Oklahoma Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal
Yes. Under the Residential Property Condition Disclosure Act (60 O.S. §§ 831–839), a covered seller of a one- or two-unit home must give the buyer an OREC disclosure or disclaimer statement before accepting an offer. A buyer who sues gets actual damages only, and must file within two years of the transfer.
The Act dates from 1995. Its text on the Oklahoma State Courts Network shows the last amendments in 2003 (§§ 833 and 837) and 2007 (§ 836), and the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission reprinted the same wording in its 2025 booklet on the Act.
Which Oklahoma sales the Act reaches
Two definitions in § 832 set the limits. “Property” is “residential real property improved with not less than one nor more than two dwelling units,” so a triplex or fourplex falls outside it. And “seller” covers only an owner who is either “represented by a real estate licensee” or, if selling without one, receives “a written request from the purchaser” for a statement. An owner selling by himself owes nothing under the Act until the buyer asks in writing.
Section 838 then removes nine kinds of transfer:
- transfers under a court order, “including, but not limited to,” writs of execution, eminent domain and partition;
- transfers to a mortgagee from a defaulting owner, foreclosure and power-of-sale sales, and resales by a mortgagee that took the home at such a sale or by deed in lieu of foreclosure;
- transfers by a fiduciary “who is not an owner occupant” while administering an estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust;
- one co-owner to another;
- transfers to a spouse or to someone “in the lineal line of consanguinity” of one of the owners, such as a child or grandchild;
- transfers between spouses under a divorce or legal-separation decree or a property settlement tied to one;
- mergers and parent–subsidiary transfers;
- transfers to or from a government entity;
- “a newly constructed, previously unoccupied dwelling.”
Note the condition on item 3: it covers only a fiduciary “who is not an owner occupant of the subject property.” A personal representative, guardian, conservator or trustee who is also an owner living in the home gets no item-3 exemption.
Disclosure statement or disclaimer: the § 833 choice
The seller hands over one of two OREC forms. The disclaimer (Appendix B) is open only to a seller who “has never occupied the property and makes no disclosures concerning the condition of the property” and who “has no actual knowledge of any defect.” Everyone else uses the disclosure statement (Appendix A).
The statute lists what the disclosure statement must ask about: water and sewer systems (including “flood zone status”), structural systems, plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning, wood-destroying organisms, “major fire or tornado damage,” land use, hazardous or regulated materials, “prior manufacturing of methamphetamine,” and “any other defects known to the seller.” The current Appendix A, revision 01-01-2026, turns that into five pages: a working-order grid for appliances and systems, then 50 numbered questions. Among them are FEMA and municipal flood zones, a nearby “regulated flood control reservoir (dam),” insurance payouts for damage that “were not repaired,” radon, mold treatment, surface leases “including but not limited to agricultural, commercial or oil and gas,” whether the home is in a fire district “which requires payment,” and whether it is in a private utility district, with its initial and annual membership fees.
Every answer rests on actual knowledge. A “defect” is a problem “that would have a materially adverse effect on the monetary value of the property, or that would impair the health or safety of future occupants,” and a disclosure “is not a warranty, implied or express, of any kind” (§ 832). The signed form goes stale: its date “may not be more than one hundred eighty (180) days prior to” the buyer’s receipt (§ 833(C)).
Delivery before acceptance, and what a late form triggers
Section 834(A): the seller “should deliver” the statement “as soon as practicable, but in any event it shall be delivered before acceptance of an offer to purchase.” If an offer comes in first, the offer “shall be accepted only after the purchaser has acknowledged receipt of the disclaimer statement or disclosure statement and confirmed the offer to purchase” (§ 834(B)), and that confirmation must be in writing, signed and dated (§ 834(D)). Until that written confirmation arrives, the seller may not accept.
When a seller learns of a defect after handing over either statement, § 834(C) requires a prompt new or amended disclosure, with the same acknowledge-and-confirm step if an offer is already on the table.
Liability under § 835 and § 837
A seller “shall not be liable” for a defect disclosed on the statement or an amendment delivered before acceptance, nor for an error that “was not within the actual knowledge of the seller,” nor for information “provided by public agencies” that the seller “reasonably believed … to be correct.” An approximation is also covered, but only if accurate information “was unknown to the seller at the time the disclosure was made,” the approximation “was clearly identified as such and was reasonable and based on the best information available to the seller,” and it “was not used to circumvent the disclosure requirements of this act” (§ 835(B)). Information that a public agency delivers “shall satisfy the requirements of this act” for the disclosures it covers (§ 835(C)).
Section 837 lets the buyer sue in three situations only: no statement, or no required amendment, was delivered before acceptance; the seller left out a defect “actually known to the seller” before acceptance of the offer; or the licensee failed to disclose a defect the licensee actually knew before acceptance and that was not on the statement or an amendment. The “sole and exclusive civil remedy” is actual damages, “including the cost of repairing the defect,” and it “shall not include the remedy of exemplary damages.” Three more rules follow in the same section:
- suit must be “commenced within two (2) years after the date of transfer” (§ 837(C));
- “the prevailing party shall be allowed court costs and a reasonable attorney fee,” whichever side that is (§ 837(D));
- the sale “may not be invalidated solely because of the failure of any person to comply with this act” (§ 837(E)).
Subsection F adds that the Act “supplants and abrogates all common law liability, rights, duties, obligations and remedies” on disclosure of defects. The Oklahoma Supreme Court applied that language in White v. Lim, 2009 OK 79, 224 P.3d 679, holding that the Act is “the exclusive vehicle for recovery where misinformation is communicated in the sale of residential property.”
Agents, psychologically impacted homes and offenders
Under § 836 the licensee must get the statement from the seller and put it in front of buyers before acceptance, and must disclose defects the licensee actually knows that the seller left off; OREC publishes a separate “Licensee’s Disclosure” form for that. The licensee has “no duty” to inspect or to verify the seller’s answers. Those are licensee duties, enforced by the Commission.
59 O.S. § 858-513 says a suicide, homicide or other felony on the property, or an occupant’s HIV or a similar disease “highly unlikely to be transmitted through the occupancy of a dwelling place,” “is not a material fact that must be disclosed.” If a buyer making a bona fide offer tells the seller’s agent in writing that this matters to them, the agent must ask the owner and report back with the owner’s consent, subject to applicable privacy laws, or report that the owner refused. Section 858-514 says the offender registration acts impose no disclosure duty on licensees.
Lead paint: the federal layer
For a home built before 1978, EPA’s rule at 40 CFR part 745, subpart F applies on top of the state form. The seller hands over the EPA pamphlet, discloses known lead-based paint and available reports, and gives the buyer “a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time)” to test, which the buyer may waive in writing (§ 745.110). Foreclosure sales are excluded (§ 745.101), and housing for the elderly or disabled and 0-bedroom units are outside “target housing” unless a child under 6 lives there or is expected to.
Oklahoma seller and buyer questions
I’m selling my house myself. Do I have to fill out the form?
Only if the buyer asks in writing. Section 832 defines a covered seller as one represented by a licensee or one who receives “a written request from the purchaser” for a statement. Keep a blank OREC form ready.
I inherited my parent’s house and never lived in it. Which form do I use?
If you are selling as personal representative or trustee and did not live there, § 838 exempts the sale entirely. If the house is already in your name, the disclaimer is available only when you have never occupied it and know of no defect. Know about a leaky roof? Then you complete the full disclosure statement.
The buyer found foundation damage a year after closing. What can they recover?
Actual damages, including repair cost, if the seller actually knew and left it off the form (§ 837). No exemplary damages, and no undoing the sale over the Act alone. The claim must be filed within two years of the transfer, and the losing side pays the winner’s reasonable attorney fee.
Does an “as is” contract let me skip the statement?
No. An as-is clause is not on the § 838 list of exempt transfers, so a covered seller still delivers the statement before accepting the offer. Our as-is selling guide covers the repair side.