What do you have to disclose when selling a house in Illinois?

The Residential Real Property Disclosure Act covers houses with one to four units, condo units, and co-op units. If you own one and you're selling it, you're the seller the Act is talking about, whether you live there, rent it out, or it's been sitting empty.

These sellers are exempt:

• Transfers by court order, including probate, divorce judgments, bankruptcy trustees, and eminent domain.
• Foreclosure transfers, including a deed in lieu of foreclosure and sales by a lender that took the house back.
• An executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or conservator selling while administering an estate or trust.
• Transfers under a will or by inheritance, and from one co-owner to another.
• Transfers to a spouse or to a direct relative such as a child, parent, or grandchild.
• Transfers to or from a government body, and new construction nobody has lived in.

A beneficiary who never lived in the house and never managed it isn't a seller under the Act either. That covers many inherited-house sales, but have your estate attorney confirm it for yours.

The report's questions fall into six groups. For each one you answer yes, no, or not applicable.

• You and insurance: whether you've lived in the house in the last 12 months, and whether you carry flood insurance.
• Water: flooding or recurring leaks in the basement or crawl space, and whether the house is in a floodplain.
• Structure and systems: the basement or foundation (including cracks and bulges), the roof, ceilings, and chimney, the walls, windows, doors, and floors, and the electrical, plumbing, well, drinking water, heating and cooling, fireplace, and septic or sewer systems.
• Environmental: radon, asbestos, lead paint, lead pipes, or lead in the soil, earth-stability problems like settlement or mine subsidence, underground fuel tanks, and whether the property was used to make methamphetamine.
• Pests: current termite or wood-boring insect infestations, and structural damage from past ones.
• Legal: boundary or lot-line disputes, and violation notices from the city, state, or federal government that haven't been corrected.

Any yes or not-applicable answer, other than the first question, needs a written explanation on the form. A bare checkmark isn't enough.

The report defines "aware" as actual notice or actual knowledge, without any specific investigation. You're required to disclose material defects you actually know about. You're not required to hire an inspector or open up walls to find out more.

A material defect is a condition that would substantially lower the property's value or significantly impair the health or safety of future occupants. The report reflects the house's current condition and doesn't include past problems you reasonably believe have been corrected. Keep the invoices and permits for anything you've fixed.

For a condo, the report covers your unit, not the building's common areas. It isn't a warranty. The form itself suggests you may want an attorney's help before you complete it, because signing it creates legal obligations.

Under the Illinois Radon Awareness Act, you must give the buyer the state's pamphlet "Radon Testing Guidelines for Real Estate Transactions" and the Illinois Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards before the buyer is obligated under the contract. On that form you say whether you know of elevated radon levels and share any records or test results you have that show them.

You don't have to test for radon or install a mitigation system. If these disclosures come after the buyer has made an offer, you have to complete them before accepting it and give the buyer a chance to change the offer.

Most of the disclosure report's exemptions apply here too, including court-ordered, foreclosure, estate, family, and government transfers. The radon rules add one more: units on the third story or higher of a building, including high-floor condos.

Federal law adds a disclosure for homes built before 1978. You must give the buyer the EPA pamphlet "Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home," disclose any lead-based paint or lead hazards you know about, hand over any records or reports you have, and include a lead warning statement in the contract.

The buyer gets 10 days to do a lead inspection or risk assessment. The two of you can agree in writing to change that period, or the buyer can waive it. Keep a signed copy of the disclosure for three years after the sale.

Foreclosure sales, homes a certified inspector has found free of lead-based paint, units with no bedrooms, and housing for elderly or disabled people are exempt, the last two unless a child under 6 lives there.

A condo seller also owes the buyer the association's resale documents under Section 22.1 of the Condominium Property Act: the declaration and rules, a statement of liens and unpaid charges, the reserves, pending lawsuits, and more. Our guide to selling a condo with open violations walks through them.

Deliver the report before the contract is signed. Email or other electronic delivery counts, as do mail and overnight services, and delivery to one buyer counts as delivery to all of them.

• If you learn of an error before closing, you have to give the buyer a written supplement.
• If the report arrives after the contract is signed and discloses a material defect, the buyer has 5 business days to terminate and get their deposit back.
• If you never provide the report before closing, the buyer can terminate the contract.
• A seller who knowingly gives false information is liable for the buyer's actual damages and court costs, and a court may award attorney fees.
• A lawsuit under the Act has to be filed within one year of possession, occupancy, or recording, whichever comes first.

The Act doesn't replace other law. Claims for fraud or misrepresentation can still apply, and the form warns that a seller who discloses a defect may have a continuing duty to update the buyer. Honest and complete is the safest way through.

Yes. The report says in capital letters that it doesn't limit your right to sell as-is. What as-is means is that the buyer takes the house with the problems you've disclosed, not that you skip the disclosure.

A cash buyer's offer is usually below what the house would bring after repairs on the open market. The trade is not fixing, cleaning, or listing first. Here's how to sell a house as-is with us, and what to do if a city notice is involved: selling with code violations.