Arkansas doesn’t legally require you to fill out the Arkansas seller property disclosure form, but almost every residential seller does, because the completed form is the main thing standing between you and a fraud claim after closing. The form is produced by the Arkansas Realtors Association and asks roughly 60 questions about the home’s structure, systems, land, and legal status. Answer each one honestly based on what you personally know, explain every Yes in writing, and get the buyer’s signed acknowledgment before closing.
Why Filling It Out Protects You
Arkansas follows the caveat emptor rule, which puts the burden on the buyer to inspect the property. The Arkansas Real Estate Commission has confirmed there is no state statute requiring sellers to disclose a home’s condition.1Arkansas Real Estate Commission. Is Property Condition Disclosure Required by Law? Skipping the form, though, doesn’t make you safe. If a defect surfaces after closing and the buyer can show you knew about it, the missing form becomes an argument that you had something to hide. A completed, honest form is the paper trail that proves you were upfront.
Where to Get the Form
The Seller Property Disclosure form comes from the Arkansas Realtors Association, not the Real Estate Commission. If you have a listing agent, they’ll hand you a copy when you sign the listing agreement. Selling on your own? You can usually get a blank copy through a licensed broker or the title company handling your closing. Online legal document sites host versions that mirror the association’s template, but confirm the version matches what buyers and agents in your market expect to see.
What the Form Asks About
The questions are grouped into categories covering the home’s major components and legal condition:
- Environmental issues, including whether the home was built before 1978, the known presence of urea formaldehyde, asbestos, or lead-based paint, radon testing results, toxic mold evidence, underground storage tanks, old septic tanks, abandoned wells, and any prior manufacture of unlawful chemicals or drugs on the premises.
- House systems: plumbing, electrical wiring, appliances, heating, and air conditioning (with the age of each), plus doors, windows, ceiling fans, security systems, sump pumps, chimneys, fireplaces, pools, and sprinklers.
- Foundation and structure, including current or past defects in the foundation, slab, framing, or exterior veneer, basement leaks and repairs, and whether the siding is EIFS (synthetic stucco).
- Termites and other wood-destroying organisms, past damage, treatment history, and any active warranties.
- Roof age and any leaks during your ownership.
- Land and drainage: soil stability, flooding history, flood plain status, and adjoining retention basins, ponds, creeks, or springs.
- Boundaries, surveys, improvements since the last survey, encroachments, unrecorded easements, and burial plots.
- Water source (public, well, shared well, or lake) and sewer type (public, private, or septic), along with any known problems.
- Construction and remodeling you’ve done during ownership, and any building code violations you’ve been notified about.
- Whether the property is subject to a homeowner or condo association, including dues and assessments.
How to Answer Each Question
Every question offers four checkboxes: Yes, No, Unknown, or Not Applicable. Yes or No means you’re making a factual statement based on what you personally know. Unknown is the right answer when you genuinely have no information, like the age of pipes you’ve never seen or the history of a system that predates your ownership. Choosing Unknown to dodge a question you actually know the answer to defeats the point of the form and leaves you exposed to the same fraud claims it’s meant to prevent.
When you mark Yes, the form asks for a short written explanation. Keep it factual and specific. “Roof replaced in 2019 by XYZ Roofing, leaked once in 2017 before replacement” is far more useful than “had some issues.” Reference dates, contractor names, and repair invoices where you have them. Don’t guess about conditions you haven’t observed. Stick to what you’ve seen yourself or what a professional inspector or contractor has put in writing.
The form covers the property as you know it, not as a professional inspector would assess it. You’re not expected to open walls or crawl under the house. But if you’ve received a termite inspection report, a repair estimate, or a notice from a government agency, your knowledge includes what those documents told you.
Getting the Form to the Buyer
In most Arkansas transactions, the seller provides the completed form before the buyer makes an offer, so the buyer can factor the home’s condition into price and terms. Your listing agent typically delivers it through the same digital platform used for the rest of the paperwork.
If the form arrives after an offer is already on the table, the purchase agreement usually builds in a review period, often three to five business days, during which the buyer can study the disclosures. The buyer can then proceed, renegotiate based on what’s disclosed, or withdraw and recover the earnest money deposit.
After the buyer reviews the form, get a signed acknowledgment of receipt and keep a copy with your transaction records. That signature is your proof that the buyer saw the information before closing. If a dispute arises later about whether a defect was disclosed, the signed acknowledgment is the most important document you’ll have.
The One Disclosure That Isn’t Optional
Federal law overrides Arkansas’s caveat emptor stance on one point: lead-based paint. Under 42 U.S.C. § 4852d, sellers of any home built before 1978 must disclose known lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards before the buyer is bound by a purchase contract.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 4852d – Disclosure of Information Concerning Lead Upon Transfer of Residential Property You also have to hand over any lead hazard evaluation reports you have and give the buyer a 10-day window to arrange a lead inspection, unless both sides agree to a different timeframe.3US EPA. Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule (Section 1018 of Title X) The closing agent provides a separate federal lead paint addendum; it’s not part of the Arkansas disclosure form.
Two Arkansas-Specific Boundaries Worth Knowing
If a former meth lab is discovered on the property, Arkansas Code § 8-7-1403 requires the owner to have the property inspected by a contractor certified through the Division of Environmental Quality. Confirmed contamination lands the property on a publicly accessible state contaminated properties list.4Justia Law. Arkansas Code 8-7-1403 – Reporting of Properties The Real Estate Commission advises that an agent who knows meth was cooked in a house should disclose it because the fact affects material value.1Arkansas Real Estate Commission. Is Property Condition Disclosure Required by Law?
Going the other direction, if someone died in the home or the property was the site of a felony, Arkansas Code § 17-10-101 says the psychological impact is not a material fact, and no lawsuit can be brought against the seller or agent for not volunteering it.1Arkansas Real Estate Commission. Is Property Condition Disclosure Required by Law? The protection covers failing to volunteer the information; it doesn’t cover lying when a buyer asks directly.
If You Hide a Defect
Caveat emptor doesn’t protect sellers who lie or actively conceal problems. If a buyer asks about a condition and you give a false answer, or if you take steps to hide a defect (painting over water-stained ceilings is the classic example), the buyer can sue for fraud or misrepresentation. Arkansas courts have held that silence itself can amount to fraud when the seller has knowledge the buyer cannot reasonably discover independently.5Justia Law. Clay v. Brand Damages can include repair costs, the difference between what the buyer paid and what the home was actually worth, and attorney fees.
This is why the disclosure form earns its keep. A completed form showing you answered honestly, with Unknown marked only where you genuinely didn’t know, is strong evidence that you weren’t concealing anything. A missing form invites the opposite inference.
How Disclosures Can Affect the Buyer’s Loan
What you put on the form can affect whether the buyer’s mortgage closes. Government-backed loans carry property condition rules that go beyond what conventional lenders require. FHA loans require the home to be safe, structurally sound, and free of hazards: the roof needs at least two years of remaining life, the foundation can’t show significant cracking or settling, peeling paint in pre-1978 homes has to be addressed, and there can be no active termite infestation. VA loans apply similar minimum property requirements focused on safety and structure.
If your disclosure flags one of these conditions, the buyer’s appraiser will likely note it, and the lender may require repairs before approving the loan. Knowing this early helps both sides. A seller who discloses an aging roof can price for it or offer a repair credit, rather than watch the deal collapse in underwriting when the appraiser catches the same issue.