, the association’s budget and latest financial statements, judgments and pending suits, insurance, and any restrictions in the declaration on the amount an owner may receive on sale. The association has 10 days to give the owner that information. If the buyer made a timely request, the contract “remains voidable by the purchaser until the requested information has been provided and for five days thereafter or until conveyance, whichever first occurs.” Section 35-8A-401(b) excuses a gift, a court-ordered transfer, a disposition by a government, a foreclosure or deed in lieu, a transfer to a dealer who took over the offering-statement duty, a purchase the buyer can cancel at any time without penalty, and a time-share interest. Section 35-8A-102(a) applies the resale section to condominiums created before January 1, 1991, as well.

Houses built before 1978

For a house built before 1978, federal law requires a lead disclosure that caveat emptor does not touch. Under 40 CFR 745.107, the seller hands over the EPA lead pamphlet and discloses any known lead-based paint or hazards before the buyer is obligated. Section 745.110 gives the buyer 10 days to test, a period the parties may change by written agreement, and the buyer may waive it in writing. Sales at foreclosure are excluded, as is housing for the elderly or people with disabilities and 0-bedroom (studio-type) dwellings, unless a child younger than six lives there or is expected to.

More reading: Alabama housing guides, how to choose an Alabama home inspector, the seller’s guide and the buyer’s guide. Neighboring states: Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida.

Alabama buyers and sellers ask

The buyer’s agent sent written questions about the foundation. Do I have to answer honestly?

Yes. Once a buyer specifically asks about a material condition, the seller “has an obligation to disclose known defects,” and a false answer is a misrepresentation under § 6-5-101.

I’m buying a brand-new house from the builder. Does caveat emptor apply?

No. Nesbitt states that Alabama “has abrogated the rule of caveat emptor in the sale of a new house.” The used-house rule described above does not govern that sale.

We found old termite damage behind the drywall a year after closing. Is it too late?

Not by the calendar alone: the two years under § 6-2-3 run from when the buyer discovered the fraud or, using reasonable care, should have discovered it, so a claim a year after closing is inside that window either way. The harder question is duty. Nesbitt calls a duty to disclose “an essential element” of a suppression claim, so silence counts only if one of the three exceptions applied.

Does a Huntsville seller have to disclose that the house flooded?

Not on a state form, because none exists. Flooding becomes a disclosure question under the case law if the buyer asks, or if the condition affects health or safety and is not readily observable.