Texas Property Code 5.008(c) and the seller's disclosure
Selling at The Royalton: What Texas Law Says About Disclosing a Death
Updated October 2026
Do I have to disclose a death in my condo at The Royalton when I sell it in Texas?
As of October 2026, the Texas Real Estate Research Center says Texas law excuses disclosing natural, suicide and unrelated accidental deaths, but not a known murder or condition-caused death.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, The Royalton
Source: Texas Real Estate Research Center article "Death & Disclosure" by Kerri Lewis, former TREC general counsel, August 2020.
What does Texas law say about disclosing a death when you sell?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center covers this in a 2020 article by Kerri Lewis, a former TREC general counsel. Her reading of Property Code 5.008(c) starts with what a seller may leave out. A seller or seller's agent owes no disclosure of a death from natural causes, a suicide, or an accident unrelated to the property's condition.
The same Texas Real Estate Research Center article names deaths that must be disclosed. A murder that occurred in the home must be disclosed if the seller knows of it. So must a death caused by the property's condition, even an accidental one, and even where the condition was later remedied.
A Texas Real Estate Research Center article by research attorney Rusty Adams reads subsection (c) the same way. It says the subsection makes clear that certain stigmatizing information need not be disclosed. Accidental deaths are excused unless the accident was related to the condition of the property.
Under Texas law, a seller or seller’s agent has no duty to disclose a death from natural causes, suicide, or an accident unrelated to the property’s condition (Texas Property Code 5008[c]).
Does the seller's disclosure notice reach a condo unit at The Royalton?
The Royalton is a 33-story tower holding 253 condominium homes at 3333 Allen Parkway. The disclosure rules are written around single family residences and dwelling units, so the building's form of ownership matters here.
TREC's Seller's Disclosure Notice page describes the form as required by sellers of previously occupied single family residences. The same page says the form carries the information Section 5.008 requires about material facts and the property's physical condition.
The Texas Real Estate Research Center describes Section 5.008 as reaching a seller of residential real property of not more than one dwelling unit. Its exceptions include residential property with more than one dwelling unit.
Whether a single unit in a 253-home tower sits inside or outside that wording is a question for your attorney. A sale here still runs on the condominium resale contract, with the association's resale certificate alongside it.
What changes when heirs or an estate sell a Royalton unit?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center lists transfer by descent and distribution among the exceptions to Section 5.008. Which step in an estate's sale fits that exception is a question for the estate's attorney.
An exception removes a form. It leaves in place the duty to give a buyer truthful answers, and the association's documents still move on their usual schedule.
Paige Martin specializes in probate and estate sales, inherited property with several heirs, and a death that happened in a property, and what a seller must disclose. She has 43 closings at The Royalton since 2004, most recently July 2026.
If several heirs share a Royalton unit, send the unit number and what you know about the death. You will learn which document each answer belongs in, and which questions go to your attorney.
Questions & answers
The Royalton questions, answered
What if a buyer asks me directly whether anyone died in my Royalton unit?
Give a truthful answer. The Texas Real Estate Research Center article by Kerri Lewis takes up the buyer who asks directly. Its answer is short: the seller must disclose it, or he will be misrepresenting information that the buyer considers material. If you know how a death in the unit happened, say so when a buyer asks.
Where several heirs own the unit, settle before listing which of you will answer buyers' questions. Gather what each heir knows first. One consistent account, limited to what is actually known, keeps the estate from giving two versions of the same event. Whether an estate's sale fits an exception to Section 5.008, such as transfer by descent and distribution, is a question for the estate's attorney. A direct question from a buyer still calls for a true reply. Have the estate's attorney review the exact wording of any written answer before it goes out.
Which version of the Texas seller's disclosure notice goes with a contract signed now?
TREC's Seller's Disclosure Notice, form 55-1, is the version used with a contract for the sale of real property entered into on or after September 1, 2023. TREC describes it as required of sellers of previously occupied single family residences. It carries the Section 5.008 information on material facts and the property's physical condition.
A Royalton sale runs on TREC's Residential Condominium Contract (Resale), and the association's resale certificate travels with it. Whether form 55-1 belongs in the sale of one unit in a 253-home tower turns on that single family wording. Ask your attorney before you list. TREC states that license holders are required to use its forms, so an agent handling your sale works from the current promulgated version.
If one heir buys the Royalton unit from the others, does the seller's disclosure notice apply?
Possibly not. A Texas Real Estate Research Center article lists transfers between co-owners and spouses among the exceptions to Section 5.008, alongside transfer by descent and distribution. Whether a buyout between heirs fits that exception depends on how title stands when the buyout closes. The estate's attorney is the one to answer that question.
A buyout among heirs still needs a price every heir can follow. At The Royalton that price comes from sold homes of the same floor plan, on a similar floor, facing the same way. With 27 plans in the building, that set is usually short enough to list unit by unit.
My parent died in the condo. What should I tell my listing agent?
Tell the agent what you know about how and where the death happened, and whether anything about the unit's condition played a part. Those facts decide which side of the Texas rule the sale falls on. A natural death is treated differently from a known murder, or from a death that a condition in the property caused.
Where several heirs own the unit, collect what each of them knows before the listing appointment. That way the estate gives buyers one account. Note which facts are firsthand and which are secondhand, because a buyer may ask about either. A death that happened in a property, and what a seller must disclose, is one of the situations Paige Martin handles. Bring the facts to that first conversation along with the unit number, and you will learn which questions belong with your attorney.
Will the association's resale certificate tell a buyer about a death in my unit?
The certificate is the association's statement about itself and about the unit's account. It covers the assessment on the home, amounts the seller owes, approved capital spending, reserves, judgments, pending suits, insurance, the budget and the transfer fees. Any answer about a death in the unit comes from the seller's side of the sale, not from the association.
Request the certificate early. For an estate, the line showing what the selling owner currently owes is often the one most needed, because the estate's own files rarely hold that figure.
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