As-is is a repair term, not a disclosure exemption
Idaho Code 55-2504 requires a seller of residential property with one to four dwelling units — including a rental the owner does not live in — to complete a property condition disclosure form. It applies to a sale, an exchange, an installment sale contract, a lease with an option to purchase, any other option to purchase, and a ground lease coupled with improvements.
That list matters for less conventional deals. A seller-financed sale on an installment contract and a lease-option are both covered. The act asks what you know about the house; whether you will fix what you know about is a different conversation, and the act does not make it an excuse.
What counts as residential property here
For this act, residential real property is real property improved by a building with one to four dwelling units, or an individually owned unit in a structure of any size. It also covers property with a combined residential and commercial use.
Two consequences follow. A condominium unit in a large building is covered, because it is individually owned. A building of five or more units sold whole falls outside this definition — which is this act's line only, and says nothing about how lenders, the Census or other statutes classify the same building. Our multifamily page deals with where that line moves.
Sixteen exemptions, and as-is is not one of them
Idaho Code 55-2505 lists sixteen kinds of transfer the act does not reach. They include court-ordered transfers, several foreclosure-related transfers, transfers by a fiduciary administering an estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust, transfers from one co-owner to another, transfers to a spouse or lineal relatives, divorce transfers, transfers to or from a government body, relocation-company transfers within a year, and transfers from a decedent's estate.
Three are easy to miss. A sale to a buyer who has lived in the property as a personal residence for a year or more is exempt, which can cover a long-term tenant buying the home they rent. Inherited property is exempt when the seller acquired it by inheritance or devise and has not lived there within the prior year — both conditions, not either. And uninhabited new construction is exempt from the form, except that its sellers must still disclose annexation and city-service status.
Nothing in the sixteen turns on the condition of the house, the price, a cash buyer or the words as-is. If your sale fits none of them, the form applies. The estate exemptions are covered in more depth in the inherited-house guide, and the foreclosure ones in the foreclosure guide.
What the form asks, and what it is not
The form has to let the seller disclose material matters about the property's physical condition, including the source of the water supply, the nature of the sewer system, the condition of the structure including the roof, foundation, walls and floors, and the known presence of hazardous materials or substances.
Water and sewer are not idle questions in Ada County, where the answer changes across a city limit — a private regulated utility in parts of Boise, city wells in Kuna, a separate sewer district in Star. A seller who does not know should say so rather than guess.
The act also fixes what the form is. It has to state that it records conditions and information actually known by the seller, that it is not a warranty of any kind by the seller or the seller's agent, and that it is not a substitute for any inspections. It is a record of knowledge, not a promise about the house.
Ten days to deliver, three business days to object
The seller must deliver a signed and dated copy of the completed form to each prospective buyer, or the buyer's agent, within ten days of accepting the buyer's offer. The buyer acknowledges it by signing, dating and returning a copy.
A buyer who receives the form after entering the purchase agreement may rescind — but only in a written, signed and dated notice delivered within three business days of receiving the form, and only on a specific objection to a disclosure that the notice identifies. A rescinding buyer gets their deposit back. If no signed notice arrives in that window, the right to rescind is waived. It is a right to object to what was disclosed, not a general change of mind.
When something changes before closing
A seller who discovers that information on the statement has changed must amend it before closing. If the statement is amended, the buyer's right to rescind is strictly limited to the amendments — the rest of the form is not reopened.
Two provisions keep this workable. Information that becomes inaccurate because of something that happens after the disclosures were delivered is not a violation. And an item the seller cannot know may be given as an approximation, provided it is clearly marked as one, reasonable, based on the best information available and not used to get around the act.
Where a seller's liability sits
A seller and the seller's agents are not liable for an error, inaccuracy or omission that was not within the seller's personal knowledge, or that rested on information timely provided by a public agency or a hired inspector and passed on with ordinary care.
That protection has edges. Every disclosure must be made in good faith, which the act defines as honesty in fact. A failure to comply does not by itself undo the sale, but a person who willfully or negligently fails to perform the act's duties is liable for the buyer's actual damages. And the act expressly does not limit any duty to disclose that arises elsewhere in the Idaho Code or under Idaho common law — so being exempt from the form is not permission to conceal a known defect.
Deaths, crimes and neighbours
Idaho treats some facts as psychologically impacting a property rather than physically affecting it: a suspected or actual suicide, homicide or felony at the property that had no effect on its physical condition, an occupant's disease that is highly unlikely to be transmitted through living in the home, and a registered or suspected sex offender living at or near the property. No cause of action arises against an owner or the owner's representative for not disclosing those facts.
The limit is in the definition. A felony that did affect the property's physical condition or environment is not inside it. And if a buyer making a bona fide offer says in writing that this information matters to the decision, the owner's representative must ask the owner and, with the owner's consent and consistent with privacy law, report what is found — or tell the buyer the information will not be disclosed.
Houses built before 1978: the federal lead-paint rule
A separate federal rule applies on top of the Idaho form. For housing built before 1978, the seller must, before the buyer is bound by the contract, give the buyer an EPA-approved lead hazard pamphlet and disclose any known lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards, along with any records or reports the seller has. The rule does not require the seller to test or remove anything.
The buyer must also be allowed 10 days to have a lead-based paint risk assessment or inspection done, unless both sides agree in writing to a different period, and the buyer can waive it in writing. The federal rule has its own exceptions — sales at foreclosure, housing for the elderly or people with disabilities, and 0-bedroom dwellings unless a child under six lives or is expected to live there. Idaho's exemptions for estates, inheritances or as-is sales do not carry over to it.
What this means when you sell to us
When we buy a house as-is, as-is means we price the work rather than asking you to do it. It does not mean you stop telling us what you know, and we would not ask you to. We still expect the disclosure the law requires, and we still inspect.
A defect you disclose is a cost we can put a number on. A defect nobody mentioned is the thing that turns a closed sale into a dispute. When we make an offer we show the value we used, the work we think the property needs, our holding costs and the margin we run on, so you can see exactly where a disclosed problem landed in the number.