The seller's disclosure asks about the condition of a home and its systems. Completing it during listing preparation leaves time to locate repair records and get advice on questions that cannot be answered confidently from memory.
The disclosure requirement
Indiana requires a seller's residential real estate sales disclosure on most sales of homes with no more than four units, and the seller has to complete it and get it to the buyer before an offer is accepted. It is answered from what the seller actually knows.
It is not a warranty and it does not replace an inspection.
When it is due
Before acceptance, not at closing. The rule sits in Indiana Code 32-21-5. In practice that means the form should be finished during listing preparation, while there is still time to look something up, rather than at nine at night with an offer on the table and a deadline in the morning.
It applies to ordinary sales, to exchanges, to installment contracts and to a lease with an option to buy.
What it asks about
The condition of the systems and structure, in plain categories: foundation and structure, roof, the mechanical systems, plumbing, electrical, the water supply and the sewer or septic, and known hazards. For each one the answers are yes, no, or do not know, and do not know is a real answer when it is true.
What it is not
The statute says directly that the disclosure is not a warranty. Nothing on it guarantees that the furnace will last the winter. It also does not substitute for the buyer's own inspection, which is a separate exercise with a separate purpose, covered in the note on what a home inspection actually covers.
A seller who fills it out carefully has not promised anything. A buyer who reads it instead of inspecting has not checked anything.
What a seller is actually liable for
The provisions described here concern the seller's knowledge and the care taken in obtaining and passing on information. A known condition should not be treated as unknown because it is inconvenient to the sale; seek legal advice where the answer is unclear.
Who is excused from giving one
The chapter lists exempt categories, including certain estate, foreclosure, bankruptcy, co-owner and spouse transfers. Having never occupied the house, or describing the sale as is, does not by itself establish an exemption. Have the particular transfer reviewed before deciding the form is unnecessary.
Complete the disclosure from actual knowledge and ask for advice where a question is unclear. Addressing a known condition before an offer allows the buyer and seller to consider it during the transaction rather than discover a disagreement afterward.
Whether a particular condition rises to a defect you are required to disclose is a legal question, and it belongs to a real estate attorney, before the form is signed rather than after. Whether a past repair was done to code belongs to the county or municipal building department that would have issued the permit. What a repair should cost belongs to the contractor who would do it, in writing.
If the house is not listed yet, the note on what to do before the photographer comes is the other half of preparing it, and the sellers page sets out the rest of the sequence.
This note is general. It is not legal advice, and whether a specific condition must be disclosed in your sale depends on facts only your attorney can assess.