You’re selling your old house because your basement is flooding and the plumbing in the kitchen is ready to fall apart. You try to hide it by cleaning the mess and having a plumber come in to temporarily fix the pipes. You didn’t want your home’s value or desirability to decrease. After all, you already told the buyers that they will need to fix some of the plumbing because it’s an old house. And there’s no law against withholding that information.

Fortunately, there is and it’s there to protect buyers. It is illegal not to disclose all pertinent information to buyers, especially those that can affect a buyer’s decision to buy your property or not. A full disclosure and a truthful House inspection report should be given or you will end up in court, ultimately compensating for the costs of fixing the problems you failed to report.

Basically, you have to disclose all information that you have personal knowledge of. So if you never knew that the house was infested with termites, you will not be liable for that. However, in some areas, whether you had an inkling or not, it’s still your duty to hire a professional house inspector.