Back by pop­u­lar demand:
The Wash­ing­ton State Seller Dis­clo­sure Statement

One of the most requested posts of this site is the one deal­ing with the which I posted about  four years ago. If you think that the folks in Olympia have made more changes since then, you are correct.

The last major change was in July 2009, when the fol­low­ing ques­tions were added or revised:

• New ques­tion regard­ing defects in the oper­a­tion of the “water sys­tem” (e.g. pipes, tank, pump, etc.)
• Revised ques­tion: “Has the roof leaked?” to: “Has the roof leaked within the last five years?”
• New ques­tion regard­ing wood burn­ing appli­ances and whether the appli­ances are cer­ti­fied as “clean burn­ing appliances.”
• Revised ques­tions in the Envi­ron­men­tal sec­tion regard­ing flood­ing and stand­ing water on the property.
• Revised ques­tions in the Envi­ron­men­tal sec­tion regard­ing fill dirt and waste.
• Revised ques­tion in the Envi­ron­men­tal sec­tion to clar­ify that the seller need only answer yes if there is elec­tri­cal util­ity equip­ment on the prop­erty that does not pro­vide ser­vice to the property.
• Revised ques­tion in the Envi­ron­men­tal sec­tion regard­ing radio tow­ers inter­fer­ence with tele­phone reception.
• New ques­tion ask­ing for the con­tact infor­ma­tion for a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the homeowner’s asso­ci­a­tion who can pro­vide asso­ci­a­tion doc­u­ments to the buyer. Please note that the fail­ure of the asso­ci­a­tion to pro­vide requested infor­ma­tion does not con­sti­tute the seller’s fail­ure to pro­vide Form 17.

One change is all it takes.

In July 2011,  the leg­is­la­tors made just one change to the form adding the fol­low­ing ques­tion:
Is the prop­erty located within a city, county, or dis­trict or within a depart­ment of nat­ural resources fire pro­tec­tion zone that pro­vides fire pro­tec­tion services?

This required a lot of paper to be shred­ded. Begin­ning July 22, 2011, sell­ers of improved and unim­proved res­i­den­tial prop­erty were required to deliver a new ver­sion of  Form 17 or Form 17C to the buyer.  Yes, there is more than one Form 17.

• Form 17 Seller Dis­clo­sure State­ment — Improved Property
• Form 17C Seller Dis­clo­sure State­ment — Unim­proved Prop­erty (land)
• Form 17Comm Seller Dis­clo­sure State­ment — Com­mer­cial Proper

Links to the com­plete dis­cus­sion of the WA Seller Disclosure:

1. Page 1 (ninety-nine ques­tions and one asterisk)
2. Pages 2–4 (from potable water to lead-based paint)
3. Page 5, (Buyer con­firms receipt and learns about sex offender dis­clo­sure sites)

If you have any ques­tions, fill out the form on the left or call me at 425–891-8213.

SERENE: where you will be heard and seen.