The New Texas Water Notice: What Every Land Buyer and Seller Should Know

If you’re buying or selling rural land in Texas, there’s a new piece of paperwork you’ll want to understand: the TREC Water Notice — the Seller’s Disclosure About Groundwater and Surface Water Rights. Water has always been the single biggest value driver on rural property. Now the contract finally treats it that way. Here’s the plain-English version.

What the Water Notice is

It’s a Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) disclosure form that goes with the Farm and Ranch contract. In it, the seller discloses what they know about the property’s groundwater and surface water — wells, water rights, permits, and how the property actually gets its water. It’s a disclosure of the seller’s knowledge as of the date they sign it. However, it’s not a warranty, and not a substitute for the buyer’s own inspections.

Who has to provide it

Most sellers of rural land will. A seller is only fully off the hook if all of the following are true:

• There’s no water well on the property (in use or not);
• There’s no pond, lake, or water tank on the property;
• There’s no certificate of adjudication, certified filing, or permit for surface water rights tied to the property;
• The groundwater rights have not been severed, sold, or leased, in whole or in part; and
• The property receives water only from a city, municipal utility district (MUD), water supply corporation, or private water company.

In other words: if the place has a well, a stock tank, or any water rights history at all, plan on the disclosure being part of the deal.

Why buyers should care

The Water Notice comes with real teeth for the buyer. If the seller doesn’t deliver the disclosure within the agreed time, the buyer can terminate the contract and get their earnest money back. Once the buyer does receive it, they generally have a window — within 7 days, or before closing, whichever comes first — to terminate for any reason and still get their earnest money back. In short, it’s a built-in chance to review what you’re really getting before you’re locked in.

What the disclosure actually covers

The form walks through the property’s water in detail, including:

• Groundwater districts — whether the property sits in a Groundwater Conservation District, which regulates wells and pumping.
• Water wells — how many, whether they’re in use, and — importantly — whether they’ve been registered with the district.
• Water from a neighbor’s well — whether the property actually gets its water from a well located on someone else’s land, and the agreement that allows it.
• Groundwater rights — whether they’ve been severed, sold, or leased, with or without the right to drill.
• Surface water — whether there’s a surface water right or permit (administered by the TCEQ), since in Texas, surface water in creeks and rivers is owned by the state and generally requires a permit to use.

The traps that catch buyers (and sellers) off guard

A few things trip people up on rural water:

• Unregistered wells. A district may require a well to be registered when ownership transfers. If the previous owner never registered it, the records may not match the seller’s name — and that’s a problem to solve before listing, not at closing.
• Groundwater rights sold off decades ago. Severed water rights show up in the deed records, but those records can be decades old and may not surface in a standard title search. A seller may honestly not even know.
• Surface water you can’t legally use. Owning land with a creek running through it doesn’t automatically mean you can dam or divert it — that state-owned surface water often requires a TCEQ permit.
• The “is it even a pond?” question. A dried-up tank, a low spot that holds water after a rain — sellers genuinely aren’t always sure how to answer, which is why walking the property with someone who knows land matters.

A quick word on Texas water, defined

• Groundwater (the water below the surface) is generally owned by the surface landowner under Texas’s “rule of capture,” subject to the rules of the local Groundwater Conservation District.
• Surface water (creeks, rivers, lakes, streams) is owned by the State of Texas and typically requires a surface water right or permit from the TCEQ to divert, impound, or use.

Knowing which kind of water a property has — and what paperwork backs it up — is the whole ballgame.

The bottom line

The new Water Notice is good news for buyers and a to-do list for sellers. If you’re selling, get ahead of it: confirm your well registration, dig up any water-rights documentation, and answer honestly. If you’re buying, read it closely and use your termination window. Either way, this is exactly where a broker who actually knows rural land — and rural water — earns their keep.

FAQ What is the Texas Water Notice? A TREC seller’s disclosure (used with the Farm and Ranch contract) covering what the seller knows about a property’s groundwater and surface water rights, wells, and water sources. Who has to provide the Water Notice in Texas? Most sellers of rural land. A seller is exempt only if the property has no well, no pond/lake/tank, no surface-water permit, no severed/sold/leased groundwater rights, and gets water solely from a city or utility. What happens if the seller doesn’t deliver the Water Notice? The buyer can generally terminate the contract and have their earnest money refunded; buyers also typically get a short window to terminate after receiving it. Does owning a creek mean you own the water? No. In Texas, surface water is owned by the state and usually requires a TCEQ permit to divert or use.

Buying or selling land with water on it? Browse our listings or call (833) 722-7873 — we’ll help you work through the new Water Notice. We’ll also help you read what a property’s water is really worth.