The Transfer Disclosure Statement for As-Is Sellers

The Transfer Disclosure Statement, or TDS, is the California form on which a seller tells the buyer what the seller knows about the house's condition, and selling as-is does not excuse you from it. Civil Code section 1102.1 states that delivery of the statement may not be waived in an as-is sale. You complete the seller's sections from your own knowledge, deliver the form as soon as practicable before title transfers, and if it arrives after the buyer's offer, the buyer gets a short statutory window to cancel. The form is the same whether the buyer is a family with a loan or a cash investor.

This article explains who owes a TDS, what the form asks, how the houses of each Southern California era tend to read on it, and what the statute says about mistakes. It describes the law; it is not legal advice, and a real estate attorney is the right person for questions about your own sale.

Who has to give a Transfer Disclosure Statement?

Civil Code section 1102 applies the disclosure article to sales and similar transfers of single-family residential property, and subdivision (c) makes any waiver of its requirements void as against public policy. Section 1102.2 then lists the transfers it does not cover. In plain terms they include:

• sales ordered by a court, including sales ordered by a probate court in administering an estate, and foreclosure sales;
• sales by a fiduciary in the course of administering a trust, guardianship, conservatorship or decedent's estate, with one exception: the exemption does not apply when the trustee is a natural person who is trustee of a revocable trust and is a former owner of the property or lived in it within the preceding year;
• transfers from one co-owner to another, to a spouse or to a blood relative, and between spouses under a divorce judgment or settlement;
• transfers to or from a government entity.

The trust exception catches people. A son who is successor trustee of his late mother's revocable trust and has lived in the house may not be exempt at all. If an estate or trust is selling, ask the attorney handling it which category you are in; our pages on trust sales and probate sales describe how those files usually run.

Does "as-is" let me skip the TDS?

No. The Legislature wrote that answer into section 1102.1, citing the 1993 appellate decision in Loughrin v. Superior Court. An as-is clause changes who pays for repairs. It does not change the duty to disclose what you know, and section 1102.8 adds that the form's list of items does not limit any other duty to disclose. That is the core of what selling as-is means in Southern California: no repairs, full disclosure.

What does the TDS ask?

The form itself is set out in Civil Code section 1102.6. In summary, it runs in five parts:

1. Section I, coordination. Lists other disclosures and reports that are part of the sale, such as inspection reports or the natural hazard disclosure.
2. Section II, the seller's information. The heart of the form. It asks which items and systems the house has, whether you are aware of significant defects in components such as the roof, foundation, walls, electrical and plumbing, and whether you are aware of specific conditions: room additions or alterations made without permits, work not in compliance with building codes, settling or soil problems, flooding or drainage problems, major damage from fire, earthquake or flood, homeowners association obligations, notices of abatement or citations, and lawsuits affecting the property.
3. Section III, the seller's agent's inspection. Completed only when the seller has an agent (Civil Code section 1102.3).
4. Section IV, the buyer's agent's inspection. Completed when the buyer has an agent.
5. Section V, acknowledgments. Both sides sign, and the form tells them they may wish to get professional advice and inspections.

Two certifications usually travel with it. Health and Safety Code section 13113.8 requires the seller of a single-family dwelling to deliver a written statement that the house has an operable smoke alarm, and section 19211 requires the seller to certify that the water heater is braced, anchored or strapped; that certification may be made on the TDS itself. Houses in community facilities districts also get a separate special tax notice under Civil Code section 1102.6b.

How each era of house reads on the TDS

The questions are the same for every house, but the answers cluster by when the house was built. The condition items in the pillar's era catalogue map to these TDS lines:

Era and exampleTDS lines most likely to need a "yes" or an explanationSeparate notice that often comes with it

Pre-war houses in Pomona's Wilton Heights or Lincoln Park districts

Defects in electrical and plumbing where original wiring or galvanized pipe is known; alterations without permits for porches turned into rooms

Earthquake safety guide for houses built before 1960

Post-war tracts, such as south Pomona below Holt Avenue

Room additions or conversions without permits, most often the garage; roof and panel defects if known

Earthquake safety guide for houses built before 1960

1960s to 1980s planned communities, such as Phillips Ranch or Victoria

Association, covenants and common areas; drainage or slope issues on hillside lots

Association documents

Master-planned tracts, such as Etiwanda or the hillside communities of Chino Hills

Association, covenants and common areas

Special tax notice under section 1102.6b

The earthquake guide comes from Government Code section 8897.1, which applies to dwellings of one to four units of conventional light-frame construction built before January 1, 1960. Converted garages are the single most common permit question in the post-war tracts; converted garages and unpermitted square footage in the Inland Empire covers how that space is priced.

When must the TDS be delivered, and can the buyer cancel?

Civil Code section 1102.3 says the seller delivers the completed statement as soon as practicable before transfer of title. If a disclosure, or a material amendment to one, is delivered after the buyer's offer has been made or accepted, the buyer may terminate by written notice within three days after delivery in person, or five days after delivery by mail or by electronic record where the parties agreed to deal electronically. The period starts when Sections I and II, and Section III if the seller has an agent, are completed and delivered.

The practical point for an as-is seller: delivering the TDS before you accept an offer means a buyer is not handed a late cancellation window in the middle of escrow.

What if I do not know the answer, or get one wrong?

The statute ties the seller's duty to knowledge. Section 1102.4 says a seller is not liable for an error or omission that was not within the seller's personal knowledge, was based on information timely provided by a public agency or a licensed expert, and was obtained and passed on with ordinary care. Section 1102.13 says a sale is not invalidated just because someone failed to comply, but a person who willfully or negligently violates the article is liable for the buyer's actual damages.

Heirs and trustees who never lived in the house often know very little, and the form allows for that. What it does not allow is leaving out what you do know. If you are unsure how to answer a line, ask your attorney before you sign, not after.

Does selling to a cash buyer change the TDS?

The form does not change. What changes is what happens to the answers. On a financed sale, the items you disclose, plus whatever the buyer's inspector finds, often come back as repair requests or a lower price during escrow. On a cash sale, the walkthrough findings are written as line-item deductions before you sign, so you can see what each disclosed item cost. Our walkthrough notes are not your disclosure; the TDS is yours, and it reflects what you know.

If your TDS is short, the house shows well and the systems are sound, listing it will often net more than a cash offer, and the written recommendation will say so. You can see how both numbers are built on the cash offer vs. listing page.

What this looks like in practice

These are the kinds of files that come in, described without names or figures.

• An Alta Loma house in Rancho Cucamonga held in a family trust, where the successor trustee also lives in the house and needs counsel to say whether the fiduciary exemption applies.
• A Wilton Heights Victorian in Pomona inherited by relatives who never lived there, who complete the TDS from limited knowledge and attach the walkthrough photos as information, not as their disclosure.
• A planned-community house in Chino Hills where the association documents and the special tax notice take more of the seller's time than the TDS does.

The as-is sales hub has the rest of the series, including natural hazard disclosures and as-is sales and what you handle in an as-is sale without a Realtor.

Next step

If you would rather see what your disclosed items are worth before deciding how to sell, start at selling your house as-is or call (909) 498-3977. You get an as-is cash offer and an open-market read, a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal, each with the comps, deductions and net. There is no cost and no obligation to get the two numbers and the written report.

Sources

• California Civil Code section 1102 (application; waiver void): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.1 (no waiver in an as-is sale; Loughrin v. Superior Court): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.2 (exempt transfers): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.3 (delivery and termination window): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.4 (liability limited to personal knowledge): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.6 (the disclosure form; full form text in Statutes of 2020, chapter 370): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.6b (special tax notice): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.8 (other disclosure duties): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Civil Code section 1102.13 (actual damages): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Health and Safety Code section 13113.8 (smoke alarm statement): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Health and Safety Code section 19211 (water heater bracing certification): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)
• California Government Code section 8897.1 (earthquake guide for pre-1960 dwellings): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (accessed October 31, 2026)

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm. Cash offers come from independent buyers and investors who buy for their own account and may resell for profit; a cash offer is generally below what the open market would bring. Any value shown is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.