Selling an inherited house, a rental or a property from another state can raise questions about the disclosure form. Indiana's exemptions need to be checked against the transfer and the role of the person signing.
How the exemptions are organized
Probably yes. The chapter reaches almost every ordinary sale of a one to four unit residential property, and the exemptions turn on who is transferring and in what capacity, not on how well the owner knows the house.
Nine categories of transfer sit outside it.
First, what the chapter covers
IC 32-21-5-1 draws the outer line twice. It applies to residential real estate containing "not more than four (4) residential dwelling units," and it applies to a sale, an exchange, an installment sales contract, and a lease with an option to buy.
The chapter's scope excludes a five-unit building and includes a lease with an option to buy. Check the type of property and transaction before reviewing the listed exemptions.
The nine exemptions, as the statute lists them
The chapter does not apply to:
One, transfers ordered by a court, including in the administration of an estate, by foreclosure sale, by a trustee in bankruptcy, by eminent domain, or resulting from a decree of specific performance, a decree of divorce, or a property settlement agreement.
Two, transfers by a mortgagee that acquired the property at a sale under a foreclosure decree, or by a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Three, transfers by a fiduciary administering a decedent's estate, a guardianship, a conservatorship or a trust.
Four, transfers from at least one co-owner solely to at least one other co-owner.
Five, transfers made solely to a spouse, or to a person in the lineal line of consanguinity of at least one of the transferors.
Six, transfers made because the record owner failed to pay federal, state or local taxes.
Seven, transfers to or from a governmental entity.
Eight, transfers involving the first sale of a dwelling that has never been inhabited.
Nine, transfers to a living trust.
What that list is really organized around
Every one of them is about the capacity of the person signing the deed, or about the transfer having no arm's length buyer to protect. A fiduciary selling in an estate is exempt because of the fiduciary's position. A builder selling a house nobody has lived in is exempt because there is no history to disclose.
A transfer into your own living trust is exempt because you are both sides of it.
Nothing on the list is about how little the owner knows. "I inherited it and never lived there" is not an exemption on its own, and that is the one sellers most often expect to find. Whether a particular sale is inside category one or three, especially after a house has been distributed out of an estate to the heirs and the heirs are the ones selling, is a question for the attorney handling it.
The statute keys on who transfers and in what role, and a reading of that belongs to a lawyer, not to me.
What the form asks, so you know what you are exempt from
IC 32-21-5-7 has the Indiana Real Estate Commission adopt the form, and sets what it must carry. The owner's knowledge of the condition of the foundation, the mechanical systems, the roof, the structure, the water and sewer systems, and any additions that may require sewage disposal system improvements. Known contamination from the manufacture of a controlled substance that has not been certified as decontaminated by an inspector certified under IC 16-19-3.1, and known manufacture of methamphetamine or dumping of methamphetamine waste in a residential structure on the property.
A notice to the buyer recommending professional advice and inspections. A notice that the representations are the owner's and not the agent's, are for disclosure only, and are not part of any contract. Nearby airports within a distance the Commission sets. Proximity to a military installation within a state area of interest.
Whether the owner knows the property sits inside a flood plain on a FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map. A locally designated historic district. Any conservation easement.
When it is due
IC 32-21-5-10 says the owner completes the form, signs it, and submits it to the prospective buyer before an offer is accepted. Before closing, an accepted offer is not enforceable against the buyer until both the owner and the buyer have signed. After closing, failure to deliver the form does not by itself invalidate the transaction, and a buyer cannot invalidate the deal because the buyer did not sign a form the buyer received or acknowledged.
An appraiser valuing the property for the buyer, or for a lender the buyer is seeking financing from, gets a copy on request.
Being exempt from the form is not being exempt from telling the truth. The protection the statute gives a seller who does fill it out is narrow and conditional: IC 32-21-5-11 shields an owner from liability for an error, inaccuracy or omission only where the owner did not actually know, or got the information from a public agency or a licensed or specially knowledgeable professional's written or oral report and reasonably believed it was correct, and was not negligent in obtaining that information or in passing it on.
Actual knowledge is outside the shield. An exemption removes a form. It does not convert something you know into something you may conceal, and selling as is was never on the list at all.
Whether your specific transfer falls in one of the nine, what you are obliged to say if it does, and how to answer a question on the form where the answer is complicated are the attorney's. Compliance and licensing questions about the form are mine to follow, not to interpret for you.
I have written separately on what the form asks and what a seller is liable for, and on the other disclosure form, the one the county uses, which sellers constantly confuse with this one. How a listing runs covers the rest.
Sources, read at the Indiana Code on 2026-10-12: IC 32-21-5-1, as added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.6; IC 32-21-5-7, as added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.6 and amended through P.L.166-2025, SEC.6 and P.L.186-2025, SEC.166; IC 32-21-5-10, as added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.6 and amended by P.L.150-2013, SEC.3; and IC 32-21-5-11, as added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.6.
This note is general. It is not legal advice. Whether a specific transfer is exempt is a question for the attorney handling it.