If you're selling in Winnipeg, at some point a form called the Property Disclosure Statement (PDS) lands in front of you, and most sellers sign it without really understanding what they're taking on. So let me explain it the way I do for my own clients — because this is one of the few documents in a sale that can follow you after the deal closes.
It's optional — until you start writing
Here's the part that surprises people: in Manitoba, the PDS isn't legally required. It's an appendix to the standard offer, it's normal practice, and almost every deal includes one — but a buyer can strike the condition and a seller can decline to complete it.
The catch is the flip side. The moment you choose to fill it out, you owe buyers honest, complete answers. Optional to provide; not optional to be truthful. That's the whole tension of the form.
"Buyer beware," and where it stops
Manitoba's baseline rule is caveat emptor — buyer beware. In theory, a silent seller doesn't have to volunteer anything, and the onus is on the buyer to investigate. But that protection has hard limits. A seller is not protected if they:
- lie or actively mislead when answering a buyer's questions,
- hide a known material latent defect, or
- recklessly conceal a problem.
That middle one matters most. A latent defect is a hidden problem you can't catch on a normal walkthrough — think a foundation that lets water pour into the basement, or serious mould behind the drywall. If you know about a hidden defect that makes the home dangerous or unfit to live in, you have to disclose it — whether or not you ever fill out a PDS. A patent defect — the cracked window, the stained carpet, the obvious stuff a buyer can see — you don't have to point out.
What the PDS actually asks
The form walks through what you know about the home over the time you've owned it: structure and foundation, the roof, any history of basement water or flooding, the electrical and plumbing, the furnace, renovations and whether the required permits were pulled, and whether the property complies with local by-laws. It also asks about environmental issues — contamination, hazardous materials, that kind of thing. Manitoba updated the form in late 2025, so the answers are now "Correct / Not Correct / Do Not Know," and it's narrowed to your own period of ownership.
You answer based on what you know. You're not certifying the house is perfect — you're stating what you're aware of.
The mistake that ends up in court: half-truths
If there's one thing I hammer with sellers, it's this: partial disclosure is more dangerous than silence. Mention one problem while leaving out a related one, and a court can treat the omission as active concealment — which is worse than never having said anything.
This isn't hypothetical. In a well-known Manitoba Court of Appeal case (Alevizos v. Nirula, 2003), the sellers disclosed one source of water — a frozen tap — but left out known window leakage that had stained the sills. The court found that selective, partial disclosure amounted to concealment and upheld damages against them. The lesson sellers should take: if you're going to answer a question, answer it fully. A tidy half-answer is the worst of both worlds.
Get it wrong on purpose and the buyer can sue for the cost of repairs, the drop in value, or — in bad cases — to unwind the sale entirely.
Estate sales and "I never lived there"
Sometimes you genuinely don't know. Executors selling an estate, or someone selling a property they barely occupied, often can't honestly speak to its history. The right move there isn't to guess to seem cooperative — it's to answer "Do Not Know." You can only be held to what you actually knew. In those situations many sellers complete little of the PDS, or skip it, and that's legitimate. (The duty to disclose a known dangerous latent defect still applies to anyone who actually knows of one.)
If you're the buyer reading this
A few things from the other side of the table:
- The PDS is not a home inspection. The seller tells you what they know; an inspector tells you what they can see and test. You want both — plus your lawyer's review. (More on building conditions into your offer in my post on conditional offers in Manitoba.)
- If a seller flat-out refuses to provide a PDS, that's not illegal — but I'd ask why, and I'd lean harder on the inspection.
- Under the 2025 form, most representations don't survive closing unless there was fraud — another reason to do your homework before you remove conditions, not after.
The bottom line
I tell sellers to treat the PDS as a truth document, not a sales document. Disclose what you know, fully, and you're protected. Shade it, or tell half the story, and you've handed a future buyer a lawsuit. If you're getting ready to list your home and you're not sure how to handle a past repair or a known quirk, talk to me and your real estate lawyer before you fill anything in — a five-minute conversation up front beats a problem after closing. (This is general information, not legal advice; your lawyer has the final word on your situation.)