The Nebraska Real Estate Commission recently approved a new Seller Property Disclosure Statement. the new statement will be required for use beginning on July 1st, 2012. VanEd will be including the new statement in all of our online real estate license courses, including pre-license and continuing education classes available online. Learn more about our online Nebraska real estate education programs by visiting www.nebraskarealestatelicensing.com. Below is the article that appears in the Summer 2012 edition of the Nebraska Commission Comment. (Ed Note: links to the NREC site can be found at the end of the story)
New Seller Property condition Disclosure Statement Effective July 1
The newly adopted Seller Property Condition Disclosure Statement ("SPCD") has been approved by the Commission and adopted through the rule and regulation process. It goes into effect on July 1, 2012.
The form is of course to be filled out by the Seller, but licensees frequently provide the form so they need to be aware of the changes.
Seller's filling out the form on or before June 30, 2012, should use the old form, seller's filling out the form on or after July 1, 2012, should use the new form. If the seller becomes aware that information contained on the old form is no longer accurate after July 1, 2012, and they need to amend the statement, they should be advised to use the new form and fill it out so that it is complete and accurate to the best of the seller's knowledge. A seller may provide the old form on a closing after July 1, as long as the form was filled out before July 1, and the information is still complete and accurate at the time of closing.
A copy of the new form is included with this issue of the Commission Comment.
Who Must Complete the SPCD?
The requirement for who must fill out the form and when it must be provided to the buyer remains unchanged. Generally speaking it must be filled out by the seller of property used for residential purposes (up to 4 units), with certain exceptions, and provided to the buyer on or before the effective date of the purchase contract on the property. The statues regarding the SPCD are found at Neb. rev. Stat. 76-2,120 et seq., which can be found in your license manual or on the Commission's website under the "Legal" Tab.
Changes to the Form
The most noticeable change to the form is n the layout and format, because there are a few more questions on the form it would no longer fit front and back on one legal sized piece of paper. The form is now on four letter sized pages. Because there are separate pages which could get separated or mixed up with other SPCD's, each page has a space at the bottom for both seller and buyer initials and the property address.
Some of the changes were for logical consistency, the "Age of Roof" question was followed by spaces for a yes or no answer on the old form, this has been eliminated on the new form. The word "domiciled" was changed to the more simple and direct "lived on". One of the more prevalent changes to the form allows for more detail on items that may exist in multiple numbers on the property, such as window air conditioners and ceiling fans. The form also asks for year installed for major appliances like central air and water heaters. Please refer to the instructions on the form for further details on how to properly complete it.
One question which has arisen is how to deal with multiple unit sales, the SPCD form is required for residential sales of up to 4 living units. While the form does not provide specific spaces or instructions for multiple unit sales sellers can provide the requested information for each unit by either filling out a separate form for each unit (123 ABC Drive Unit 1, 123 ABC Drive Unit 2, etc.) or providing additional information on multiple air conditioning units or other items in the additional comments section at the end of the form or on additional attached pages. If attaching additional page(s) you should note "additional page(s) attached" in the appropriate section on the SPCD form. H
The Summer 2012 Nebraska Commission Comment can be found online by clicking here. The new SPCD can be found online by clicking here.
The most successful people in real estate choose VanEd. To learn more about the family of Nebraska Real Estate education courses offered by VanEd, visit us online at www.nebraskarealestatelicensing.com.
Written and Published by: VanEd
