If a Seller repairs or rectifies a defect or condition in the house, does he/she have to disclose it?

YES! YES! YES!

Recently, a homeowner in Dallas contacted me and told me she was advised by a Keller-Williams agent that their client, the seller, did not have to disclose a defect or condition on the Sellers' Disclosure Notice because it had been REPAIRED already!  This was amazing because it is an incredible  assault on the very purpose of the Sellers' Disclosure Notice - to give the BUYER fair notice of the history of the house. 

Is this a Keller-Williams policy?   I hope not for the sake of the tens of thousands of consumers purchasing homes from their sellers.   In reality, the Sellers' Disclosure Notice does not ask in most cases whether the condition was repaired or not.  For instance, if there is water penetration into the  house, the seller has to answer Yes or No.  Not whether that water penetration was repaired.  That comes in the explanation portion below the list of defects where the seller can explain in as much detail as necessary each answer of Yes to any defect. 

Under the Keller-Williams rule, the seller would only have to disclose the defect if it was manifesting itself at the moment the Sellers' Disclosure Notice was being prepared.