Radon and Tennessee's Seller Disclosure Law: What Knoxville Sellers Actually Have to Do

Short version: Tennessee does not require you to test for radon before selling a house. It requires you to disclose what you already know. Those are very different obligations, and confusing them costs sellers money in both directions.

What the law actually says

The Tennessee Residential Property Disclosure Act, at Tenn. Code Ann. 66-5-201 and following, applies to sales of residential property with one to four dwelling units. It requires the seller to give the buyer a written disclosure of the condition of the property, including known environmental hazards. Radon is named on the standard disclosure form Tennessee sellers use. The duty is knowledge-based: you disclose what you know, and you are not required to go investigate.

So a seller who has never tested has nothing to disclose about radon. A seller who tested two years ago, got 6.8 pCi/L, and did nothing about it has something to disclose, and failing to disclose it is where liability lives.

The trap people talk themselves into

Every so often a seller reasons it through and lands on: if I never test, I never have to disclose, so I should not test. It is logical and it is usually a bad trade in a Zone 1 county like Knox.

Here is why. The buyer is very likely to test anyway. Radon contingencies are routine in East Tennessee, and the standard Tennessee Realtors forms prompt buyers to consider exactly this kind of inspection. When the buyer's test comes back at 7.0 during the inspection period, you are negotiating under a deadline, with a number you did not choose, against a buyer who is now nervous. That is the worst possible position to discover a $1,500 problem.

The seller who tested before listing, found 7.0, mitigated for $1,400 and has a post-mitigation report showing 1.2 is in a completely different conversation. They disclose a solved problem. Nobody renegotiates over a solved problem.

What happens if the buyer tests and you did not

Nothing legally. You did not withhold anything, because you did not know. Practically, you have handed control of both the timing and the framing to the other side. The number arrives late, it arrives from their inspector, and the remedy gets negotiated in the compressed part of the deal where sellers concede more than the work actually costs.

What about the as-is sale

An as-is clause does not erase the disclosure duty. Tennessee lets sellers use certain exemptions and disclaimer forms, and the specifics depend on the transaction, but the general rule holds: you cannot knowingly conceal a known material defect by writing "as is" on the contract. If you have a high radon result in a drawer, get advice before deciding it does not need to appear.

The practical path for a Knoxville seller

1. Test before you list, not after you are under contract. A 48-hour test is around $150 and takes a weekend.
2. If it is under 2.0, you have a clean number to hand a buyer and one fewer thing for an inspector to raise.
3. If it is over 4.0, get a written mitigation quote, decide on your own timeline, and mitigate before the sign goes up if the math works.
4. Keep the post-mitigation report. It is the document that turns a disclosure item into a selling point.

Call (865) 563-8112 and we will get a monitor placed this week.