Iowa Seller Disclosure Requirements: What Home Sellers Must Reveal
Yes. Iowa Code chapter 558A makes the seller of a property with one to four dwelling units hand the buyer a written disclosure statement before making or accepting a written offer (§ 558A.2). If the statement comes late, the buyer can pull out within three days of personal delivery, or five days of mailed or electronic delivery.
The duty sits on the owner, with or without an agent. Section 558A.2(1) is addressed to “a person interested in transferring real property, or a broker or salesperson acting on behalf of the person,” and the state rule on the form says it governs “all property disclosure statements, whether or not a licensee assists in the transaction.” A for-sale-by-owner seller fills in the same statement a listed seller does.
Which Iowa sales chapter 558A reaches
A “transfer” under § 558A.1(7) is a sale, exchange, real estate contract “or any other method by which real estate and improvements are purchased, if the property includes at least one but not more than four dwelling units.” A fifth unit puts a building outside the chapter. Farmland without a house on it is outside too.
The same subsection then removes nine kinds of transfer. In the statute’s order:
- Transfers under a court order: a transfer under chapter 633 or 633A (the probate and trust codes), execution of a judgment, mortgage foreclosure, forfeiture of a real estate contract, a bankruptcy trustee’s sale, eminent domain, and a decree for specific performance.
- A deed to the lender from a borrower in default, a resale by a lender that took the house by deed in lieu of foreclosure or under chapter 654 or 655A, and a transfer back to a borrower using the right of first refusal in § 654.16A.
- A transfer by a fiduciary administering an estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust. The exemption does not apply where the fiduciary “is a living natural person and was an occupant in possession of the real estate at any time within the twelve consecutive months immediately preceding the date of transfer.”
- Transfers between joint tenants or tenants in common.
- A transfer to a spouse, or to a person “within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity” of the person making it.
- Transfers between spouses under a divorce or legal-separation decree or a property settlement incidental to it.
- Transfers to or from the state, a political subdivision, another state or the United States.
- A transfer by quitclaim deed.
- A transfer by a power of attorney.
The list has no builder exception, so a contractor selling a newly built house to a stranger is inside the chapter.
The 20 questions on the state’s sample statement
Chapter 558A tells the Real Estate Commission to set the content by rule. That rule is now 481 IAC 2014.1(7); it moved from the old 193E chapter 14 in the June 10, 2026 IAC supplement. It prints a “Residential Property Seller Disclosure Statement” and says “No particular language is necessary” provided every item is covered. The items:
- Basement or foundation water; roof; sewer system; heating; central cooling; plumbing; electrical
- Termites or other pests, with treatment dates and any structural damage
- Asbestos in the structure; radon tests, with the date and result of the last report; lead-based paint
- Whether the property is in a flood plain
- Lead water service lines, “currently, or have there ever been”
- Zoning classification; restrictive covenants; shared walls, fences, drives or an owners’ association
- Settling, flooding, drainage or grading problems; structural damage
- Well and pump, including water tests; septic tank and drain field, with the tank’s location and last cleaning date
The lead-service-line item traces to a 2025 amendment of § 558A.4(1)(a), in force January 1, 2026; the rule’s current text took effect April 22, 2026. The form closes with both sides acknowledging the state health department’s “Iowa Radon Home-Buyers and Sellers Fact Sheet.” The buyer’s line says the statement “is not intended to be a warranty or to substitute for any inspection.”
If a fact is unknown after “a reasonable effort,” § 558A.3(1) lets the seller give an approximation, marked as one. A written report from a land surveyor, geologist, licensed pest control operator or building contractor can answer an item within that person’s field (§ 558A.4(1)(b)). Attaching the pest or septic report you already hold is often the cleanest answer.
Delivery, and the three-day and five-day exit
The statement goes out by personal delivery, certified or registered mail, or electronic delivery, to the buyer or the buyer’s agent; delivery to the buyer’s spouse counts unless the parties agree otherwise. For e-mail, the rule wants a written acknowledgment back from the buyer’s side. “A computer-generated read receipt” does not count.
The remedy for lateness is in § 558A.2(2): “If the disclosure statement is not timely delivered, the transferee may withdraw the offer or revoke the acceptance without liability, within three days following personal delivery of the statement or five days following electronic delivery or delivery by mail.” So the clock runs from the day the statement is delivered.
If something on the statement becomes inaccurate, or the seller adds to it, § 558A.3(2) requires an amended statement handled under “the same procedures as the original.” Two cases need no amendment: a change caused by an act or agreement after delivery, and information taken from a public agency. The sale itself stands even if the rules were broken: “A transfer under this chapter shall not be invalidated solely because of a failure of a person to comply” (§ 558A.8).
Liability after closing: § 558A.6 and Jensen v. Sattler
A seller who violates the chapter owes the buyer “the amount of actual damages suffered.” The limit in § 558A.6(1): no liability for an error, inaccuracy or omission “unless that person has actual knowledge of the inaccuracy, or fails to exercise ordinary care in obtaining the information.”
The second branch sets a lower bar than fraud. In Jensen v. Sattler, 696 N.W.2d 582 (Iowa 2005), the Iowa Supreme Court rejected a trial ruling that a buyer had to prove fraud: “It is sufficient if the buyer shows the seller failed to exercise ordinary care in obtaining the information sought on the form.” The court also held the statutory claim and the common-law fraud claim are separate, relying on § 558A.7, which says the chapter does not “limit or abridge” disclosure liability created by other law or by contract. An as-is sale changes who makes repairs. It does not take the statement out of the transaction.
Recorder paperwork that rides with the deed
Two more Iowa statutes work through the county recorder:
- Groundwater hazard statement, § 558.69. Filed with the declaration of value. It reports any known private burial site, well, solid-waste disposal site the Department of Natural Resources has deemed potentially hazardous, underground storage tank, hazardous waste, or private sewage system. The seller must give the buyer a copy. When none of these exist, the deed’s first page carries a set sentence saying so instead. Without one or the other, “the county recorder shall refuse to record.”
- Septic inspection at transfer, § 455B.172(11). A building served by a private sewage system must have it inspected by a DNR-certified inspector before ownership changes. The recorder will not record until the report is filed, or, when weather blocks the inspection, until the buyer signs a binding acknowledgment with the county board of health. This law has its own exemption list, which is not the chapter 558A list: it adds, for example, systems installed within two years and buyers who will raze the building.
Selling on an installment contract changes the timing for some sellers. A seller covered by § 558.70 (a contract seller who entered into four or more residential real estate contracts in the prior 365 days) must deliver the 558A statement “at least seven days before” the contract is signed and recommend a home inspection in writing (§ 558A.4(2)).
Houses built before 1978
The lead-paint rule is federal (42 U.S.C. § 4852d; 40 CFR part 745, subpart F). Before the buyer is bound, the seller hands over the EPA pamphlet, discloses known lead-based paint and hazards, and gives “a 10-day period (unless the parties mutually agree, in writing, upon a different period of time)” for a lead inspection. The buyer can waive that in writing (40 CFR 745.110). Foreclosure sales are exempt, and housing for the elderly or disabled and 0-bedroom units fall outside the rule “unless any child who is less than 6 years of age resides or is expected to reside in such housing” (40 CFR 745.101, 745.103). The Iowa form’s lead-paint question does not replace the federal paperwork.
Iowa seller and buyer questions
I’m selling the house to my daughter. Do I owe her the form?
No. § 558A.1(7)(e) exempts a transfer to a spouse or to a person within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity of the seller, and a child is well inside that line. The groundwater hazard statement and the septic inspection have their own rules.
I’m executor of Mom’s estate and I lived there last year. Am I exempt?
No. The fiduciary exemption drops away when the fiduciary is a living person who occupied the house at any time in the 12 months before the transfer. Heirs who sell in their own names after the estate closes are not named in the fiduciary exemption at all.
The seller gave me the statement on time. Can I still back out because of what it says?
Not under 558A. The statutory withdrawal right applies only “If the disclosure statement is not timely delivered.” A timely statement leaves you with whatever inspection or other contingency your purchase agreement contains; read it before you sign.
We found water in the basement after closing. The seller says he never saw it.
Under § 558A.6(1) you have to show he knew, or that he did not use ordinary care in getting the information the form asks for; Jensen v. Sattler says fraud is not required. Keep the signed statement, your inspection report and any repair records, and talk to an Iowa attorney.