Iowa Seller Disclosure Requirements: What You Have to Tell Buyers

Iowa sellers are required by law to complete a Seller Disclosure form before or at the time of signing the purchase agreement. The form, governed by Iowa Code Chapter 558A, covers 18 categories of property condition. As of January 1, 2026, it includes a new question about lead service lines. Leaving something out, or getting it wrong on purpose, can follow you past closing.

The Seller Disclosure form sits on the table the same day the buyer signs the purchase agreement. Most sellers fill it out in under an hour. The ones who get it wrong spend considerably more time on it later, with an attorney. If an inspection brings a new condition to light after the contract is signed, read our guide to the Iowa home inspection contingency alongside this one.

Very few sellers know what's on the form when they list. And almost none know about the question that was added to it at the start of this year.

This is what you're signing.

What is the Iowa Seller Disclosure form?

The official name is the Seller Property Condition Disclosure. It is required under Iowa Code Chapter 558A, and every seller of residential property in Iowa must complete it before or at the time the purchase agreement is signed. There is no completing it later.

Iowa REALTORS® manage the form through a system called Form Simplicity, and the 2026 version includes the updated lead service line question. Iowa law holds sellers to a "good faith" and "reasonable effort" standard, meaning you don't have to be certain about every system in a 40-year-old house. You have to answer what you know, without hedging on what you do know.

If you don't know whether your sewer line was repaired, "approximate or unknown" is a legitimate answer. If you know and write something else, you've crossed a line that Iowa courts take seriously.

What exactly do Iowa sellers have to disclose?

The Seller Property Condition Disclosure form covers all of the following:

• Basement and foundation: water problems, any repairs made
• Roof: known issues, repairs
• Well and pump: known problems, repairs
• Water tests: date of last test and results
• Septic tanks and drain fields: known problems
• Sewer systems: known issues, repairs
• Heating system: known problems, repairs
• Central cooling: known problems, repairs
• Plumbing: known problems, repairs
• Electrical: known problems, repairs
• Pest infestation: termites, carpenter ants, structural damage
• Asbestos: presence in the structure
• Radon: testing history
• Lead-based paint: presence (pre-1978 homes also carry a separate federal disclosure requirement)
• Flood plain: whether the property is in one
• Zoning: property classification
• Shared or co-owned features: walls, fences, roads, or driveways that affect use or maintenance
• Physical problems: settling, flooding, drainage, or grading issues

One thing sellers often miss: Iowa uses a subjective buyer standard for "material." Something is material if a buyer would consider it significant enough to affect their decision or the price they'd pay. A crack in the driveway may feel minor to you. A wet basement you've been monitoring for three years is not.

The form isn't asking you to be an engineer. It's asking you to tell the truth about what you know.

What's the new 2026 question sellers need to know about?

Beginning January 1, 2026, Iowa REALTORS® updated the Seller Property Condition Disclosure to include a new field: does this property have lead service lines? Per the Iowa REALTORS® announcement, sellers mark one of three options: yes, no, or unknown.

A lead service line is any pipe made of pure lead, or any galvanized service line that is currently or was ever downstream of a lead pipe. It runs from the public water main to the interior plumbing, ending at the water meter. Homes built before the mid-1980s carry the highest probability of having one.

Sellers who don't know their status have a couple of ways to check. A scratch test at the service line entry point: a silver scratch indicates lead, a copper color indicates copper pipe. A magnet test also helps, since magnets stick to galvanized steel but not to lead or copper. Your local water utility may have records as well.

An "unknown" response is legally acceptable if you don't know. But it may raise buyer questions and invite credit requests or additional inspections. Sellers who document a clear "no" answer are in a stronger position at the negotiating table.

What if you don't know the answer to something on the form?

Iowa law doesn't expect you to pull inspection reports from 1994. It asks for reasonable effort and honest answers. If you've never had a radon test, you mark that. If you don't know whether the HVAC has had repairs, "approximate or unknown" is the right answer.

The trouble comes from treating "unknown" as a safe box when you do know. A sump pump that runs every spring is relevant. A roof repair you paid for four years ago is relevant. Courts look at what the seller knew, not only what the seller wrote.

If you're uncertain about a specific item, the right move is to talk through it with your agent before the form goes anywhere. That conversation is considerably easier than sorting it out after closing.

What happens if a seller leaves something out?

Under Iowa Code Chapter 558A, buyers who discover a material problem that wasn't disclosed have real legal options: they can pursue repair costs, attorney fees, or seek to void the sale. There's no "I didn't think it mattered" defense when a problem is documented and a disclosure form was signed.

This is why working through the form carefully, with your agent, before the buyer ever sees it matters more than most sellers realize. It isn't formality. It's the document that stays with the sale long after you've moved.

A seller I worked with had no idea their basement had a water problem. They weren't down there often, the home looked fine, and they filled out the Seller Disclosure the way most sellers do — based on what they knew. What they knew was: nothing unusual.

After closing, the buyers found water. Everyone went back and forth for a while, and it eventually went to mediation. The sellers hadn't lied. They hadn't hidden anything. But they still walked out of mediation having paid money to resolve it. The water turned out to be coming in through the siding, not the foundation — something that would have been easy to miss. It was new information to the sellers as much as it was to the buyers.

That's the part of disclosure that catches people off guard. Good faith doesn't always protect you from cost. It protects you from fraud claims, but it doesn't automatically prevent a mediation outcome. Which is exactly why going through this form carefully, with your agent, before the buyer ever sees it matters more than most sellers realize going in.

Which sellers are exempt from Iowa's disclosure requirements?

Not every transaction requires the form. Iowa law excludes a specific set of sales, per Iowa Administrative Code Chapter 14:

• Probate sales
• Foreclosures
• Court-ordered transfers
• Transfers to family members

If your sale falls into one of these categories, confirm it directly with your agent. The exemption has to apply, not just seem like it might. Families navigating a trust, probate, or a recently inherited property can also read our guide to selling an inherited house in Iowa before changing anything on the deed.

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