The form set: which forms this deal needs

Answer a short questionnaire about the deal and get the forms it likely needs — the C.A.R. forms, the government forms that ride along, the escrow and title papers to keep a copy of, and the county, city and district forms the property's address calls for — each with the reason it's on the list.

Every transaction's Workflow tab opens on Forms this deal needs: a short questionnaire about the deal, what LetterScript knows about the property's address, and the one list of forms both call for. Answer what you know and the list builds as you go — the California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) forms, the federal and state government forms that ride along with them, the escrow and title papers your file keeps a copy of, and the county, city and district forms the property's location requires. Every form says why it's on the list.

LetterScript names the forms a deal is likely to need and counts the copies. It doesn't fill them in or hand them out, and the list may not include every local requirement: confirm it before close.

Answer the questionnaire

Under Build a form set, the questions are grouped by stage: Engagement, Listing, Offer, Escrow, Closing, Post-Close and Tenancy. The set covers sale engagements: Tenancy is the lease paperwork a sale brings with it — a seller's rent-back, a buyer's early occupancy, a tenancy the buyer takes over — and a lease listing, tenant representation or a property management agreement takes a separate written agreement the set doesn't include. Open a stage and answer what fits — which purchase agreement, how the buyer is paying, who is signing and in what capacity, what the property has to disclose. Some questions take one answer; others take every answer that applies. A question marked once per signer or once per seller is answered separately for each person signing, or for each seller — the button beneath it, such as Add another seller, adds another block. On a trust's sale or purchase, every co-trustee signs unless the trust instrument lets fewer of them act, so give each one a block. A question marked during escrow is about something that happens after acceptance.

Many questions say why they're asked, and some list the common mistakes: open the count beneath the question, such as 3 ways this goes wrong, to read them. Some answers rule each other out. Pick one and LetterScript clears the other, with a note saying why.

The list under Your forms builds as you answer. Answers in the questionnaire aren't saved until you click Save form set, and Discard throws away answers you haven't saved. While you have unsaved answers, the count beside Your forms is marked preview. LetterScript asks before you move to another section of the Workflow tab, or reload or close the page. Switching to another tab of the transaction, such as Files, doesn't ask, and your unsaved answers are lost, so save first.

The next question, at the top

The next question you haven't answered is also lifted out on its own at the top of the section, with its answers as buttons and the number of forms each one adds, such as +2. Unlike the questionnaire, an answer given there is saved straight away: a question that takes one answer saves on the click, and for one that takes several, pick every one that applies, then click Save. Skip for now moves on to the next question until you leave the section. A question answered once per signer or once per seller, such as FIRPTA — is the seller a foreign person?, can't be answered there, because one click would answer it for one person only. It still comes up in its turn, saying which stage of the questionnaire to answer it in, one block for each person; Skip for now moves past it.

The property's address

A line above the questionnaire says where the property is: the street, the city or community ("City of Oakland", "Castro Valley (unincorporated Alameda County)"), its APN, and a chip for each local program — a sewer lateral program, say — that puts a form on this deal's list. Details adds the county and the full program names.

The address decides which local forms apply. A form from another city, county or district is never listed, so an Oakland sale doesn't show Berkeley's forms, and a sale in Kern County doesn't show Los Angeles County's.

From Details you can:

Change address — re-point the transaction at the right property. Its forms are worked out again for the new address.
Sale includes another lot? Add its APN — when one sale conveys more than one lot in the same county, add each extra lot by the APN on its tax bill. The local forms of every lot count. On the free plan, each lot you add uses one property lookup. Remove one with the × on its APN. The Files and Workflow tabs still use the main address only.

When LetterScript can't fully place the address, a note under the line says so and what that means for the list:

The address couldn't be placed at all — only statewide forms are listed. Fix the address to see the city, county and district forms.
The county is known but the city or service districts aren't — county forms are listed, and the note counts the city and district forms held back; check those with the city. Fix the address if it's wrong.
Your plan's property lookups are used up — only statewide forms are listed until the address is unlocked. See plans.
The property data is refreshing — only statewide forms are listed for now, and your saved local forms stay exactly as they are.

About this property: the questions that decide the forms

Some forms apply only in some cases — only when a tenant lives there, only in an HOA, only if the city adopted a local disclosure. About this property asks only the questions whose answer changes a form on this deal's list, and says how many forms each one decides. Up to five show at a time; the rest are under More questions. Your answer saves the moment you click it — there's no separate save — and the list moves with it.

A question the questionnaire already asks, like how the buyer is paying or whether the seller is a foreign person, isn't asked twice. It reads Answer in Offer → (or the stage it's in) and takes you to that question, with the answers that would change the list marked.

Facts we used lists what the list already rests on and where each fact came from: county records ("built 1925"), the state fire map, the address itself ("The whole county is inside the Bay Area Air District" — so that question is never asked there), the contract price, your questionnaire answers, the documents on the transaction, or your own answer. An answer marked Likely comes from the property data and isn't settled until you Confirm it. Change corrects a fact; Clear takes back an answer you gave. When nothing is left to ask, the card shrinks to one line.

When two answers don't sit well together, the card opens with Answers that don't agree, saying what doesn't fit and why. Today that's the FIRPTA answer Seller is foreign, price is $300,000 or less, buyer will reside there on a sale priced over $300,000, or with a buyer that's a trust or an entity (see Withholding: FIRPTA and Form 593, below). Check in Closing → (See in Closing → if you can only view the transaction) takes you to that question with the answer marked, and the same note shows under the question while you answer it. The note changes no form on the list and doesn't stop a save: you decide which answer is wrong. It speaks only when both answers are known, so none shows while the price isn't known yet, while two sellers who are foreign (or whose status is unknown) have given different FIRPTA answers, or while a seller block you added is still blank. A seller who isn't a foreign person doesn't silence it: beside them, the other seller's $300,000 answer is still checked against the price.

A fact says only what its own source shows. The fire fact, for instance, is read from the state fire map — the state's layer, not what your city or county adopted, and the two differ. A local agency may have adopted a more severe zone than the state map shows, so treat "no High or Very High zone" as the state map's answer, not the last word, and confirm a hazard-driven form with the local agency. The same goes for any fact drawn from a map rather than from a document you uploaded.

Whether a tenant lives there follows the same rule. An occupancy that came from the deal summary rather than from a form can show that a tenant lives there, but it never settles that none does. A summary's "Vacant at close of escrow" describes closing day, not who lives there now, so the tenant question is still asked.

Once the address is placed, the questionnaire stops asking Is the property in one of the places whose local forms this set includes? — the address answers it. A saved answer to it stays, marked as superseded by the property's location; clear it unless you mean the forms it adds. When you answer that no tenant lives there, or that the property isn't in an HOA, the questionnaire's tenancy questions (Is the property tenant-occupied? in the Offer stage and Is the buyer ending a tenancy after closing? in Post-Close) or its HOA question are set aside too, unless you've already answered them.

When a tenant lives there, Is a tenant living in the property? also says who may end a tenancy: the seller before closing, the buyer after it. Choose Yes, leaving after a termination notice only for the seller's notice before closing; a tenancy the buyer will end after closing counts as Yes, and the tenant stays after the sale. Does a city or county rent-control or just-cause ordinance cover this rental? decides the local rent check, and two rarer questions sit under Only in unusual cases, on the rows they decide: Which Tenant Protection Act exemption covers this tenancy? and Is the property government-assisted housing, or does a tenant pay with a housing voucher? See Tenant-occupied sales, rent-backs and leases, below.

Two of these questions decide whether the seller owes the Transfer Disclosure Statement and the notices that go with it. Is this new home sold under a Department of Real Estate public report? is asked on a new-construction deal; a resale never has a public report, so it isn't asked there. Is any seller signing as trustee of a revocable trust a person who once owned the home, or who lived in it within the past year? is asked when a trustee is, or may be, one of the sellers. See Who owes the Transfer Disclosure Statement, below. On a new-home deal in a Mello-Roos district, Is the seller the subdivider (the developer who divided the land into lots or units), or its agent, selling a lot or unit of that subdivision? decides whose notice of special tax the buyer gets. Answering that the home is sold under a public report, or is a completed home in a city subdivision that needs none, settles it yes, and a resale settles it no. See Mello-Roos: the subdivider's notice and the resale notice, below.

On a manufactured home or mobilehome, a few more questions can appear. Where does the manufactured or mobile home sit? decides the park's own documents: when the home is on a rented space in a mobilehome park and stays there, the list adds the notices park management gives the buyer, the park's buyer-approval and repair-list papers as optional rows, and the rental agreement that has to be in the escrow. A resident-owned park organized as a condominium, planned development or stock cooperative is a common interest development, so the home takes the regular Transfer Disclosure Statement instead of the manufactured-home one; a park with a residents' association isn't one for that reason alone. Has the manufactured home been converted to real property? is asked when the home is sold with its land, and when it's sold without the land but isn't on a rented park space — a home on land held under a long lease, or in a resident-owned park, can be converted too. A foundation alone doesn't convert it, and until it's converted it still transfers on its title from the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), so the HCD transfer forms stay listed (beside the deed when the land is sold too). Once it's converted, it goes by a recorded deed, or an assignment of the lease, with its PCOR, and the HCD transfer forms drop off. How is the manufactured home taxed? picks the tax paper HCD needs: the county tax collector's tax clearance for a home on the county tax roll (decal number starting with L), or HCD's retail value certification for one that pays the yearly fee instead (decal starting with A). Until it's answered, that row reads Choose one. The county's year built belongs to the lot — in a park, the park's — so on a manufactured home it's marked Likely and labeled as the lot's year, and What year was the home built or manufactured? asks for the home's own year, from its data plate, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) label or its HCD registration card. Ticking Built before 1978 in the questionnaire answers it too, ahead of the lot's year. See Manufactured homes and mobilehomes, below, for the park's deadlines and the HCD title papers.

On a buyer-side or dual-agency deal with no purchase agreement chosen yet, Is your buyer-side client buying the property, not only leasing it? decides whether the written buyer representation agreement is owed. See The buyer representation agreement, below.

A few more questions come up only when a form on the list turns on them:

Does the property still have a water storage tank supplied under the dry-well assistance program (Water Code 13194)? — asked separately from where the water comes from, because a home with one nearly always has the failed well too. A yes lists the tank disclosure statement; the well's own forms still follow the water-source answer.
Is a wood-destroying pest (termite) report part of this deal? — tick either answer, or both. When the contract or the buyer's lender requires a report, the list adds its delivery to the buyer, which the seller's broker makes. A report no one requires adds no row, but the seller still discloses every report it has, not only the latest one.
Does the property carry a PACE assessment? — a Property Assessed Clean Energy loan paid with the property taxes. A yes lists the agency's notice the seller gets and gives the buyer, as for a Mello-Roos tax. When a transfer disclosure statement on file lists a PACE program among the home's systems, yes is pre-selected for you to confirm.
Do the sellers or the association know that the building contains asbestos-containing construction materials? — for a home in a homeowners association built before 1979, under Only in unusual cases. A yes lists the disclosure to the buyer, due as soon as practicable before title transfers, beside the association's sign posted in each building that has them. The mailed notice is owed only by an owner or association with employees working in the building, who gives them the notice and mails it to the other owners, a new owner within 15 days after the agreement; the sign plus the disclosure excuses that mailing. Only what's actually known counts, a missed notice doesn't undo the sale, and known asbestos is a material fact to disclose either way.
Is the home under a recorded affordable-housing resale restriction (a capped resale price, buyer income limits or an owner-occupancy rule)?, Is a recorded environmental restriction or land use covenant on the property (for example a state covenant limiting its use after a cleanup)? and Has the city or county issued a notice of violation or citation for substandard housing (the State Housing Law) that is not yet corrected? — each sits on its own row under Only in unusual cases until it's answered. A recorded resale restriction binds the sale: before the home is marketed, follow its own resale process (the program's notice and approval, any purchase option it gives the city or the program, the price limit) and its buyer eligibility and occupancy terms. An environmental restriction runs with the land and binds the buyer: follow its own notice terms, and give the buyer a copy. The preliminary title report lists both. After a notice of violation that hasn't been corrected, the seller records a Notice of Conveyance of Substandard Property within 5 days after the transfer, naming the buyer, and gives the agency the buyer's details; the buyer takes the property subject to the agency's orders. A zoning or other code citation may come under a different law, so ask the agency which before answering.
Is a home equity line of credit on the property being paid off through escrow? — an escrow question, for a home of one to four units, under Only in unusual cases. A yes lists the Borrower's Instruction to Suspend and Close Equity Line of Credit: escrow usually prepares it, each borrower signs it, and once the lender has it, nothing more can be drawn on the line, which the lender closes when it's paid off.
Do the CC&Rs, the deed or another recorded document restrict who may own or live in the property by race, religion or another protected characteristic (not a lawful age limit in senior housing)? — such a restriction is void. A lawful age limit in qualifying senior housing, such as a 55-and-over community, isn't one of them. A yes lists the Restrictive Covenant Modification as optional (recording it is the owner's or buyer's choice; telling them about it is yours) and the statutory cover page or stamp that goes on any copy of the CC&Rs, governing documents or a deed you hand over. The cover page is also listed on any deal in a homeowners association.
Is this the first sale of a unit in an existing building converted to a condominium, community apartment project or stock cooperative? — asked on a new-construction deal; the condominium conversion purchase agreement pre-selects it. A yes lists the seller's statement of defects in the major systems. On a sale under a public report in a common interest development, Was the home completed or first occupied three years or more before the developer applied for the public report? decides the Existing Subdivision Interest Disclosure, and the builder's Common Interest Development General Information statement and governing documents are listed too.
Are you referring the buyer or seller to a lender, escrow, title or other settlement business that your brokerage, or someone in it, has an ownership interest in? — on a sale with a loan, a yes lists the federal affiliated business disclosure, due no later than the referral.
Is the deed exempt from documentary transfer tax under a specific exemption? — an escrow question. The usual exemptions on a home sale are a gift, a transfer between spouses in a divorce or legal separation, a deed into the owner's own trust, or a deed to the foreclosing lender, and a rarer one the deed itself cites counts too; an ordinary sale, including a bank's resale of a foreclosed home or a sale by a trustee or an executor, is taxable. The deed shows the tax due or the exemption claimed. A deed to the foreclosing lender is exempt only up to the unpaid debt and states the facts that make it so, and a divorce transfer carries a signed statement that it qualifies. A yes lists the county's exemption declaration where the county has one, which escrow files, and moves the few local rows that don't apply to an exempt transfer under Doesn't apply here. The question used to read more broadly, so a yes saved before it changed is set aside, with a note that a saved answer no longer applies, and the question is asked again; a saved no stands.
How is the building constructed? — asked for a building put up before 1975 that isn't a manufactured home or land. A pre-1960 home of one to four units with a conventional wood light frame gets the residential earthquake guide and disclosure. Any building put up before 1975 of masonry, unreinforced or reinforced, or of precast concrete, with wood-frame floors or roof, gets the Commercial Property Owner's Guide to Earthquake Safety, whatever its use or size, a home included, except on the transfers the law exempts (Government Code §8893.3), such as a court-ordered, foreclosure, fiduciary or family transfer, or a sale to a buyer who agrees in writing to demolish the building within a year. A steel or concrete frame, or masonry with concrete floors and roof, gets neither: answer Something else: a steel or concrete frame, or masonry or precast concrete with concrete floors and roof. The old Something else answer covered both kinds, so one saved before the change still counts as "not a wood light frame": the residential guide and disclosure stay off the list, and the question is asked again offering only the two answers it could have meant.
Is there a wood stove, fireplace insert, pellet stove or open fireplace? — some air districts and towns require a statement, or a certified device, at sale. If there's more than one, answer for the least compliant: a non-certified freestanding stove first, then a non-certified insert. A pellet stove has its own answer, certified or not: Placer County's air district, for one, exempts pellet stoves from its woodstove disclosure.
How is the city's resale retrofit requirement (water fixtures, and in some cities energy measures) being handled? — answer for the whole requirement, not only the plumbing. Chico's covers energy measures such as ceiling insulation too, so Already compliant means every item on the city's list is done; when the buyer takes over the rest, the city's transfer agreement is listed.
Has the seller done, or will the buyer do within a year after closing, seismic, solar or fire-hardening work that may qualify for a city transfer-tax rebate? — under Only in unusual cases. Berkeley's seismic rebate also covers qualifying work the buyer finishes within a year after closing, so a buyer-side deal can claim it; San Francisco's credit goes only to the seller who did the work. The question doesn't ask whose work it is, so in San Francisco a yes for the buyer's planned work still shows the city's form under Optional for this address. Don't Add it unless the seller did the work; its Details say the same under when it's due.
Is ownership changing by transfer of a controlling interest in an entity, with no deed recorded? — under Only in unusual cases. With no deed, the deed and the PCOR drop off. Instead the change is reported to the State Board of Equalization on the Statement of Change in Control and Ownership of Legal Entities (BOE-100-B) within 90 days, by the person or entity that acquired control, or by the entity itself when its original co-owners have together transferred more than half of it; a late or missing statement draws a 10% penalty. Where the county taxes an entity transfer, its own transfer tax filing is listed too.

In Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, CAL FIRE doesn't handle the sale's defensible-space inspection; the city or county fire agency does. Where the list has that agency's own request form, it's listed; elsewhere in those counties, a home in a High or Very High fire zone lists Defensible-space compliance documentation from the local fire agency, with no form of its own — ask the fire agency which route applies.

Your forms

Your forms is one list, grouped by when each form comes up: Listing, Offer, Escrow, Closing, After closing and Any time (plus Engagement and Tenancy for the questionnaire's own forms). The C.A.R. forms and the government forms sit side by side.

A government form shows the number its issuer prints (for example Form 593 or BOE-502-A) — or its name alone when it prints no number — with a Federal, State, County, City or District tag. The line beneath names the issuer and who prepares it: Your side, Seller's side, Buyer's side, Escrow or title, Lender or The agency — and, on a manufactured home or mobilehome, Park management for the park's own notices and Your side, or escrow if one is used for HCD's transfer form. A property-tax claim filed after closing, such as a Proposition 19 base-year transfer, reads Your client: the claimant is the owner who sold one home and bought its replacement, so on a sale it can be your seller. The affiliated business disclosure and the CC&Rs cover page read Your side whichever side you represent: they're the duty of whoever makes the referral or hands over the copy. So does the state's agency disclosure form, which each agent gives to their own client (see The buyer representation agreement, below). Which side is yours comes from the side set on the Purchase timeline, or else the transaction's type; on a dual-agency deal each side is named. Details gives the issuer, the form number, the current edition, why the form is on the list, Who completes it (who fills it in, signs it and delivers it; on the Transfer Disclosure Statement, for instance, the seller and each agent complete their own sections), when it's due, and the links: Official form (Official text when the form is a statute or notice rather than a printed form), Open the portal for a form that's filed online (tick it when you have the confirmation), and Blank on file when a blank copy is stored.

Three rows are neither C.A.R. forms nor government forms: they're papers escrow or the title company prepares, which your file keeps a copy of. Each carries a Collect a copy tag and no form number, with the issuer beneath it, and its Details say what to check and, for the first two, link The law behind it. Every purchase lists the Preliminary title report (under Escrow) and the Final closing statement (escrow settlement statement) (under Closing); the Owner's title insurance policy (under After closing) is listed only when it'll be issued. See Escrow, title and the closing papers, below. LetterScript doesn't match these papers to your uploads yet, so they don't show On file: tick each one yourself once you have it.

Most rows are simply needed. A few carry a label:

Depends on an answer — a dashed row with no checkbox. It isn't in your set yet; Depends on: names the question that decides it and takes you there.
Choose one — the agency accepts more than one form for the same thing. Answer the question on the row to pick; until you do, the set carries the usual one.
Added by hand — a form someone added from Browse all. Hover it, or open Details, to see who added it (you, for a form you added) and when.
No longer needed — the property or your answers changed after you ticked it collected. It stays because it's ticked; untick it and the next update drops it.

A row can also carry On file — beside one of those labels, never instead of one — when a document you've already uploaded looks like that form. See Forms already in your files, below.

A few rows stay listed only until a rarer question is answered — one About this property doesn't ask, because it seldom changes anything: on a teardown, whether the buyer has agreed in writing that the buildings will be demolished within a year of the transfer (the earthquake guide and the earthquake risk disclosure); whether the homeowners association's development is limited to commercial or industrial use (the association's billing and reserve-funding disclosures); whether the buyer's loan is consumer credit (the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure); and, on a principal residence sold for $250,001 to $500,000, whether each seller will certify as a married seller for the $500,000 limit (the Form 1099-S choice). Open the row's Details, where Listed until answered asks it, with its answers as buttons. An answer that takes the row off moves it under Doesn't apply here with the reason, or, on a questionnaire row such as the Closing Disclosure, reads Not needed here beneath it. Your answer then shows under Facts we used, where Change and Clear work as for any other answer. The Form 1099-S row is a Choose one row, so its question sits right beneath the row's own, not in Details.

When a government form is the same form as a C.A.R.-questionnaire row — the county's printing of the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report behind BOE-502-A, say — it isn't listed twice. The row gets a link to the county's printing instead.

That row also shows what LetterScript's list of government forms says about its form. When the answers rule the form out for this deal, the row reads Not needed here, naming the form and the answer that rules it out — the deed and the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR) on a manufactured home that's sold without its land and is still on its HCD title, for instance. The questionnaire still lists the row; the note tells you the form isn't called for. The note names the exact form it's about, which can be narrower than the row: on an executor's sale it says the statutory grant deed isn't needed, because the executor signs an executor's deed instead. On an FHA loan for a lender's resale of a home it took back by foreclosure (REO, real estate owned), the FHA-VA Amendatory Clause (FVAC) row reads Not needed here for FHA's amendatory clause; the VA clause, which the same row carries, isn't mentioned, since only a VA loan calls for it.

If a form really doesn't apply to this deal, open its Details and click Doesn't apply to this deal. For a needed form you pick a reason — Exempt, Handled outside this set or Other (with a note) — so the file shows why it's missing. A form you added yourself just comes off with Remove from this set.

Form 593, the PCOR and the deed are different: the questionnaire lists them on every purchase, and no answer takes them off. Open the row's Details and click Doesn't apply to this deal; the only reason it takes is Outside the rule (escrow confirmed), with an optional note, and Mark it as not applying saves it. Use it only when escrow confirms the rule doesn't reach this sale at all: no Form 593 will be filed, or nothing will be recorded, so there's no deed and no PCOR. A seller's exemption is not that. An exempt seller certifies the exemption on Form 593 itself, and escrow still files the form with the Franchise Tax Board, so never mark Form 593 for an exempt seller. Likewise, a sale that claims an exclusion from reassessment still files the PCOR with the deed. The row stays on the list, marked Doesn't apply to this deal — Outside the rule (escrow confirmed), with your note, who marked it and Restore, and the CSV export says the same in its status column. Any other form the questionnaire names, such as the FIRPTA forms, can't be marked this way: it follows the questionnaire's answers.

Beneath the list, four groups stay closed until you open them:

Escrow, title & lender prepare these — collect a copy — government forms someone else prepares, like the 1099-S. They aren't counted in the number beside Your forms. The questionnaire's own escrow and title papers, tagged Collect a copy, stay in the main list with the rest of its rows.
Only in unusual cases — forms that turn on something most deals never involve, such as a transfer that's exempt from transfer tax, a manufactured home sold by a licensed dealer, one whose owner has died, or one whose buyer takes over the seller's loan. Answer right there if yours does.
Optional for this address — guides, claims and alternatives that apply at this address but that no deal is required to use. Add puts one in your set.
Doesn't apply here — forms ruled out by an answer or covered by a more specific form, each with the reason, and any form someone marked Doesn't apply to this deal, with who did it, why, and Restore.

A form that has to be ordered ahead — due before listing, or with an issuing lead time — is also named in an Order early note at the top of the list.

When What kind of property is being sold? is answered 5 or more units or Commercial or mixed-use, a note at the top of the list says the questionnaire is built for homes of one to four units, names the statewide forms still listed when they apply, and names what isn't on the list at all. See Five or more units, commercial and mixed-use property, below.

Forms already in your files

A row shows On file when a document already uploaded to this transaction looks like that form. It works the same way on a C.A.R. form and on a government one.

On file is a note about what's in your files, not a verdict on the document. LetterScript matched what the document is, not what it says: it hasn't checked that the copy is the current edition, filled in, signed, or the right one for this deal. So nothing is ticked for you — that stays your call.

To see which document it found, open Details on a government form; a C.A.R. form names it on the row itself. Either way you get the document's name and the day it was uploaded, and clicking the name opens the document.

Beside Your forms, Government forms: 3 on file · 11 to gather counts the government forms in your saved set. On file is how many already have a document on this transaction that looks like them. To gather is what's left to do: the ones you haven't ticked collected and nothing in the files looks like — so ticking a form takes it off that number even when nothing on file matches it. A Still to gather line above the list repeats it, and goes away once there's nothing left. Neither number changes the count beside them, which is the size of the list.

Browse all government forms

Browse all opens every federal, state, county, city and district form LetterScript knows. Search by name, form number, issuer, city or district — searching "Oakland" finds the East Bay sewer lateral forms, which belong to the district rather than the city — and narrow by level. It opens on the property's county and statewide forms; untick the box to see every county. Forms that apply at this address come first.

Each form says where it stands: In your set, Applies at this address, Doesn't apply here (with the reason), For another place, or Other county. Add puts a form in your set, marked Added by hand with your name; adding one the address or your answers ruled out asks you to confirm first. Anyone who can view the transaction can browse; only people who can edit it can add.

When the address needs forms your set doesn't have

A set saved before LetterScript knew the property's local forms — or a transaction with no set yet — shows This address needs N forms that aren't in your set yet, naming them. Add them puts them in. A transaction with no set yet shows that number beside Forms this deal needs in the rail, flagged as forms to add.

If the property data changes after the set is saved (a corrected address, an added lot), the note reads The property data changed since this set was saved, with what would be added and dropped. Update applies it; Keep as saved leaves the set alone for now. A form you've ticked collected is never dropped — it stays, marked No longer needed. Answering any property question brings the set up to date as well.

The government forms the questionnaire names

Some government forms come from the questionnaire itself, whatever the address:

Federal

Form 8288 and Form 8288-A, from the IRS — withholding under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA), when a seller is a foreign person and no exemption applies, or a seller's status is unknown, or a seller won't sign the non-foreign affidavit. One seller withheld on is enough: a domestic co-seller's answer doesn't take them off. The buyer's withholding agent — usually escrow — files them, with a Form 8288-A for each seller withheld on (the row shows the count, such as ×2). When a foreign seller has applied, or will apply before closing, for an IRS withholding certificate, answer Seller is foreign and has applied, or will apply before closing, for a withholding certificate: the list adds Form 8288-B, the application, and escrow still withholds but files Form 8288 after the IRS decides, or not at all if the certificate excuses the withholding. See Withholding: FIRPTA and Form 593, below, for the rates.
Closing Disclosure — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) model form H-25, listed on a purchase with a conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or Veterans Affairs (VA) loan, or when the buyer assumes the seller's loan. It's owed only on consumer credit: not on a loan to a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), partnership or other organization, or one to buy a rental the buyer won't live in for more than 14 days a year, or a building of three or more units with rented units — expect a settlement statement instead. A second home for personal use still gets one, and so does a person's own living trust borrowing for the home. On an assumption, it's owed only when the lender accepts the buyer as the borrower. The lender delivers it at least 3 business days before signing. Is the buyer's loan a consumer home loan?, in the row's Details, settles it (see Your forms), and the Loan Estimate follows the same answer.
The FHA and VA amendatory clauses — FHA or VA under How is the buyer paying? (Offer) lists the FHA-VA Amendatory Clause (FVAC), which carries both. FHA requires its clause when the buyer signs the contract before getting the lender's statement of the appraised value, which is nearly every resale offer, and a new one if the price later goes up. It isn't required on a sale by HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development) or by a lender reselling a home it took back by foreclosure, a sale at foreclosure, a sale by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or another government agency, a 203(k) rehabilitation loan, or a sale to a buyer who won't live in the home. Once an answer in the questionnaire says the seller is a lender reselling a home it took back (REO), the row reads Not needed here; for the other exceptions it stays listed, and its note names them. VA's escape clause has no exception for any kind of seller: it's required when the price is above VA's reasonable value and the veteran signed before getting VA's Notice of Value, and lenders ask for it whenever the veteran signs first. An FHA loan also lists For Your Protection: Get a Home Inspection (HID), the notice the lender gives the buyer at first contact; it isn't a contract form. If the lender's appraisal calls for repairs, the purchase agreement has the buyer tell the seller in writing, on a Request for Repair (RR) or an Amendment of Existing Agreement Terms (AEA), within 17 days after acceptance unless the contract sets another time, or say there are none; the seller doesn't have to pay for them unless it agrees in writing. RR's paragraph 3 is for these repairs (Buyer asks for repairs, a credit, or a price reduction, under Investigation comes back with problems, Escrow). Keep the loan contingency until they're agreed: RR warns that a buyer who has removed it could be in breach if the lender then won't lend.
Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lead pamphlet, for a home built before 1978. It's also listed when the seller stays on 30 days or more after close, because the seller then rents the home under a lease; there too, it applies only if the home was built before 1978. A lease of 100 days or less escapes the federal lead rule only if it can't be renewed or extended, and the lease after sale (RLAS) becomes a month-to-month tenancy if the seller stays on and the buyer takes rent, so treat a rent-back of a home built before 1978 as covered.

State

Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement (NHD) — usually ordered by the listing side from an NHD vendor. When two brokers are involved, the one who obtained the offer delivers it to the buyer unless the seller directs otherwise in writing, and tells the buyer in writing of the right to receive it if it can't be obtained. It's listed on every sale, because the hazard-zone disclosures it carries — flood, dam inundation, fire hazard severity zone, state responsibility area (wildland fire), earthquake fault and seismic hazard — are owed whenever the property is in one of those zones. The statement itself is required for a home of one to four units, including a building that mixes one to four homes with other uses, and for a manufactured home or mobilehome, with or without the land, that is real property or is sold through a real estate broker; the Manufactured or mobile home answer in the Offer stage lists it too. For a building of five or more units, commercial property or vacant land, and for a seller exempt from the statement, such as an estate's executor or a lender reselling a foreclosed home, the form itself is optional and there's no right to cancel, but the zone disclosures are still owed, and the NHD report is the usual way to make them. The row says which applies. Delivered late on a home of one to four units, it gives the buyer a right to cancel; see When a disclosure arrives late, below.
Form 593, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) Real Estate Withholding Statement, one for each seller. Once escrow gives the buyer written notice of the withholding rules, the duty to withhold, and the liability for failing to, are the buyer's; escrow handles it for the buyer. Each seller signs Form 593 before closing to certify a full or partial exemption, or to choose withholding on the gain instead of on the price; otherwise escrow withholds 3⅓% of the total sales price when it's over $100,000, and files the form, with anything withheld, by the 20th of the month after closing. In an installment sale the buyer also signs it and withholds on each later principal payment. Escrow usually files one for an exempt sale too; whether one is needed at $100,000 or less is for escrow to confirm. See Withholding: FIRPTA and Form 593, below. The withholding is on a sale of California real property, and the FTB's own guidance treats a manufactured home or mobilehome on the county property-tax roll, or permanently fixed to a foundation, as inside it, whether or not it's still on its HCD title. The case that may fall outside is a home on HCD's yearly fee instead of property tax, not on a permanent foundation, sold without its land: ask escrow whether Form 593 applies at all.
Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR), form BOE-502-A — completed by the buyer and filed with the deed. When the county prints its own version, the row links to it. A manufactured home or mobilehome sold without its land, while it's still on its HCD title, records no deed, so it has no PCOR either; a home on the county tax roll gets the buyer's Change in Ownership Statement (BOE-502-AH) instead, within 90 days, unless a licensed dealer sells it and reports the sale itself. A home converted to real property on leased land or in a resident-owned park is conveyed by a recorded instrument, and its PCOR goes with it.
The deed conveying title — drafted by escrow or title, signed before a notary by every seller on title, and by a spouse or registered domestic partner who isn't on title when the home is or may be community property (see Who signs, below), and recorded at close. No government issues a deed form, so its Official source is Civil Code §1092, the statute that sets out the grant deed's form. A manufactured home or mobilehome sold without its land, while it's still on its HCD title, has no deed: the seller and the buyer sign that certificate of title, and HCD is told of the sale within 20 days. A home converted to real property goes by a recorded instrument instead — on leased land, an assignment of the lease. Sold with its land, the deed conveys the land, and the home too only once it's been converted.
Homeowner's Guide to Earthquake Safety — required for a home built before 1960 with one to four units of conventional light-frame construction, where the seller also completes the earthquake hazards disclosure the statute requires, printed in the guide as the Residential Earthquake Risk Disclosure Statement. The guide and the disclosure have their own exemptions, which the questionnaire answer's note lists: a new home sold under a public report, a court-ordered sale, a foreclosure or a lender's resale of a home it took back, a sale by an executor, conservator, guardian or trustee administering an estate or trust, a transfer between co-owners, to a spouse or a lineal relative such as a parent or child, or in a divorce, a teardown — the buyer's written agreement that the buildings will be demolished within a year of the transfer, which the row asks about in its Details — and a few others. For any other home, delivering the guide gives the seller and the agents a safe harbor under state law, but only for the general information it gives about earthquake hazards. It doesn't lessen the duty to disclose hazards the seller or an agent knows of, the agents' visual inspection, the TDS, the earthquake fault zone disclosure or the NHD's zone disclosures.
Residential Environmental Hazards booklet — not required. Delivering it gives the same kind of safe harbor, and with the same limit: it covers only the general information the booklet gives about common environmental hazards, never a hazard the seller or an agent knows of, and it doesn't replace the federal lead pamphlet for a home built before 1978. It's also listed for a buyer moving in 30 days or more before closing: the Interim Occupancy Agreement (IOA) prints the buyer's acknowledgment of receiving it in a box that's already checked.
Information on Dampness and Mold for Renters in California — the Department of Public Health's mold booklet. Since January 1, 2022, a landlord gives it to every prospective tenant before the lease is signed. It's listed with the leases a sale brings — the Residential Lease After Sale (RLAS) for a seller staying 30 days or more and the IOA for a buyer moving in 30 days or more early, both of which print the tenant's acknowledgment of it in a box that's already checked — and with the Lease/Rental Mold and Ventilation Addendum (LRM), which records its receipt.

Every set with a purchase agreement includes Form 593, the PCOR and the deed — their reason reads base package — and, beside them, the preliminary title report and escrow's final closing statement, the two papers tagged Collect a copy (see Your forms). On a manufactured home sold without its land that's still on its HCD title, the deed and PCOR rows read Not needed here (see Your forms, above). Most of these are prepared by someone else — escrow, title, the lender, an NHD vendor or the buyer. They're on the list so you can confirm each one is in the file.

When LetterScript can't place the address, the questionnaire still asks Is the property in one of the places whose local forms this set includes?, which adds San Francisco's Report of Residential Building Record (3R) and Transfer Tax Affidavit, San Mateo County's Transfer Tax Affidavit (DTT Affidavit) (form REC-SMC-012011), or Berkeley's Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO) application for a building of three or four units; for any other property, answer Somewhere else — or a Berkeley single-family home, duplex or condominium. A Berkeley BESO filing is due before listing, and San Francisco's 3R takes the Department of Building Inspection about 7–10 business days to issue — order it at listing. The seller delivers the 3R to the buyer before close and the buyer files a receipt with the Department, and the listing broker gives a copy to any prospective buyer who asks. A 3R is valid for one year from the day it's issued, so one left from an earlier listing or a failed escrow may have expired.

In San Francisco, the seller also owes the city's energy and water conservation work at sale (Housing Code §1211). The water measures apply on each sale, even where compliance was recorded before; the energy measures apply only to a building permitted on or before July 1, 1978 with no recorded compliance. Some transfers are exempt from both: a court-ordered sale (a court-confirmed probate sale among them, but not a sale under independent administration unless a court order ratifies it), a foreclosure, a transfer by a fiduciary administering a guardianship, conservatorship or trust, and a transfer between co-owners or to a spouse, registered domestic partner or lineal relative. The seller gives the buyer written notice of the requirements. The city's brochure, under Optional for this address, is one way, but it prints the 2009 fixture limits: since 2026, showerheads and faucets may flow no more than 1.8 gallons a minute, and toilets 1.28 gallons a flush. Then either the seller has the inspections made, installs the measures and records the city's Certificate of Compliance before or with the transfer, or the seller still has both inspections made and filed with the city, and buyer and seller sign an escrow agreement: the buyer installs the measures within 180 days, and escrow holds 1% of the price until the certificate arrives, paying it to the city if the certificate hasn't arrived 180 days after closing.

In Berkeley, a building of three or four units files the BESO energy assessment before listing, or requests a time-of-listing deferral; on a deferral, every prospective buyer gets the city's fuel source disclosure packet, which also goes on the listing, and the buyer or the title company completes the city's deferral form before close. A single-family home or duplex needs a Home Energy Score before listing, posted on the MLS and put in the disclosures. Before close, its seller gets a Certificate of Compliance for the upgrades or the heat-pump exemption, or defers the upgrades to the buyer on the BESO Upgrade Deposit Form, signed by both, with $2,500 from each paid through title. Once the address is placed in Berkeley, the list carries the BESO application that fits the building, and the Upgrade Deposit Form under Optional for this address.

The rules that decide a few rows

A few rows rest on a legal rule worth knowing, because an answer in the questionnaire, or under About this property, decides them.

Who owes the Transfer Disclosure Statement

Most sellers of a home of one to four units owe the Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS). Which transfer disclosure applies?, in the Listing stage, and the capacity each seller signs in decide who doesn't:

Fiduciaries, court sales and foreclosed homes. The answer Seller is TDS-exempt — trustee, executor, REO is for an estate's executor or administrator, a guardian or conservator, a trustee administering a trust, a sale under court order (such as a probate, receivership or bankruptcy sale), and a lender reselling a home it took by foreclosure (a real-estate-owned, or REO, sale).
Living trusts. A trust isn't exempt just for being a trust. When the trustee of a revocable trust is a person who once owned the home, however long ago, or lived in it within the past year, the TDS is owed: answer One to four residential, ordinary seller, or Manufactured or mobile home for a manufactured home or mobilehome. With co-trustees, it's owed if any one of them meets that test, even if the others don't. When a trustee is, or may be, one of the sellers, About this property asks about it. Until it's answered, the TDS stays listed as needed for a seller signing as trustee; after the Seller is TDS-exempt answer alone, which doesn't say who signs, a TDS the questionnaire hasn't listed reads Depends on an answer. Answering that no trustee once owned or lived in the home moves it under Doesn't apply here.
Sellers in different capacities. When one seller signs for an estate and another in their own name (a surviving spouse beside the executor, say), the TDS stays on the list: the exemption covers the fiduciary, not the other sellers.
New homes. A new home skips the TDS only when it's sold under a Department of Real Estate public report, or it's a completed home in a city subdivision that the law lets the builder sell without one. A builder of four or fewer homes has no public report and owes the TDS. On a new-construction deal, About this property asks which applies. When there is a report, the Receipt for Public Report (RE 614E) is listed: the buyer signs one for each report, a preliminary report before any reservation deposit and a conditional or final report before a binding contract, and the sale can't close until the buyer has the final report.

Several notices that go with the TDS read the same answers, and the Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement has its own, parallel living-trust rule. The point-of-sale (POS) disclosure checklist on the Files tab reads the same answers too, so it never calls a seller exempt while the form set still lists the TDS as owed. While the living-trust question is open, though, the checklist marks the TDS May not apply and names the question, where the form set keeps it listed until the answer comes in.

The other disclosures in the same law follow the TDS:

Fire hardening and defensible space. In a High or Very High fire hazard severity zone, the seller gives the fire-hardening notice for a home built before 2010 and documentation that the property meets the defensible-space rules where a local vegetation ordinance requires it (as the ordinance says), or where an agency or qualified nonprofit offers the inspection (a report obtained in the 6 months before the seller entered into the sale). Without it, the seller and buyer agree in writing that the buyer will get it — as the ordinance says, or within a year after closing where only the inspection program applies. The FHDS also lets the seller take it on instead, delivering documentation the seller already has or getting it before the buyer's final verification of condition (FHDS paragraph 3C). Where the home was newly built, or rebuilt after a fire, and the construction needed a permit, a seller who obtained the final inspection report on its fire-hardening building standards attaches a copy or says where the buyer can get one (FHDS paragraph 4). Where there's neither an ordinance nor an inspection program, the documentation law (Civil Code §1102.19) asks for nothing. The state-route rows sit under Listing with that due date. Both duties fall away wherever the TDS does, including a sale under a public report and a lender's resale; a trustee who once owned the home or lived there within the past year still owes them. A local fire or vegetation ordinance (Berkeley, Truckee or a fire district such as Ventura County's, for example) applies whoever sells, so its rows keep their own deadlines. The High or very high fire hazard severity zone answer (Listing) lists the Fire Hardening and Defensible Space Disclosure and Addendum (FHDS), whose note lists the exemptions.
A recorded private transfer fee. Recorded private transfer fee (Listing) lists the Notice of Private Transfer Fee (NTF), which goes to the buyer with the TDS: that a fee must be paid, its amount at the asking price or how it's figured, who receives it, what it pays for and when the obligation ends. The buyer signs for a copy. It's only for a fee that a deed, contract or other document affecting the transfer imposes: a city or county transfer tax isn't one, and neither are a homeowners association's assessments and fees under the Davis-Stirling Act. Unless Civil Code §1098 exempts it, a transfer fee must also have its own recorded Payment of Transfer Fee Required document, so look for one in the title records.
What the seller knows. The Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ) is where an ordinary seller makes the law's other knowledge-based disclosures — an industrial use nearby, a former military ordnance site within a mile, a resale within 18 months after the seller took title (with the contractors' work and permits), state or local rules on replacing the gas appliances sold with the home, and smoking on the property — so answer every item. The Exempt Seller Disclosure (ESD) asks only about the industrial use and the ordnance site, though an exempt seller still discloses every known material fact. Under the purchase agreement, a seller who owes the TDS completes the SPQ, and an exempt seller completes either the ESD or the SPQ (RPA paragraph 11A(3)). The SPQ only asks about noncompliant plumbing fixtures, where the ESD also states the duty to replace them, so an exempt seller using the SPQ also needs Water-conserving fixtures / carbon monoxide compliance; and a lender-owned (REO) sale keeps the ESD, since the REO water heater and smoke alarm statement (WHSD) is printed for use with it.

When a disclosure arrives late

If the TDS or the NHD, or a material change to either, reaches the buyer after the buyer signs the offer, the buyer can cancel within 3 days after it's delivered in person, or 5 days after it's mailed or delivered electronically when the parties agreed to do business electronically. The TDS clock starts once the seller's sections, and the listing agent's inspection section when the seller has an agent, are delivered. The manufactured-home TDS gives the same 3 days in person or 5 by mail. Until the disclosure is delivered, the right stays open, but the statutory right to cancel ends at close of escrow: after closing, the sale can't be undone just because the disclosure was missing, though the buyer can still recover damages, and other grounds to undo a sale, such as fraud, remain. That's why the questionnaire builds the disclosure package at Listing. Which transfer disclosure applies? (Listing) and Disclosures are delivered — or delivered late (Escrow) list this among their common mistakes. The purchase agreement adds a right of its own: a later or amended version of the disclosures in its paragraphs 11A-11E (the TDS, the NHD and the other statutory and supplemental disclosures, the Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ) among them, and the lead, fire hardening, defensible space and electrical disclosures) delivered after the offer is signed, a corrected SPQ included, gives the buyer the same 3 days after delivery in person, or 5 after it's mailed or delivered electronically, to cancel (RPA paragraph 11H(1)). A delivered disclosure needs correcting or supplementing (Escrow) lists the Amendment to Prior Disclosure (APD). The purchase agreement doesn't require an amendment for conditions the buyer already knows about or discovers, or that are in reports the buyer was given or ordered and paid for.

Waiving or removing contingencies doesn't give any of this up: not the seller's TDS and NHD, not the agents' visual-inspection disclosures, and not the buyer's right to cancel after a late one. The notes on Non-contingent or heavily waived (Offer) and Buyer removes contingencies (Escrow) say so. What a waiver does give up is the contingency itself: a buyer who removes one and then cancels for that reason may be in default and could lose the deposit or owe damages, and each contingency may stand alone, so the loan contingency doesn't cover a low appraisal and insurance isn't necessarily part of the investigation or loan contingency (the Non-Contingent Offer Advisory, NCOA). For a TDS or NHD that hasn't been delivered, the buyer doesn't need a Notice to Seller to Perform (NSP): the right to cancel hasn't started running, so it stays open until delivery. If the agent can't get the TDS from the seller and has no written assurance that the buyer received it, the agent tells the buyer in writing of the right to receive it. NSP is the contract's route for other disclosures and for repairs, though it has no repair item of its own (a repair goes on one of its Other lines). It's also how the buyer demands that the seller remove the seller's own contingencies: finding or closing on a replacement property (SPRP) or, on an assumed VA loan, the release of liability and substitution of eligibility (AFA).

Three disclosures beside the TDS

The first two are owed even by a seller who doesn't owe the TDS; the third goes with it.

Water-conserving plumbing fixtures. For a building built and available for use on or before January 1, 1994, the seller tells the buyer in writing about the requirement to replace noncompliant toilets, showerheads, faucets and urinals, and whether the property has any. An executor, a conservator or a lender reselling a foreclosed home owes it too. The few exceptions are a registered historical site, a plumber's certificate that replacing them isn't technically feasible, water service that's permanently disconnected (Civil Code §1101.7), a building with a demolition permit, for one year (§1101.6), and a city or county whose own retrofit ordinance, adopted before July 1, 2009, is still in effect (§1101.9). San Francisco and the City of Los Angeles have one, so the row moves under Doesn't apply here for an address there; elsewhere in Los Angeles County a question asks whether the city has one, and any other address keeps the row. The Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ) and the Exempt Seller Disclosure (ESD) ask whether noncompliant fixtures are present; the TDS's printed text and the notice listed with Water-conserving fixtures / carbon monoxide compliance (WCMD) state only the requirement.
The agent's visual inspection. A TDS-exempt sale — a lender-owned (REO) home, a probate or another court-ordered sale — doesn't change the listing agent's duty to inspect the property visually and disclose what the inspection shows, in a separate writing on an exempt sale. That's the Agent Visual Inspection Disclosure (AVID), so the REO, probate and court-confirmation answers list it too. If you represent the buyer, the purchase agreement keeps your own inspection duty (RPA paragraph 11A(2)), so One to four residential units, existing home, under Which purchase agreement? (Offer), lists AVID for you too. Your inspection goes in the TDS's buyer's-agent section or on an AVID; on an exempt sale there's no TDS, and a written AVID is recommended. On a duplex, triplex or fourplex, the TDS, SPQ, ESD and AVID each print that the form is required for all units: one copy marked for all units, or copies that each name the units they cover.
The supplemental property tax notice. The seller's notice that the buyer may get supplemental property tax bills (SPT, Civil Code §1102.6c) is listed with the TDS's answers, One to four residential, ordinary seller and Manufactured or mobile home, under Escrow, to go out with the purchase agreement's statutory notices within 7 days after acceptance; the statute itself sets no deadline. A Mello-Roos, 1915 Act or PACE notice that meets this notice's wording and type-size rules covers it too, and a natural hazard disclosure report that carries the notice in its required form delivers it.

One more is owed on the sale of any property with a water heater, whoever the seller is: the seller certifies in writing that the water heater is braced, anchored or strapped (Health and Safety Code §19211). The law has no exemption, so an executor, a court-ordered seller or a lender reselling a foreclosed home owes it too. The TDS, the purchase agreement or the earthquake guide's statement can carry it, so its row folds into the TDS, the Water Heater Statement of Compliance (WHS) or the Water Heater and Smoke Detector Statement of Compliance (WHSD) when the questionnaire lists one of them, and stands on its own when it doesn't, as on a building of five or more units or commercial property. On a set where the TDS comes only from the property's address, such as a buyer's file that never answered the Listing stage's disclosure question, both rows show: one TDS with its water heater line answered covers both. It isn't listed for vacant land or a manufactured home sold without its land, and a manufactured home sold with its land lists it only once the home has been converted to real property; until then, HCD's transfer forms carry the water heater declaration.

Smoke alarms and the written statement

Every home must have working smoke alarms, whoever sells (Health & Safety Code §13113.7; manufactured homes and mobilehomes follow their own rules). The seller's written statement that the home complies is a separate duty with its own exemptions in the smoke-alarm law (§13113.8), not the TDS's. It covers a single-family dwelling or factory-built housing (whether it reaches a duplex is unsettled), not a manufactured home or mobilehome. It isn't owed on a sale under a public report, a court-ordered sale such as a probate or bankruptcy sale, a foreclosure or a transfer to the lender after a default, a sale by an executor, administrator, conservator, guardian or trustee administering the estate or trust, a transfer between co-owners, to a spouse or a lineal relative or in a divorce, or a transfer by the State Controller or at a tax sale. A lender reselling a home it took by foreclosure, any other government seller and a builder selling a completed home without a public report don't owe the TDS but still give the statement. Whether a trustee who once owned or lived in the home counts as a trustee here is unsettled, so give it.

In the Closing stage, As you approach close of escrow, which of these has actually happened? lists the Water Heater Statement of Compliance (WHS) for Seller is TDS-exempt and the sale is not lender-owned, and the Water Heater and Smoke Alarm Statement of Compliance (WHSD) for Sale is lender-owned REO delivered with an Exempt Seller Disclosure; its common mistakes say all this. WHS has no smoke-alarm statement and WHSD is printed for REO sales only, so any other seller who owes the statement gives it in the purchase agreement or a separate writing. The smoke-alarm row of the POS disclosure checklist gives the same answer.

Five or more units, commercial and mixed-use property

The questionnaire's purchase agreements, and the TDS with the notices that go with it, are for homes of one to four units. When What kind of property is being sold? is answered 5 or more units or Commercial or mixed-use, a note at the top of Your forms says so, in three parts:

The contract isn't listed. A building of five or more units is sold on C.A.R.'s Residential Income Property Purchase Agreement (RIPA), its contract for income property of any size, and wholly commercial property on the Commercial Property Purchase Agreement (CPA). Neither, and nothing they add, is in this set. A mixed-use building with one to four homes stays on the Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA) with the Mixed Use Purchase Addendum (MU-PA), which C.A.R. wrote for it: answer Part of the property is used commercially, with one to four homes under Does the property need a hub modifier? (Offer), which also lists the Bill of Sale (BOS) its paragraph 4D requires for the commercial part's personal property. C.A.R. prints MU-PA for the RIPA as well, but this set doesn't cover the RIPA. The TDS isn't owed on five or more units; on a mixed-use building, it's listed only when the building has one to four homes.
Still listed when they apply. The statewide rows that don't turn on the unit count: the water heater certification (above); the plumbing-fixture disclosure for a building built on or before January 1, 1994, which reaches apartment buildings and commercial property too (Civil Code §1101.5(e)); the Commercial Property Owner's Guide to Earthquake Safety, for a masonry or precast concrete building with wood-frame floors or roof built before 1975 (Government Code §§8875.6, 8893.2), once the building's construction is answered, unless the transfer is one §8893.3 exempts; the hazard-zone disclosures, on the NHD row; the federal lead papers for housing built before 1978; and the substandard-housing notice when that question is answered yes.
Not on the list at all. On commercial or mixed-use property, the note adds that an owner of non-residential property who knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that a hazardous substance has been released on or under it gives the buyer written notice before the sale (Health and Safety Code §78700, formerly §25359.7); an apartment building isn't non-residential, so the note for five or more units leaves it out. On every sale, the seller discloses known facts that affect the property's value or desirability, such as code violations or unpermitted work, and no form stands for that duty.

The buyer representation agreement

When you represent the buyer, you and the buyer sign a written representation agreement as soon as practicable, and no later than when the buyer signs an offer (Civil Code §1670.50). It states the compensation, the services, when the compensation is due and how the agreement ends. It runs 3 months at most, unless the buyer is a corporation, limited liability company or partnership. It can't renew automatically, and each renewal is in writing, dated, signed by everyone and 3 months at most. An agreement that breaks the term or renewal rules is void. If your brokerage participates in a multiple listing service (MLS), you need the agreement sooner: under the National Association of REALTORS® class-action settlement, MLS participants must have a written agreement with the buyer before showing the buyer a residential property or giving a tour of one, stating the compensation and that the broker can't receive more than that amount (Broker Compensation Advisory, BCA, paragraph 2B). Give the buyer the agency disclosure (AD) before the buyer signs the agreement, and have the buyer sign its acknowledgment of receipt; if the buyer refuses to sign it, you sign and date a written statement of the refusal instead. One appointment is fine if the AD comes first. When the buyer brings you an offer you didn't write, give the AD by the next business day. Each agent gives the AD to their own client: on the other side of the deal, the listing agent gives it to the seller before the listing agreement is signed. It's owed on any sale of real property through an agent, and on a lease of more than one year.

To renew or change the agreement, Terms change — term, compensation, scope under Is an existing representation agreement changing? (Engagement) lists the Modification of Terms, Buyer Representation Agreement (MT-BR), which prints the 3-month renewal limit and the notice that compensation isn't fixed by law and can be negotiated. The older combined Modification of Listing, Buyer Representation or Other Agreement (MT) isn't listed there: it prints only the listing agreement's renewal rule. On a home of one to four units, a change that raises the compensation rate, or raises a fee that was set as a flat fee, carries that notice again, immediately before the compensation terms (Business and Professions Code §10147.5(e)). To add other terms instead, Added terms on the broker-principal side, in the same question, lists the Addendum - Generic (ADM-GEN), and Added terms on the listing agreement, under Is the listing itself changing? (Listing), lists it for a listing. ADM-GEN isn't for changing compensation: its own note sends that to a Modification of Terms, MT-BR here or the Modification of Terms, Listing Agreement (MT-LA) for a listing.

What did the buyer intake turn up? (Engagement) records the rest of the intake, and most of its answers are optional records. Three aren't. As the buyer's agent you must disclose any direct or indirect ownership interest you have in a property your buyer client is considering, and any held by a relative by blood or marriage, an entity you own part of or anyone you have a special relationship with (Business and Professions Code §10177(o)): The broker has an interest in properties being shown lists the REALTOR® Acknowledgement and Disclosures (RAD): its paragraph 3B records whose interest it is, and every principal in the transaction signs it. Choose it for a relative's or an affiliated entity's property too. The Notice of Broker Involved Properties (NBIP) is a different form: the list of properties the broker was involved with, given when the representation ends or runs out (below). And representing more than one buyer on the same property means telling each of them and getting their consent: You represent more than one buyer on the same property lists the buyer's own printing of the disclosure and consent (PRBS-B); the combined PRBS comes with the BRBC, so it isn't listed there a second time; with a Property Showing and Representation Agreement (PSRA), the PSRA prints that consent itself (PSRA paragraph 7B). Signing PRBS-B also consents to the seller or the listing agent telling other buyers and agents about your buyer's offer, unless all parties and their agents sign a confidentiality agreement (see Keeping an offer confidential, below). And a buyer who signs the representation agreement for someone else needs its own Representative Capacity Signature Disclosure, unless a completed entity paragraph in the BRBC names that signer: The buyer signs the representation agreement as a trustee, for an entity, as attorney-in-fact, or as a conservator lists RCSD-B (see Who signs: powers of attorney, trusts, entities and spouses, below).

The list follows your answer to Whose side are you engaged on? in the Engagement stage. On a buyer-side or dual-agency deal where the client is buying, it lists Written buyer representation agreement (Civ. Code 1670.50), due by the buyer's offer, unless the set already has the C.A.R. Buyer Representation and Broker Compensation Agreement (BRBC) or Property Showing and Representation Agreement (PSRA). Then it isn't listed twice: that row links to the statute instead. Any written agreement that meets the statute will do; the BRBC and the PSRA, the limited agreement for named properties, are the C.A.R. ones, with the same deadline and limits, though the PSRA's own term is shorter: 30 days at most, ending sooner if a purchase under it is completed (PSRA paragraph 4A). The BRBC is non-exclusive unless its Exclusive box is checked and the buyer initials it, so Full exclusive buyer representation, the answer that lists it, is the one for a non-exclusive BRBC too. Until the side is answered, the row reads Depends on an answer and takes you to that question.

Buyer or tenant covers a lease too, and the statute is about a buyer's offer to purchase. So until a purchase agreement is chosen in the Offer stage, the row reads Depends on an answer, and About this property asks whether your client is buying; answer No for a lease-only engagement and the row moves under Doesn't apply here. It moves there too when How wide is the buyer or tenant engagement? says No representation, compensation only or Explicitly no representation: without representation there's no representation agreement to sign.

How wide is the buyer or tenant engagement? takes more than one answer. Its first four answers still rule each other out; every other answer can sit beside any of them. A seller or another party pays you on a single party agreement lists the Single Party Compensation Agreement (SP): someone, usually a seller with no listing, agrees in writing to pay you if it deals with the party you name, on one property, whatever your agency role. Usually you represent only the party you name; if you'll represent the paying party too, that's dual agency, so answer Both sides of the same deal under Whose side are you engaged on?. The SP has the paying party acknowledge receiving the Possible Representation of More Than One Buyer or Seller disclosure (PRBS), so this answer lists PRBS as well. It also lists the Seller (or Housing Provider) Non-Agency Agreement (SNA, titled "Seller (or Landlord)" in the list), which tells the paying seller in writing that you act for the buyer only; leave SNA off if the party paying you isn't the seller, or if you'll act for that party. SP never replaces the written representation agreement, so when you represent the buyer, answer Full exclusive buyer representation or Limited, non-exclusive, named properties only with it. No representation, compensation only is only for a deal where you won't act for the buyer at all. It lists the Compensation Agreement (CA), which whichever party pays you can sign, a seller included, and which is meant for a deal with no listing, buyer representation or single party agreement, so it can't stand in for the representation agreement either, and it never goes with SP: when the paying party signs an SP, use the single party agreement answer instead. Explicitly no representation lists no form: the Buyer (Or Tenant) Non-Agency Agreement (BNA) is the listing agent's form (see Dual agency and in-house sales, below). Four more answers follow the BRBC's own signature page: More than one agent of your brokerage represents the buyer lists the Additional Agent Acknowledgment (AAA), Another brokerage co-represents the buyer the Additional Broker Acknowledgment (ABA), More than two buyers sign the representation agreement the Additional Signature Addendum (ASA), and The buyer and your broker agree to arbitrate disputes between them the Arbitration Agreement (ARB). Each is a copy of its own, apart from the one the purchase agreement needs in the Offer stage; the PSRA prints none of them.

Dual agency and in-house sales

When one brokerage's agents represent both the buyer and the seller, the brokerage is a dual agent, and so is each of those agents, even when two different agents work the two sides (Civil Code §2079.13(d)). If you represent both sides yourself, answer Both sides of the same deal under Whose side are you engaged on? (Engagement): it lists the agency disclosure (AD) and the Possible Representation of More Than One Buyer or Seller disclosure and consent (PRBS). The purchase agreement's own agency confirmation records the dual agency; the Confirmation of Real Estate Agency Relationships (AC) only corrects or adds to it. When a colleague at your brokerage represents the other side, answer your own side there, and In-house sale: one brokerage's agents represent both sides under How many people and firms are on this deal, and what does not fit on the printed page? in the Offer stage, which lists PRBS. Either way:

The purchase agreement's agency confirmation shows dual agency for both sides. If it's wrong, correct it with AC, from The agency confirmation in the contract is wrong or incomplete in the same question.
Each client gets the AD from their own agent and signs its acknowledgment. The seller doesn't need a second one because a colleague represents the buyer.
PRBS records each client's consent. Consent needs the dual agency explained to the client, not only the form signed. The same goes for Does the brokerage represent competing sellers? (Listing): when the brokerage also lists competing properties, explain what that means for marketing and offers, and get each seller's written consent on the seller's printing (PRBS-S). The signed form alone isn't the explanation. PRBS is also listed with every listing, with the BRBC and with every purchase agreement, because each has the client acknowledge receiving it, and their bundled printings include it. The single party agreement answer lists it for the same reason: the SP has the paying party acknowledge receiving it.
Without a client's express permission, neither agent tells the other side that client's confidential information, such as a willingness to take less or pay more (Civil Code §2079.21).

Helping a party who has chosen not to be represented doesn't by itself make you a dual agent (§2079.22). Each non-agency form comes with the side that uses it, so answer your own side under Whose side are you engaged on?. As the seller's agent, Open houses or showings for visitors you do not represent and A buyer with no agent deals with you directly, under What does the property itself add to the listing? (Listing), list the Open House Visitor Non-Agency Disclosure and Sign-In (OHNA-SI) and the Buyer (Or Tenant) Non-Agency Agreement (BNA): the listing agreement has you give a buyer who has no agent, and won't let you represent them, a disclosure of non-representation such as one of these at the earliest practicable time. As the buyer's agent, The seller has no agent of their own, under How many people and firms are on this deal, and what does not fit on the printed page? (Offer), lists the Seller Non-Agency Agreement (SNA), and the single party agreement answer lists it with SP. Neither — you are helping someone who is not your client lists no form. A casual visitor at an open house is owed no agency disclosure, but someone who asks you to act for them, or seeks your services in more than a casual way, is a buyer under the agency law: if you'll represent them, answer Buyer or tenant instead.

Two answers record pay that doesn't come through the purchase agreement. Neither lists a form; each says what to disclose. A lender or another settlement-service provider pays you or your brokerage, under Loan and disclosure mechanics during escrow (Escrow): pay from the lender for arranging the financing is disclosed to the buyer and the seller, with its form, amount and source, before closing; any other compensation is disclosed in full to your client by the time the parties agree; no licensee may be paid for referring clients to an escrow, pest control, home warranty or title company; and on a federally related mortgage loan a fee for referring settlement business is barred. Your compensation is credited to the buyer, or your brokerage lends the buyer money, under How is the offer being answered? (Offer): put the credit or the loan in writing in the offer or a counter offer, so the seller knows of it before accepting, and make sure the buyer's lender sees it. A referral to a business your brokerage owns part of is its own question under About this property (see above).

Three more situations turn on who the people on the deal are:

A licensee as buyer or seller. A real estate licensee, their brokerage or their relative is buying or selling, under How many people and firms are on this deal, and what does not fit on the printed page? (Offer), lists the REALTOR® Acknowledgement and Disclosures (RAD): its paragraph 3B is C.A.R.'s written disclosure, ticked for whose interest it is and signed by every principal in the transaction. For a purchase, RAD lists only yourself, your immediate family, your brokerage and an entity any of you has an interest in, so disclose any other relationship in the writing as well. Disclose it in writing before the offer is accepted. When you, your brokerage, your relative or an entity any of you controls buys a listing your brokerage holds, tell the seller that and every material fact with it, including any plan to resell and the profit or assignment fee expected, and get the seller's informed written consent. Dealing for yourself where you represent no one, say in writing that you're licensed and don't represent the other side. Money paid to a licensee who is the buyer reduces the price; it isn't a commission. In a probate sale, the estate owes no commission to an agent who is the buyer, or who represents the buyer and has an interest in the buyer.
A new broker, or a buyer assigned in. The listing moves to another broker (Listing) and The agreement moves to a different broker (Engagement) list the agency disclosure (AD) beside the transfer form: the client acknowledges the new broker's AD, attached to the transfer, before signing it. On the listing side the transfer is the Transfer of Listing Agreement (TOL). It treats the old brokerage, not the agent, as the party to the listing, so the seller, the old brokerage and the new one sign it, whether or not the agent moves too, and the new brokerage takes the listing on its existing terms unless the seller signs a new listing agreement with it. The agreement moves to a different broker also lists the Cancellation of Agency Confirmation (CAC), which the buyer, the old broker and the new broker sign. When the property is already in escrow, use The buyer's brokerage changes while in escrow or The seller's brokerage changes while in escrow, under A term of the accepted contract is changing (Escrow): each lists the transfer form, CAC, the new firm's AD and the Confirmation of Agency Relationships (AC) that replaces the purchase agreement's agency confirmation. There the buyer and the seller both sign CAC, because it amends the purchase agreement. A buyer's broker who withdraws after an offer, leaving the buyer to go on alone, uses CAC's first paragraph with COBR (The buyer's broker withdraws after the offer is made and the buyer goes on without one, Offer). A buyer brought in by assignment gets the AD from its own broker before signing, so A buyer is added, replaced or deleted after acceptance (Offer) and The buyer is replaced (Escrow) list it too. The buyer is replaced also covers adding or removing a buyer during escrow. When a different broker represents the assignee, that broker also confirms the relationship on a Confirmation of Real Estate Agency Relationships (AC), using its "by adding to" box: answer The agency confirmation in the contract is wrong or incomplete (Offer) for it.
Referral fees and splits between brokers. They need no form in this set: C.A.R.'s Referral Fee Agreement (RFA) and Agent Commission Sharing agreement (ACS) belong in the brokerage's own file, not the client's. Pay a referral share only through the responsible broker, and check that the payee holds a licence, another state's for an out-of-state referral. The Declaration Regarding Real Estate License and Tax Reporting (DLT), under Closing, is for a broker-to-broker split, not for a party who holds a licence.

Fire-area ZIP codes: the unsolicited-offer attestation

Civil Code §2079.26 covers residential property in 15 fire-affected ZIP codes: 90049, 90263, 90265, 90272, 90290, 90402, 91001, 91024, 91103, 91104, 91106, 91107, 91301, 91302 and 91320. It applies to title transfers through December 31, 2026, and is repealed on January 1, 2027.

Every residential purchase there needs a written attestation, signed by the buyer and the seller before title transfers, that the deal didn't come from an unsolicited offer, whether or not the home was on the multiple listing service (MLS). The buyer records it with the deed. The statute doesn't prescribe a form: the C.A.R. Unsolicited Offer Attestation (UOA) is one, and the questionnaire lists it. UOA's paragraph 2 records why the offer wasn't unsolicited, including an offer made before Assembly Bill 851 was enacted on October 10, 2025. Its paragraph 4 advises the buyer and the seller to ask a professional whether their signatures must be notarized before it can be recorded; if they must, answer A signature must be acknowledged before a notary too, which lists the Notary Acknowledgment (NA). To list it, answer Residential purchase in a Civ. Code §2079.26 ZIP code under What position is this offer in? in the Offer stage. The questionnaire doesn't pick that answer for you from the address, but Required here on the Files tab shows the rule for a property in one of those ZIP codes. When the transaction is set to close on or after January 1, 2027, that row stays required, because a close date can still move earlier, and its note says the attestation isn't needed if title transfers on or after that date. From January 1, 2027, the questionnaire stops listing the UOA for that answer, and the Files tab and the address lookup stop listing the rule. Before closing, make sure escrow has the signed attestation to record with the deed; As you approach close of escrow, which of these has actually happened? (Closing) carries that reminder.
An unsolicited offer there is prohibited. An offer isn't unsolicited when, by the time it's made, the owner has publicly shown a willingness to sell, for example by listing the home on the MLS or another public marketing platform, putting up a for-sale sign, or advertising it in print or on a posted flyer, or when it was made before the law took effect. The answer Unsolicited, in a named fire-affected ZIP code lists no form, and it can't be ticked together with the attestation answer. It says to stop: the attestation affirms the opposite and must not be signed on that offer, the seller can cancel the contract for 4 months after signing, and the offer can bring a civil penalty of up to $25,000 and a misdemeanor charge. Refer the client to a lawyer.

Withholding: FIRPTA and Form 593

Two withholding rules can take money out of the seller's proceeds at closing. Ask about both at listing: the federal withholding can be more than the seller's cash at closing.

FIRPTA, once per seller. FIRPTA — is the seller a foreign person?, in the Closing stage, is answered separately for each seller; Add another seller adds a block. Answer Seller is not a foreign person only for a seller who signs their own non-foreign affidavit (AS) and gives it to the buyer with their taxpayer number, which the affidavit allows only when its paragraph 4B is checked: a co-seller's affidavit doesn't cover them, and the list counts one AS for each seller given that answer. A seller whose status is unknown, or who won't sign it, takes Seller's status is unknown, or the seller will not sign AS. Without the affidavit, or a qualified substitute's statement (QS), the buyer has no safe harbor: if that seller turns out to be a foreign person, the buyer is liable for the tax it didn't withhold, so escrow withholds on that seller's share, unless the buyer's $300,000 residence exemption covers the sale (then give that seller the exemption answer like the others). One seller withheld on lists Form 8288, with a Form 8288-A for each seller withheld on, whatever the other sellers answered. A seller block you added and left blank counts as a seller not yet answered, so the withholding forms wait on it instead of dropping off. The buyer keeps each signed affidavit until the end of the fifth tax year after the year of the sale, and shows it to the IRS if asked.
An affidavit you know is false. Any agent, on either side, who learns that a seller's non-foreign affidavit is false must tell the buyer in writing, as soon as possible, that it's false and can't be relied on. The seller's agent owes that notice even without knowing, when the affidavit comes from a corporation that is in fact a foreign corporation. An agent who doesn't give it is liable for the tax the buyer should have withheld, up to the compensation the agent earns from the sale. Escrow, handling the money and the papers, isn't an agent for this.
How much. The buyer withholds from the amount realized: the price, plus any debt the buyer assumes or takes the property subject to. The rate is 15%, or 10% when the buyer is an individual with definite plans for the buyer, or a member of the buyer's family, to live in the home at least half the days it's used in each of the first two years after the sale and the amount realized is over $300,000 but no more than $1,000,000. At $300,000 or less, on that same plan, nothing is withheld, and the buyer signs the Buyer's Affidavit (AB), listed with Seller is foreign, price is $300,000 or less, buyer will reside there. Under Facts we used, that answer reads Yes, but the buyer is an individual who plans to live there and the amount realized is $300,000 or less: the price alone doesn't decide it. Only an individual buyer can use the 10% rate or the exemption, not a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership or other entity. The exemption turns on the buyer and the amount, not on one seller, so give every foreign seller the same answer there. If the price is over $300,000, or a buyer is a trust or an entity, About this property shows Answers that don't agree (see above): a price over $300,000 rules the exemption out, and for a trust buyer, or individuals buying beside an entity, confirm with escrow before relying on it. A buyer who claims the exemption and then doesn't live there that long can be liable for the withholding, if the seller was a foreign person and didn't pay the full U.S. tax on the gain, unless a change in circumstances that couldn't reasonably have been foreseen got in the way. With more than one seller, the buyer withholds only on the foreign sellers' share of the amount realized, divided among the sellers by what each put into the property (half each for spouses).
A withholding certificate. The seller, or the buyer, can apply to the IRS on Form 8288-B to reduce or excuse the withholding. To keep the withheld money in escrow rather than paying it over within 20 days after closing, the application has to go in on or before the closing date, and a seller who applies tells the buyer in writing before closing. Answer Seller is foreign and has applied, or will apply before closing, for a withholding certificate for that seller. Form 8288-B is listed when any seller gives that answer, beside a co-seller withheld on in full too.
Form 593. California's withholding is separate, and reaches sellers who aren't foreign too. Once escrow has told the buyer about it in writing, withholding is the buyer's duty, and the buyer's liability if it's missed; escrow handles it for the buyer. Each seller signs a Form 593 and returns it to escrow by closing — it isn't valid otherwise — to certify an exemption, such as the sale of a principal residence or a sale at a loss, or to choose withholding on the gain instead of on the price. When no exemption applies, escrow withholds 3⅓% of the total sales price if that's over $100,000, or, if the seller chose it, the tax on the gain at the rate the form gives for that kind of seller (12.3% for an individual, for instance). Escrow files the forms with the Franchise Tax Board by the 20th day of the month after closing. In an installment sale the buyer also signs Form 593 and withholds on each later principal payment.

Withholding: who is foreign, exchanges and carry-backs

Who is a foreign person. A U.S. citizen never is. A non-citizen isn't one with a green card, or after meeting the substantial presence test: in the United States at least 31 days this year and 183 days over three years, counting every day this year, a third of last year's days and a sixth of the days the year before. A nonresident alien is a foreign person, and so is a foreign corporation, partnership, trust or estate. The seller swears to the answer on the affidavit; a close case is for the seller's tax adviser.
A qualified substitute. A qualified substitute holds the affidavit (Closing) lists the seller's affidavit (AS) and the substitute's declaration (QS). This is the affidavit's own default: unless its paragraph 4B is checked, each seller completes AS and gives it, with the taxpayer number, to the substitute — the attorney, escrow or title company closing the sale, or the buyer's agent, never the seller's agent — and the buyer's copy leaves the number out. What protects the buyer is the substitute's sworn statement, on QS, that it holds the affidavit. Give that seller this answer, not Seller is not a foreign person. QS names the sellers whose affidavits the substitute holds and says whether they're all the sellers, so give this answer only to a seller it names. When the buyer's agent is the substitute, that brokerage holds the affidavit with the seller's taxpayer number and doesn't give the number to the buyer.
A seller's exchange. On Seller intends a §1031 exchange, under Does either side depend on another transaction? (Offer), a seller doing a deferred exchange certifies it on Form 593, and the exchange's qualified intermediary, not escrow, withholds if the exchange fails or the seller receives more than $1,500 in cash or other property that isn't like-kind. For a foreign seller, an exchange doesn't stop FIRPTA withholding by itself: to reduce or excuse it, apply for a withholding certificate (Form 8288-B) by closing, and answer the FIRPTA question that way.
A seller carry-back. On Seller carry-back, under How is the buyer paying? (Offer), California withholding runs on the principal, not the interest: where it applies, the buyer withholds on the down payment at closing, through escrow, which sends it with a Form 593 and a copy of the promissory note, and then on the principal of each later installment, sending a Form 593 with each payment by the 20th day of the next month. When withholding is due, Optional for this address offers Form 593 with each installment payment of a seller carry-back. For a foreign seller, FIRPTA withholding is figured on the whole amount realized at closing unless an IRS withholding certificate allows less, and it can be more than the cash the seller receives.

Notices to perform, demands to close and cancellations

A notice to perform. When the other side isn't performing, The other side is not performing (Escrow) lists the Notice to Buyer to Perform (NBP) when the seller serves it, or the Notice to Seller to Perform (NSP) when the buyer does. The notice gives at least 2 Days to perform (an NSP demanding removal of abandoned personal property, at least 3) and cancels nothing by itself. Only after its time runs out can the side that served it cancel, with The period ran and you are cancelling. Only the noticed side's own performance cures it: a buyer's contingency removal answers a notice to the buyer that asked for it, never a notice to the seller. A notice to perform is running is listed for each served notice still waiting to be cured, and A demand to close escrow is running for a demand to close (see The Workflow tab).
A failure to close. When the failure is a failure to close escrow, the demand is the Demand to Close Escrow (DCE), not an NBP or NSP: answer One side has missed the agreed closing date and the other is demanding a date certain under As you approach close of escrow, which of these has actually happened? (Closing). The purchase agreement (paragraph 14G) gives the other side at least 3 Days after delivery and bars delivering it earlier than 3 Days before the scheduled closing, so the answer fits a demand delivered in those last 3 Days too, before the date has passed. Only closing answers it.
Cancelling the purchase. The purchase contract, under Something is being ended (Escrow), lists the Cancellation of Contract (CC). Its paragraph 1A cancels on one party's signature where that party has a right to cancel; 1B proposes a mutual cancellation, which takes effect only when both sign, and lapses at 5:00 PM on the third day after the proposer signs (or at the time written in) unless the other side signs and a copy gets back to the proposer; paragraph 2, the deposit, needs both signatures. Paragraph 2C's full release gives up every claim either party has against the other under the contract; 2D cancels, keeps both parties' rights and leaves any deposit with escrow, or whoever 2D names, until both parties instruct, a court decides or an arbitrator awards it. A mutual cancellation signed without keeping rights can bar damages for earlier breaches and end the brokers' compensation under the contract, so if a party means to keep a claim, use 2D or write the reservation in, or refer them to a lawyer, before both sign.
The listing and the buyer representation agreement go on. Cancelling the purchase doesn't end either one: each is its own agreement with its own ending, The listing (Cancellation of Listing, COL) or The buyer representation (Cancellation of Buyer Representation, COBR). A seller who ends an exclusive listing early without cause can still owe the broker's compensation. A listing ends early when the seller and the broker agree to cancel it; a buyer representation ends by a notice the buyer or the broker can give alone (COBR), and the broker then gives the buyer the list of properties it was involved with (NBIP, listed with COBR) within 5 calendar days. Where the written agreement provides for compensation on cancellation, as the BRBC does, the broker can still be paid if the buyer acquires one of those properties within the period the agreement sets. Either agreement does end by law if the client dies or loses the capacity to contract, or the broker dies, becomes incapacitated or gives it up.
A disputed deposit. The deposit release is disputed after cancellation, under Something is being ended, lists the Demand for Mediation (DM), which now sits under Any time rather than only after closing. Escrow releases the deposit only on both parties' signed instructions, a court decision or an arbitration award, and can ask a court to decide instead. The purchase agreement makes mediation the first step: a party who refuses to mediate can lose the right to recover attorney fees even after winning. On a sale of one to four units the buyer meant to live in, a party who doesn't sign the release within 30 days after a written demand, without a good-faith dispute, owes the amount withheld, plus damages of three times that amount but no less than $100 and no more than $1,000, and reasonable attorney fees (Civil Code §1057.3). A dispute while the escrow is still open, such as a standoff over repairs, has its own answer: A dispute between buyer and seller arises during escrow, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), lists DM too. DM's paragraph 2 points to the purchase agreement's paragraph 29 unless its blank is filled in; on the current purchase agreement (RPA, revised 6/26), mediation is paragraph 30.
Escrow instructions. Escrow instructions themselves change, under A term of the accepted contract is changing (Escrow), lists the Amendment of Existing Agreement Terms (AEA): the purchase agreement's escrow paragraphs are the joint escrow instructions (RPA paragraph 19A), so changing one is an amendment both parties sign. A change to the escrow holder's own general provisions or supplemental instructions is made on the escrow holder's own forms, which both parties sign. The Buyer Amendment to Escrow Instructions (BAEI) has its own answer, The buyer names where escrow delivers a demand for the deposit: only the buyer signs it, all it does is tell escrow where to send a demand for the deposit, and it changes no escrow instruction. In an escrow a broker holds, everyone who signed or initialed the instructions signs or initials the change.
Amendments and extensions. A date or deadline moves and Any other term changes, under A term of the accepted contract is changing (Escrow), list the Extension of Time Amendment (ETA) and the Amendment of Existing Agreement Terms (AEA). Each is a proposal: it lapses at 5:00 PM on the third day after the side proposing it signs, or at the time written in, unless the other side signs it and a copy gets back to the proposer, so one countersigned too late never took effect. ETA moves only what it names: moving the close of escrow moves no contingency, and only the contingencies checked or written in move (it has no appraisal box; write that under Other). Terms are being added rather than changed lists AEA too: C.A.R.'s Addendum (ADM) says to use AEA for any change to an agreement already signed, and the Amendment to Prior Disclosure (APD), under A delivered disclosure needs correcting or supplementing, for a change to a disclosure already delivered. A deposit increase agreed during escrow can go on the Increased Deposit Addendum (IDA), attached to the amendment: answer The deposit increases at a stated point (Offer) to list it. If the parties agreed to liquidated damages, The increased deposit is actually paid (Escrow) lists the Delivery of Increase Deposit and Liquidated Damages Addendum (DID) they sign when the increase is paid. If the price rises on an FHA or VA loan, the buyer and the seller sign a new FHA-VA Amendatory Clause (FVAC) before closing.
Electronic delivery addresses. Establish or change the electronic delivery address, under Where do notices get delivered? (Offer), and The delivery address changes (Escrow) list the Designated Electronic Delivery Address Amendment (DEDA). Filling in an agent's section replaces every delivery address the contract gave that agent, so list every one still in use. Unless its Opt-Out box is checked again, a notice sent to those addresses counts as delivered when it's sent, even if the parties had opted out before; with Opt-Out it counts only once it's in the recipient's hands.

Liquidated damages and arbitration initials

The purchase agreement's liquidated damages and arbitration clauses take the parties' initials. The seller can enforce liquidated damages only if every party initialed the clause (Civil Code §1677), and arbitration of disputes needs the parties' initials too (Code of Civil Procedure §1298).

New signers. A third signer on the Additional Signature Addendum (ASA) — More than two people must sign in one signature block — or a buyer brought in by assignment on the Assignment of Agreement Addendum (AOAA) — A buyer is added, replaced or deleted after acceptance (Offer) or The buyer is replaced (Escrow) — doesn't initial either clause by signing that form, and whether an assignee is bound by the original buyer's initials is unsettled. So those answers list the Liquidated Damages and Arbitration Additional Signature Addendum (LDAA) for the new signer's initials. If neither clause was initialed, it isn't needed. LDAA is also how a party already on the contract who left a clause uninitialed, and now wants to be bound by it, initials it: Liquidated damages or arbitration must reach signers not on the base contract, under How is the deposit structured? (Offer), lists it. For arbitration alone, Arbitration was not initialed but the parties want it, in the same question, lists the stand-alone Arbitration Agreement (ARB), which the parties sign. An assignment itself needs the seller's separate written consent, except a total assignment of all of the buyer's interest to the buyer's own trust or wholly owned entity that exists at the time, which the purchase agreement allows without it (RPA paragraph 23; AOAA paragraph 1B with 1E checked); a partial or other assignment always needs it.
Electronic initials. Initials made electronically count for both clauses: Civil Code §1633.3(b)(4) keeps §1677, §1678 and Code of Civil Procedure §1298 inside the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. That holds when every party agreed to sign electronically, not merely through a clause in a printed form, and the signing platform's record ties each initial to the person who made it. When a lender, escrow or another third party won't accept an electronic signature, A third party will not accept an electronic signature under Where do notices get delivered? (Offer) lists the Electronic Signature Verification for Third Parties (ESV): the signer's own confirmation, in ink, that an electronic signature or initial is theirs. It doesn't stand in for a notary: a deed, deed of trust or power of attorney to be recorded needs the signer's acknowledgment before a notary.
How much the seller keeps. Where the buyer intends to live in a home of one to four units, the purchase agreement limits the liquidated damages the seller keeps to 3% of the price. By statute, more than 3% is invalid unless the seller shows it's reasonable, and the seller never keeps more than the deposit actually paid (Civil Code §1675). An increased deposit counts only with its own separately signed or initialed clause (Civil Code §1678): The deposit increases at a stated point, under How is the deposit structured? (Offer), lists the Increased Deposit Addendum (IDA), and The increased deposit is actually paid (Escrow) lists the Delivery of Increase Deposit and Liquidated Damages Addendum (DID). DID has no initial boxes: the increase counts only if the purchase agreement's liquidated damages clause was agreed, both parties sign DID when the increase is paid, and its IS NOT box is left unchecked. On a sale under a Department of Real Estate public report, escrow releases a deposit to the builder as liquidated damages only on a court or arbitration award, a written cancellation, or a 20-day notice the buyer doesn't object to; on the first sale of a newly built attached condominium unit in a building of 10 or more units, a builder that keeps more than 3% accounts for its losses and refunds what it kept beyond the greater of 3% and those losses.

Homes in default: equity purchases

When the owner lives in a home of one to four units as a principal residence and a notice of default has been recorded, the Home Equity Sales Contract Act (Civil Code §1695 and following) applies. Every buyer is then an equity purchaser unless it's an individual buying the home to live in, a buyer taking title from their own spouse, their own blood relative or a blood relative of their spouse (that is, the owner's spouse, a blood relative of the owner, or the spouse of one, such as a son- or daughter-in-law, but not a stepchild buying from a stepparent), or it takes title by a deed in lieu of foreclosure, at a trustee's sale, by another sale the law authorizes, or by court order. A limited liability company or other entity can't use the live-in exception even if its principal will live there, and finding the home on the MLS changes nothing. A notice of default has been recorded against the property, in the Listing stage, explains this; in the Offer stage, Home in default, bought from the owner in default under Which purchase agreement? (or Equity purchase from an owner in default under Is this a distressed or court-supervised sale?) lists:

the Notice of Default Purchase Agreement (NODPA), translated into the language the sale was negotiated in, if that isn't English;
the owner's Notice of Cancellation (HENC), listed under Offer because it goes with the contract: the buyer fills it in, except for the owner's signature and date, and attaches it to NODPA in duplicate before the owner signs. The owner can cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after signing (under the Act every day but Sunday and nine named holidays is a business day, so Saturdays count), or 8 a.m. on the day of the trustee's sale if that's sooner, and the right stays open as long as the contract's cancellation notices are missing or defective. Any written notice that the owner doesn't mean to be bound will do; when the owner cancels, tick An equity purchase agreement, within the rescission period under Something is being ended. Until the window closes, the buyer may not take or record a deed, encumber the home or pay the owner. A blank copy on file, which the owner hasn't signed, doesn't cancel anything;
the Declaration and Proof of Real Estate License (DPL), when someone representing the buyer solicited or persuaded the owner to sell: that licensee gives the owner proof of the licence, and every party a declaration under penalty of perjury, before any interest in the home transfers. The buyer doesn't need a licence.

Track the trustee's sale date: the owner's right to bring the loan current ends 5 business days before it. And any buyer, an owner-occupant or a relative included, is barred from taking unconscionable advantage of an owner in foreclosure; the owner can undo such a sale within 2 years after the deed is recorded, by a recorded notice. Refer the owner to a lawyer for that.

Conservators, guardians and attorneys-in-fact

A conservator or guardian sells under the Probate Code's own rules, not the ones for a decedent's estate. Only a conservator or guardian of the estate can sell, and the proof of authority is the certified letters of conservatorship or guardianship, which state any independent power to sell — not the order that appointed them. The conservator answers list the Letters of Conservatorship (GC-350). The sale needs court confirmation unless the letters grant that power. A sale of the conservatee's present or former home needs advance notice to the court, plus either court confirmation or a specific court order allowing the sale without it, even when the letters grant the power. Unless the letters, and for the home such an order, clear both, answer Court confirmation required under Is this a distressed or court-supervised sale? (Offer), which lists the Court Confirmation Addendum (CCA) and the court's report of sale and order confirming it (see Probate, receivers and other court-ordered sellers, below). On a buyer-side file, Conservator or guardian appointed by the superior court under In what capacity is each seller signing the acceptance? lists the Probate Advisory (PA) both parties sign.

A listing the owner signed before losing the capacity to contract ended then, by law; the conservator, or an attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney, signs a new one. A durable power keeps the attorney-in-fact's own authority alive, not the broker's listing.

An attorney-in-fact may be signing under a power that has ended. A power of attorney that isn't durable ends when the principal loses the capacity to contract, every power ends at the principal's death, and one signed after the principal lost capacity never took effect. Confirm the power is durable, was signed while the principal had capacity, and hasn't been revoked or limited in a conservatorship. If it fails, changing the capacity answer creates no authority: find someone who has it — a conservator of the estate (then answer Conservator or guardian appointed by the Superior Court), a court order under Probate Code §3101 where a spouse lacks capacity for a sale of community property, the successor trustee where the home is held in a trust, or the personal representative after the principal's death. In what capacity is this seller signing? (Listing) lists this among its common mistakes.

Whoever signs the purchase agreement in a representative capacity delivers evidence of their authority within 3 Days after acceptance (RPA paragraph 24): a certification of trust signed by every acting trustee and acknowledged, rather than the trust itself; certified letters for an executor, administrator, conservator or guardian, with any court authorization the sale needs; the power of attorney, and where escrow or title asks, the attorney-in-fact's affidavit that it hasn't been revoked or ended; or, for an entity, a resolution or officer's certificate, or its formation and management records. Each answer under In what capacity is each buyer signing the offer? (Offer) names what to collect, and the Workflow tab dates it. A completed entity paragraph in the purchase agreement (RPA paragraph 32B for a buyer, 33B for a seller) takes the place of the Representative Capacity Signature Disclosure (RCSD).

New construction and condominium conversions

A new home in a homeowners association. On a builder's first sale under a Department of Real Estate public report, the builder gives the buyer the Common Interest Development General Information statement with the report, and the governing documents, with the association's financial and delinquency statements, as soon as practicable before title transfers. Both are listed when the home is in a common interest development and sold under a public report, beside the association documents of an ordinary resale.
A condominium conversion. Condominium conversion or subdivision unit, under Which purchase agreement?, lists the conversion purchase agreement (CCSPA). A tenant in the building when it converts gets notice and the exclusive right to buy their unit on terms at least as good as the public is offered, for at least 90 days from the issuance of the public report, unless the tenant gives that up in writing (Government Code §66427.1). A tenant who rented later, after the final map was approved, gets at least 90 days' written notice before the unit is offered to the public and a 90-day right of first refusal on terms at least as good (§66459). Only that later-tenant right has exceptions: it doesn't apply where the owner has four or fewer units, or to a transfer by court order, foreclosure or deed in lieu, or by a bank or trust company administering an estate, guardianship, conservatorship or trust, and a missed notice under it doesn't void the buyer's title. On the first sale of each converted unit, the seller also gives the buyer a statement of the substantial defects in the major systems, or a disclaimer after inspection, before title transfers (Civil Code §1134); delivered after the buyer signs, it opens a 3-day (in person) or 5-day (by mail) right to cancel.
Options and upgrades. New construction options and upgrades, under Does the property need a hub modifier? (Offer), lists Options and Upgrades (NCOU), which is written for the NCPA; on an ABSPA, a CCSPA or the RPA, write upgrades on an addendum instead. The New Construction Advisory (NCA) comes with the NCPA itself. On a sale in a subdivision under the Subdivided Lands Act, what the buyer pays the builder for options and upgrades is purchase money, like the deposit: it goes into the escrow or trust account the Department of Real Estate accepts, or is covered by a bond or another alternative it approves, not to the builder outright, and if escrow doesn't close by the agreed date it comes back within 15 days unless the buyer is in default. Only an independent contractor's own charges may be paid to it directly.
Supplemental escrow instructions. For a home in a common interest subdivision sold under a Department of Real Estate public report, or exempt from one, the builder's contracts make supplemental escrow instructions part of the contract. On the ABSPA or the CCSPA they're the condominium-conversion and existing-subdivision instructions (CEEI), written for common interest developments only: answer Already-built subdivision or condominium conversion (ABSPA or CCSPA), in a common interest subdivision under Is the property in a common interest development? (Offer). On the NCPA they're the common interest subdivision instructions (NCEI), part of the contract once the seller discloses a common interest subdivision: answer New construction on the NCPA, in a common interest subdivision in the same question. Either way escrow can't close until the common facilities are shown complete (a recorded notice of completion, or the Department's form RE 621) and the form's other conditions are met.
An older home sold under a public report. A home completed or first occupied three years or more before the developer applied for the public report — a conversion, or a home that stayed unsold — takes the Existing Subdivision Interest Disclosure Statement too, with its own 3-day or 5-day right to cancel if it's delivered after the buyer signs.
What the builder's contract carries. The New Construction Residential Purchase Agreement (NCPA) and the Already-Built Subdivision Purchase Agreement (ABSPA) print the builder's own statutory items; complete them rather than strike them: the insulation's type, thickness and R-value; the water heater bracing statement; and the Right to Repair Act package — the builder's maintenance recommendations and warranties, the recorded notice of the claim procedures, the builder's agent for notice, and the builder's choice, made when the contract is signed, between the statutory pre-lawsuit procedure and its own. The Completed New Construction Purchase Addendum (CNC-PA) carries the Right to Repair items and the insulation statement too. It also gives the seller's one-year warranty against defective materials and workmanship, fit and finish included, from move-in, and the formaldehyde (Proposition 65) warning, and puts the statutory construction-defect procedures ahead of the purchase agreement's mediation and arbitration. It has no punch-list, permit or certificate-of-occupancy terms: write any the buyer needs on an addendum. None of them carries the developer's list of universal design (accessibility) features, each marked standard, optional or not available, which the developer of a new home for sale gives the buyer (Health and Safety Code §17959.6): the list adds it on the first sale of a newly built home, not on a condominium conversion or a lot. A unit sold under a blanket encumbrance outside the public-report escrow rules also needs the buyer's signed statutory notice before the sale (Civil Code §1133).
A sale under a public report uses the filed documents. The purchase agreement, deposit receipt and escrow instructions are part of the offering the Department of Real Estate reviewed. Use the builder's filed documents, and an NCPA, ABSPA or CCSPA, or any addendum, only if the builder filed it with the Department; a buyer may be able to undo a sale made on documents the Department never saw.
Tenancy in common. Tenancy in common, under Does the property need a hub modifier? (Offer), lists the TIC purchase addendum (TIC-PA), ownership advisory (TIC-OA) and financial disclosure (TIC-FD). A TIC isn't a condominium or common interest development: the right to a unit, parking or storage depends on the TIC agreement, which every co-owner should sign. The buyer signs it, or an amendment to it, before closing, and where the purchase addendum and the TIC agreement differ, the TIC agreement controls. Have a lawyer review it, and have the whole building inspected, during the investigation period. A group loan is secured by the whole property, so even a cash buyer should get legal advice on it. An original offering of five or more undivided interests needs a public report, and the buyer may cancel until midnight of the third calendar day after signing the offer. A resale of an existing interest is ordinarily exempt, but ask: the exemptions turn on how the interests were created and are held. Separately, an accessory dwelling unit can be sold apart from the main home to a buyer of low or moderate income when a qualified nonprofit built or developed the unit or the main home. The two are then held as a tenancy in common under a recorded TIC agreement, with a recorded contract between the buyer and the nonprofit restricting the use (Government Code §66341): only in that case, record the TIC agreement with the deed.

About this property asks the questions behind these rows (see above).

Probate, receivers and other court-ordered sellers

The court papers for an estate or a conservatorship are listed by the authority the representative has. They're Judicial Council forms that the court or the representative's attorney prepares; collect a copy for the file.

Executor or administrator. Executor or administrator of a probate estate, under In what capacity is this seller signing? (Listing) or In what capacity is each seller signing the acceptance? (Offer), lists the letters (DE-150), the executor's or administrator's proof of authority; get a copy the court clerk certified recently. Item 3 of the letters says whether the estate is administered with full independent authority, with limited authority (no sale of real property without court supervision), or neither. The Offer stage's executor answer points to the matching answer below, so a buyer's file that never saw the listing questions still gets the court papers.
Full authority, without court confirmation. Estate sale under full independent administration authority, without court confirmation, ticked with Probate or estate sale under Is this a distressed or court-supervised sale? (Offer), lists the Notice of Proposed Action (DE-165). It states the sale's terms, the price and the commission included, and goes to everyone entitled to notice at least 15 days before the date it names; there's no confirmation hearing and no overbidding. If someone objects in time, or the representative chooses confirmation, untick it and answer Court confirmation required instead.
Court confirmation. Court confirmation required lists the Court Confirmation Addendum (CCA), the report of sale and petition for an order confirming it (DE-260/GC-060), and the order confirming the sale (DE-265/GC-065). The same two court forms serve a decedent's estate, a conservatorship and a guardianship. Title doesn't pass until the court confirms the sale, other buyers can overbid at the hearing, and the order names the buyer the court confirmed, who may be an overbidder; escrow closes on the order. CCA itself only makes the deal contingent on confirmation by a date it names, after which either side may cancel in writing; it says nothing about the buyer's deposit or costs if another bidder wins. On a probate sale under the Probate Agreement Purchase Addendum (PA-PA), its paragraph 4 already returns the deposit, less costs, when the sale isn't confirmed to the buyer for a reason other than the buyer's breach; for a sale without PA-PA, agree those terms in writing if they matter.
Conservators and guardians. Conservator or guardian appointed by the Superior Court lists the Letters of Conservatorship (GC-350), whose attachment states any power to sell without court confirmation; a guardian's are Letters of Guardianship (GC-250), collected the same way. Without that power, the sale is confirmed on DE-260/GC-060 and DE-265/GC-065 (see Conservators, guardians and attorneys-in-fact, above).
The estate's listing. An exclusive listing for an estate needs the court's permission first and runs 90 days at most, each extension 90 days with permission again; under independent administration the executor or administrator can grant one, with 90-day extensions, without it, but a total term over 270 days needs notice first (a Notice of Proposed Action). The estate owes the commission only on a sale the court confirms, where confirmation is required, and in the amount the court allows. A listing the decedent signed ended at death: the executor or administrator signs a new one.
Receivers. A receiver sells only under a court order authorizing the sale, and the sale isn't final until the court confirms it. Answer Court confirmation required for its CCA, but leave its DE-260 and DE-265 off: they're for estates, conservatorships and guardianships, and a receivership sale is confirmed on that court's own papers. Collect the order appointing the receiver, the order authorizing the sale and the order confirming it. If the owner files bankruptcy, stop and ask counsel.
A bankruptcy trustee or another court-ordered seller. Bankruptcy trustee or other court-ordered seller, under In what capacity is this seller signing? (Listing) or In what capacity is each seller signing the acceptance? (Offer), lists the Representative Capacity Signature Disclosure for the seller (RCSD-S), signed under its "Other" line, and no trust advisory. That line sits in a paragraph written for an entity that authorized its signer, so write the court and the case number on it: the court's order, not a resolution, is the authority. A bankruptcy trustee hires a broker only with the bankruptcy court's approval and sells outside the ordinary course only after notice and a hearing; a listing the owner signed before the bankruptcy binds the trustee only if the trustee assumes it with the court's approval. A court-ordered sale, a bankruptcy trustee's included, is exempt from the TDS (Civil Code §1102.2(b)), but not from disclosing known material facts, so the answer counts as a TDS-exempt seller across the list and on the point-of-sale (POS) disclosure checklist. Don't enter a bankruptcy trustee as Trustee of a trust. Court confirmation required says how a sale is approved, not who signs, so on its own it doesn't make any seller exempt.
An owner on title has died, and there's no probate. Natural person signing in their own name (Listing) says how title is cleared before the sale, by the route that fits how it was held: the successor trustee of a trust, an affidavit of death of a joint tenant, a court order on a spousal property petition or a petition to take a primary residence, a small-estate affidavit for real property filed with the court and recorded, or a recorded transfer-on-death deed. The small-estate routes have dollar limits that change every three years, so ask title which route it will insure.

Who signs: powers of attorney, trusts, entities and spouses

The capacity questions — In what capacity is this seller signing? (Listing), and In what capacity is each seller signing the acceptance? and In what capacity is each buyer signing the offer? (Offer) — are answered once per signer, and each answer says what that signer needs. One Representative Capacity Signature Disclosure (RCSD-S) copy serves at most two signers acting for the same principal in the same capacity, because its capacity box speaks for everyone who signs it. The copy count pairs representative signers whatever their capacity, so when they sign for more than one principal, such as a trust and an estate, count a copy for each yourself.

An attorney-in-fact. Check the power of attorney early. It has to be dated and signed, and notarized or signed by two adult witnesses who aren't the agent, but only a notarized power can be recorded, and the agent can't fix a witnessed-only one. If the principal can still sign before a notary, have them acknowledge it (A signature must be acknowledged before a notary, in the Offer stage); if not, call title now. Title usually records the power with the deed, and must with a deed of trust. Where the power names two or more agents, they act together: give each a block, and ask title before one signs alone. At closing, escrow may ask for the agent's sworn statement that it knew of no revocation, death or incapacity. Without express authority in the power, the agent can't give the property away, change survivorship vesting or lend to itself.
An entity. The entity answer says who can bind each kind. A corporation: two officers, one from each group (the chair, the president or a vice president; and the secretary, an assistant secretary, the chief financial officer or an assistant treasurer), or another officer a board resolution authorizes. A limited liability company (LLC): if it's member-managed, a member binds it only in its usual course of business, and a sale outside the ordinary course needs every member's consent; if it's manager-managed, two managers, the sole manager its articles name, or officers its operating agreement provides for. A general partnership: whoever a recorded statement of partnership authority names; without one, a partner binds it only in its ordinary course of business, and otherwise the other partners authorize the sale. Selling all or substantially all of what the entity owns can need its shareholders' or members' approval too. Check the entity's status with the Secretary of State and the Franchise Tax Board: a contract made while it's suspended can be undone by the other side. Each required signer gets a block of their own.
A trustee. The trustee signs for the trust, and the Trust Advisory (TA) and RCSD name the trust and its date. With more than one trustee, every co-trustee signs, each in a block of their own, unless the trust instrument lets fewer of them act. Whether the trustee owes the TDS is under Who owes the Transfer Disclosure Statement, above.
A spouse or registered domestic partner who isn't on title. If a seller is married or in a registered domestic partnership, ask whether the home is community property. If it is, or may be, the spouse or partner signs the purchase agreement, every counter and amendment, and the deed, even if not on title: add a Natural person signing in their own name block for them, which counts toward the Additional Signature Addendum (ASA). A buyer who knows the seller is married and that the home may be community property generally can't enforce a contract only one spouse signed. If the spouse lacks capacity, they join through an attorney-in-fact whose durable power covers it, or through their conservator with the conservatorship court's order; otherwise a court can authorize the sale on a petition. Ask title which it will insure. On the buyer's side, a married buyer's spouse or partner may have to sign the deed of trust; the lender decides, so ask early.
The deed. It's signed before a notary by every seller on title, and by a spouse or partner who isn't on title when the home is or may be community property. An attorney-in-fact signs the principal's name, then their own as attorney-in-fact.
Co-sellers who disagree. If the co-owners on one listing disagree on price, terms or timing — spouses divorcing, co-heirs, tenants in common — explain the conflict to each and get each one's informed written consent before you go on acting for all of them. A signed form isn't the explanation.
The buyer is the person signing for the seller. If the buyer is the seller's executor, administrator, trustee, conservator or attorney-in-fact, or that person's lawyer, stop and get counsel before the offer is written. An executor or administrator buys estate property only on a court order, and even with full independent authority such a sale stays under court supervision unless narrow conditions are all met; a sale to the executor's or administrator's lawyer always stays under court supervision. A trustee may not deal with trust property for its own profit, an attorney-in-fact buying owes the principal its loyalty, and a conservator's petition to approve a sale discloses any family or business tie to the buyer.
A conservator, guardian or estate buying. A conservator or guardian buys real property with the estate's money, even a home for the conservatee, only under a court order authorizing the purchase (Probate Code §§2570, 2571), or under an independent power to purchase real property that the court granted and the letters list (§§2590, 2591). An executor or administrator has no general power to buy real property for the estate: beyond short-term investments, it buys only what the will allows, with a court order or, under independent administration, after a Notice of Proposed Action (§§9732, 10533). Confirm the order, the listed power or the notice, or make the offer contingent on it, before the buyer signs.
A buyer who signs the representation agreement for someone else. The buyer signs the representation agreement as a trustee, for an entity, as attorney-in-fact, or as a conservator, under What did the buyer intake turn up? (Engagement), lists the Representative Capacity Signature Disclosure for the buyer (RCSD-B), with its Buyer Representation Agreement box ticked. That copy doesn't cover the offer, which needs its own. A completed entity paragraph in the BRBC (its ENTITY BUYERS paragraph, above the signature lines) takes the RCSD-B's place for the signers it names, and it has room for two; the PSRA has no such paragraph. Only a corporation, LLC or partnership buyer is outside the representation agreement's 3-month limit; a trust, an estate, or a person signing through a power of attorney isn't.

Rights to buy first, options, deposits, loans and escrow events

A right of first refusal or an option. Someone holds a right of first refusal or an option on the property, under Are there terms the printed contract does not cover? (Offer), lists an addendum (ADM). A tenant, the homeowners association, a co-owner, or someone named in a lease or a recorded document may hold the right to buy first. Once the seller decides to sell, the holder gets the accepted offer's exact terms and the time its right allows, and a buyer who knows of the right takes the property subject to it; a tenant living there is notice of a right in the lease. Get the holder's signed waiver, or let the period run, and make the purchase conditional on it in the addendum.
Options and contracts that close more than a year out. On An option to buy rather than a purchase, under What position is this offer in? (Offer), the TDS and the NHD are due before a lease-option is signed, not before closing; their rows say the same for an installment contract and a ground lease with improvements. For an option on its own the law's deadline is the transfer of title, but deliver them before the option is signed as a precaution. The option needs consideration actually paid and is exercised strictly on its terms; if it's recorded, record a notice of exercise or an extension before it expires of record. An executor or administrator can grant an option on estate real property without the court only with full independent authority, after a Notice of Proposed Action; with limited authority, or an option to the executor, administrator or their lawyer, the court must approve it. Title passes more than a year after acceptance lists an addendum (ADM) and a notary acknowledgment (NA): a contract that doesn't require the seller to convey within a year is a real property sales contract with statutory rules of its own (Civil Code §2985 and following), so have counsel draft it, and have it acknowledged so it can be recorded. C.A.R.'s NA is a 2009 printing without the boxed notice Civil Code §1189 has required on every acknowledgment since January 1, 2015 (the notary verifies only who signed), so the notary attaches a current certificate of their own; the same goes for A signature must be acknowledged before a notary.
Vacant land, lot splits and an ADU sold separately. A separate parcel number doesn't make a legal lot. A parcel that needs a subdivision or parcel map can't be sold until the map is recorded, though a contract expressly conditioned on the map's approval and recording is allowed: write that condition on an addendum. A buyer of an unlawfully divided parcel may void the purchase within a year of discovering it, unless the parcel has a certificate of compliance or is on a recorded map. On vacant land, Optional for this address offers the Certificate of compliance with the Subdivision Map Act, which the owner, or a buyer under contract, asks the city or county for, and which the agency records (Government Code §66499.35).
An unusual deposit. Under How is the deposit structured? (Offer), The deposit is a promissory note, a postdated check, or a check to be held uncashed and The buyer hands the deposit to a broker rather than to escrow list no form; each says what to do. Tell the seller in writing before acceptance when the deposit is a note, a postdated check or a check held uncashed: a note may be worth little, and a seller who wasn't told can have grounds to undo the sale. A broker who receives the deposit places it with escrow, in its trust account or with the seller within three business days. It may hold a check uncashed until acceptance only on the buyer's written instruction, with the seller told when the offer is presented, and after acceptance only with the seller's written authorization (California Code of Regulations, title 10, §2832). The broker's own trust-fund record isn't part of this set.
A lis pendens after signing. A lis pendens is recorded or served after the contract is signed, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), lists the Receipt for Reports (RFR). Tell every buyer under contract and every backup buyer in writing within 3 days, by certified mail with a return receipt or by personal delivery, and call title: a recorded notice of pending action binds anyone who takes the property afterward. RFR records the buyer's receipt only when the buyer signs it, and it has no row for the notice, so write it on a blank one; for a mailed notice, keep the certified-mail return receipt.
Repair requests. Buyer asks for repairs, a credit, or a price reduction and Seller responds, buyer replies, under Investigation comes back with problems (Escrow), list the Request for Repair (RR) and the Seller Response and Buyer Reply to Request for Repair (RRRR). Once the seller agrees to the request, or the two sides agree on part of it, the buyer has removed the investigation contingency, except items written in, and released the seller from claims about the condition disclosed. No box is ticked for either, so go over both with the buyer before signing; the forms also let the buyer remove only the contingencies listed on a signed Contingency Removal instead. Each request, response or counter lapses at 5:00 PM on the third day after the side making it signs, unless the other side signs and a copy gets back in time. A new request or reply means an earlier one still pending can't be accepted; it doesn't undo a round both sides already agreed.
A loan the broker arranges. Broker both represents a principal and arranges the loan (Escrow) lists the Loan Broker-Sales Broker Disclosure (LBSB) and a Choose one row for the broker's loan disclosure. One choice is the Department of Real Estate's Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement (RE 882, or its summary printing, RE 883), given to the borrower within 3 business days of the completed loan application, or before the borrower is obligated if sooner, and signed by both. The other, only for a federally regulated residential mortgage loan above $30,000 on a first lien or $20,000 on a junior one, is the federal loan disclosures in its place, with the borrower's written acknowledgment, which C.A.R.'s Mortgage Loan Disclosure Statement Substitute (MSS) records; any other loan a broker arranges, a private or business-purpose loan included, gets the statement whatever its size: answering A written Loan Estimate satisfies the TILA-RESPA disclosures lists MSS and makes that the choice. Answer it only when a broker on the deal arranges the loan: a loan a lender makes without a broker arranging it has a Loan Estimate too, but no MSS. A buyer who negotiates a loan for personal, family or household use, such as a home they'll live in, mainly in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean gets a translation before signing, unless they negotiate through an adult interpreter of their own.
Assuming the seller's loan, or taking title subject to it. Assuming the seller's existing loan, under How is the buyer paying? (Offer), lists the Assumed Financing Addendum (AFA). AFA makes the purchase contingent on the assumption: the buyer removes the contingency or cancels within 17 days after acceptance (later if the loan papers arrive late), or, if AFA paragraph 4B is checked, the contingency stays open until the assumption is approved, with no outside date. AFA makes the seller's release of liability a condition only on a VA loan. The seller stays liable unless the lender releases them in writing, so ask for a release of liability; the lender's beneficiary statement shows whether the loan can be assumed, and most loans carry an enforceable due-on-sale clause. Taking title subject to the seller's loan isn't an assumption, and the question has no answer for it: put that structure in an addendum, and ask the lender before the offer.
A loan modification. Anyone, a broker included, who offers to negotiate a loan modification or forbearance on a home of one to four units for a fee the borrower pays first gives the borrower a separate statement, in 14-point bold type, that the borrower can contact the lender or a free housing counselor directly, translated when the services are offered in one of those five languages. No fee may be collected until every promised service is done (Civil Code §§2944.6, 2944.7). No C.A.R. form carries the statement; What is the seller's equity and lender posture? (Listing) lists it among its common mistakes.

Manufactured homes and mobilehomes

A manufactured home or mobilehome is sold with its own forms, its park's papers and, unless it has been converted to real property, a state title transfer instead of a deed.

The disclosure. Under Which transfer disclosure applies? (Listing), answer Manufactured or mobile home: it lists the Manufactured Home and Mobilehome Transfer Disclosure Statement, which sits under Listing like the TDS. For a home converted to real property and sold with its land, which disclosure applies is unsettled: the statute behind the manufactured-home form points to an older rule that covered homes that are personal property, and some authority points to the regular TDS. The list keeps the manufactured-home TDS, and the row says to check with counsel. With an agent it's due as soon as practicable and no later than close of escrow; with no agent, when the buyer first signs a purchase document. It covers the home, not the park. A home in a common interest development — a condominium, planned development, stock cooperative or community apartment project, including a resident-owned park organized as one — takes the regular TDS instead: answer One to four residential, ordinary seller, and Yes to the HOA or common interest development question under About this property. A park with a residents' association isn't one for that reason alone. Stock cooperative, under Does the property need a hub modifier? in the Offer stage, counts as Yes to the HOA or common interest development question.
The listing and the offer. Manufactured home under What does the property itself add to the listing? lists the Manufactured Home Listing Addendum. In the Offer stage, Manufactured or mobile home under Does the property need a hub modifier? lists the purchase addendum. The dealer addendum (MHDA) is listed only from Manufactured or mobile home, a licensed dealer represents a party, for a sale where a manufactured-home dealer licensed by HCD represents the buyer or the seller. That answer lists everything Manufactured or mobile home does too, because the dealer addendum adds to the purchase addendum. A modular (factory-built) home isn't a manufactured home: it's ordinary real property with no HCD title, so answer as a single-family home, and never describe a manufactured home as modular. If the seller knows the buyer is financing through a third party without the seller's help and the loan isn't obtained within 30 days of signing, the contract is treated as cancelled and everything but the escrow fees goes back; that state rule isn't limited to dealer sales, so keep the loan contingency within that window or check with counsel. In a rental park, the park's approval of the buyer's residency is a contingency of the purchase addendum: don't let the buyer remove it before the park approves, because a buyer who does and is then turned down may still have to complete the purchase of a home that has to leave the park.
Who may sell it. A real estate broker may sell a manufactured home or mobilehome as personal property only if it has been registered with HCD, and may offer it only where it sits in an established park, consistently with the seller's agreement with the park, or on a lot whose zoning or permit lets it stay there for at least a year. A home lawfully converted to real property is sold as ordinary real estate. A new home that has never been registered, and isn't being installed as real property, is a licensed dealer's sale.
A dealer sale. Whether a licensed dealer is selling the home or representing a party is its own question under About this property (on a manufactured home, Only in unusual cases), and the dealer answer in the questionnaire says yes. It's no longer one of the title complications: a saved Sold through a dealer title answer is dropped, and the rest of that answer is kept. On a dealer sale, the dealer reports the sale to HCD and the county assessor, so the buyer's Change in Ownership Statement and HCD's retail value certification drop off. A new home adds the dealer's one-year written warranty, and escrow's notices to HCD of the escrow opening and closing drop off, because those are for a used home. Will the buyer install the home on a foundation as real property after this dealer sale? adds the Declaration of Delivery Sale.
The park's papers. When the home sits on a rented space in a mobilehome park and stays there, park management — not the seller — gives the buyer its notices, and those rows read Park management: the Information for Prospective Homeowners within 2 business days after the buyer asks for a residency application; the park's rental agreement disclosure form at least 3 days before the buyer signs the rental agreement; and notice of the park's zoning or use permit before the buyer's tenancy begins. The escrow must hold the buyer's signed rental agreement, or a statement of its terms that management and the buyer both sign, and the buyer can't waive that; a buyer who never signs the park's rental agreement has no right to stay in the park. Three more are under Optional for this address, for the deals that need them: the park's approval standards and written decision, when it requires approval of the buyer; the repairs it requires for the home to stay, on the seller's written request; and notice of a proposed park rule change, given before the buyer's tenancy begins. The park's rows stay on your to-collect list rather than under the forms other people prepare: the deadlines are the park's, but you're the one who checks they're met. A home being moved out of the park needs none of them.
The HCD title. HCD's transfer form (HCD RT 476.6G) reads Your side, or escrow if one is used: escrow submits it when there is one; without one, the real estate broker sees the certificate of title endorsed, dated and delivered with the registration card, and sends the papers and fees to HCD unless the buyer asks in writing for the title. Its smoke-alarm and water-heater declarations are signed within 45 days before the title transfers. The original certificate of title (HCD RT 480.4) is listed on every HCD-titled sale: the seller endorses and dates the original, and HCD's application for a duplicate on that form is only for a lost one. HCD won't transfer a home on the county tax roll without the county tax collector's tax clearance — the collector answers an escrow officer's written demand within 5 working days — or while registration fees are unpaid. Liens on a home that isn't real property are filed with HCD, not recorded with the county, so order an HCD title and lien search: the preliminary title report won't show them.
Who signs the title, and the title complications. Who signs depends on how the title is held: every joint tenant signs, both spouses sign a community-property title, and co-owners named with "or" may each sign alone while those named with "and" all sign. Any title complications with the manufactured home? adds HCD's form for each: a lost title, a missing registration card, a lender to pay off, The buyer takes over the seller's loan on the home (HCD's statement of anticipated formal assumption, HCD 481.6; the questionnaire's assumed-loan answer lists it too), and An owner on the title has died (HCD's Certificate for Transfer Without Probate, HCD RT 475.2). The heirs sign that certificate once 40 days have passed since the death, and only when the estate isn't in probate and the owner left no other property that needs it; in probate, the executor or administrator signs with court letters. A surviving joint tenant takes the deceased owner's share by survivorship, with a certified copy of the death certificate. A surviving spouse on a community-property title has no right of survivorship on an HCD title, so, like any heir, shows authority with the certificate or court letters.
The base package. Form 593, the PCOR and the deed are still listed on a home sold without its land. While the home is still on its HCD title, the deed and PCOR rows read Not needed here; once it's been converted to real property, they're needed. Form 593 is for escrow to confirm: only if escrow confirms withholding doesn't reach the sale at all, mark the row Doesn't apply to this deal as Outside the rule (escrow confirmed) (see Your forms, above). A seller who is exempt from withholding still certifies that on Form 593, so it stays. The preliminary title report row stays too, and says that an HCD title and lien search takes its place while the home is still on its HCD title.

Tenant-occupied sales, rent-backs and leases

A sale doesn't end a tenancy. The buyer takes the property subject to the existing leases, and a tenant under a lease that hasn't run out stays unless it agrees to leave or the owner has a cause the law accepts. Is the property tenant-occupied? in the Offer stage builds the paperwork; its first answer, Tenants stay, or vacancy is being negotiated, lists the Tenant Occupied Property Addendum (TOPA), which divides cost and risk between buyer and seller but doesn't change what the tenants are entitled to. For that question a tenant is any adult other than the seller who lives in the property, paying rent or not, because that's how TOPA defines one, and the purchase agreement says to attach TOPA whether the occupants stay or leave. When the buyer is already a tenant there, TOPA's paragraph 1C covers the buyer's own unit: the seller passes that unit's unused deposit and any prepaid rent to the buyer through escrow, and the rest of TOPA covers every other unit. For an adult who pays no rent and has no lease — a seller's adult child, a partner who isn't on title or a live-in caretaker — answer An adult other than the seller lives there rent-free: it lists TOPA without treating the home as a rental, so none of the tenant notices or government rental forms come with it.

Whether the Tenant Protection Act covers the tenancy. The state's rent cap and just-cause rules cover most rentals 15 or more years old, and the owner owes the tenants the Act's notice, so a tenant-occupied sale lists the Tenant Protection Act notice. Which Tenant Protection Act exemption covers this tenancy?, under Only in unusual cases, says whether an exemption takes it off. The first three answers exempt the tenancy from both the rent cap and just cause: a separately sellable home, condominium or mobilehome whose owner isn't a real estate investment trust (REIT), a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC) with a corporate member, when the tenants got the exemption statement; two units in one building, neither an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), where the owner lived in the other unit when the tenancy began and still does; and deed-restricted or regulated affordable housing. The next two exempt it from just cause only, so the rent cap still applies but the notice isn't owed: an owner who lives in the house or mobilehome and rents out no more than two rooms or units, an ADU included, and a tenant who shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner living there. Two to four units on one lot, or a house with an ADU, aren't separately sellable. A building under 15 years old is exempt by its age, read from your year-built answer or county records, not from this question; a mobilehome gets no age exemption. Is the owner exempt from the state rent cap (AB 1482)? is no longer asked: the exemption answer decides it. Answering Rent cap or just cause applies to the Offer stage's tenancy question says no exemption from both applies. That answer lists TOPA with the Rent Cap and Just Cause Addendum printed for use with it (RCJC-TOPA); a Rent Cap and Just Cause Addendum (RCJC) already signed with a tenant's lease comes with the leases the seller hands over. An answer saved to the old question still counts until you answer the new one or give that questionnaire answer, which then outranks it.
The exemption statement. The Tenant Protection Act exemption notice row is listed only for the separately sellable answer: collect the lease page or addendum that carries the statement. For a tenancy begun or renewed on or after July 1, 2020 (July 1, 2022 for a mobilehome), the statement has to be in the rental agreement; without it the exemption isn't available until a renewal, or an amendment the tenant signs, adds it. An exemption may not survive the sale: an owner-occupancy exemption usually ends when the owner sells and moves out, and the owner-type exemption ends at closing if the buyer is a REIT, a corporation or an LLC with a corporate member. The point-of-sale (POS) disclosure checklist on the Files tab reads the same answers.
Ending a tenancy before closing. Until closing, only the seller, as the owner, can give a tenant notice. Unit to be delivered vacant at closing lists TOPA, whose vacant-delivery term this is, and the Notice of Termination of Tenancy (NTT) for the seller's notice where the seller can lawfully give one. TOPA has the seller only try in good faith to deliver the unit empty. If a tenant is still there at closing (or 5 days before, if that box is checked), the buyer can either cancel, getting back only its deposit and its inspection and appraisal costs (up to any cap written in), or close with the tenant there and give up any other claim. A buyer who must have the unit empty should check the 5-day box. Tenant is leaving under a buyout (cash for keys) lists the Cash for Keys Agreement (CFK): the tenant's written offer to leave for a payment, signed by every adult occupant. It's a surrender the tenant chooses, not a termination notice. Where the Tenant Protection Act covers a tenancy (every tenant there 12 months or more, or any one tenant 24 months or more, and no exemption), or a local just-cause ordinance does, the sale itself isn't a cause to end it, and the seller can't give an owner move-in notice for the buyer, because only an owner of record can. So before closing such a unit comes vacant only by a just cause the seller itself has (taking the unit off the rental market, or its own permitted substantial remodel, each with one month's rent in relocation, or a cause the tenant is at fault for), by the tenant agreeing to leave, or by the buyer after closing. A tenant under a lease that hasn't run out stays unless it agrees to leave or the owner has a just cause the lease and the law allow. Outside the Act, a month-to-month tenancy ends on 60 days' notice, or 30 if a tenant has lived there less than a year. On a sale it can also end on 30 days' notice when all the conditions of Civil Code §1946.1(d) are met, among them that the unit can be sold separately, escrow opened within the last 120 days with a title or escrow company or a broker, the buyer is a person (not a company) who will live there at least a year, and no earlier notice was given. Every notice carries the statement about property a tenant leaves behind, and no fee may be charged for serving it. A notice's period runs from when it's properly served: in person first, then by leaving it with a suitable person at the tenant's home or work and mailing a copy, then by posting it on the property and mailing a copy, or instead by certified or registered mail, which should allow 5 more days. Emailing it doesn't count, so serve it early enough for the period to end before closing. A tenant's waiver of these rights is void, and some cities require buyout disclosures, filings or minimum payments before a buyout is signed.
Ending a tenancy after closing. After closing the buyer is the owner, and Is the buyer ending a tenancy after closing? (Post-Close) lists the notice the cause calls for. Tick one answer for each cause:
- Owner move-in: the buyer or a close relative will live there lists NTT with the Family Move-In Disclosures and Addendum (NTT-FM). It's a cause only for an owner who is a person holding at least 25% of the recorded title (with variants for family, LLC, partnership and family-trust ownership), moving in, or moving in a spouse, domestic partner, child, grandchild, parent or grandparent, for at least 12 months in a row. A sibling or an in-law counts only as an owner in their own right, and an owner holding title through a corporation doesn't count. A lease made on or after July 1, 2020 must allow it, or the tenant must agree in writing. The notice names each person moving in and their relationship to the owner and tells the tenant it can ask for proof; they move in within 90 days after the tenant leaves.
- Substantial remodel or demolition lists NTT with the Substantial Remodel or Demolition Disclosure and Addendum (NTT-RD): permitted structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical work, or hazardous-material removal, that needs the unit empty for at least 30 days in a row, with copies of the permits attached to NTT-RD, so the permits must be issued before the notice goes out (for hazardous-material removal that needs no permit, a copy of the signed contract with the contractor instead). Cosmetic work doesn't count. An owner applying for a permit to demolish a rental unit tells its tenants in writing before applying.
- Another no-fault cause, or a tenancy the Tenant Protection Act does not cover lists NTT alone, and The tenant agrees to leave for a payment (cash for keys) lists CFK, which the buyer accepts by signing it.
Every no-fault notice for a tenancy the Act covers owes the tenant one month's rent in relocation, paid within 15 calendar days after the notice is served or given by waiving the last month's rent in writing, and a notice that doesn't strictly comply is void. A tenancy under a government contract that limits the tenant's rent, such as a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), needs at least 90 days' written notice. For a voucher tenancy the notice states the grounds, and during the initial lease term an owner move-in, a remodel or a sale isn't a ground at all. A cause the tenant is at fault for, such as unpaid rent, uses a notice that isn't in this set. A tenant who stays after a valid notice runs out is removed only by an unlawful detainer case in court.
Security deposits and the new owner's notice. Deposits don't pass with title on their own, so every tenant-occupied sale lists three statewide rows: the seller's written statement of each tenant's deposit and any deductions, to the buyer (Escrow, the seller's side); the notice to each tenant that the deposit passed to the buyer, with the buyer's name, address and phone number, or the deposit's refund with an itemized statement (Closing, the seller's side); and the buyer's notice to every tenant within 15 days after closing, naming the owner and the manager, where to serve notices, and how and where to pay the rent (After closing, the buyer's side). If a deposit is neither passed on nor refunded, the buyer is liable for it along with the seller, unless after reasonable inquiry the buyer believes in good faith that it was passed on or refunded; the seller's written statement is how the buyer asks. Keeping one in bad faith can cost up to twice its amount. Until the buyer's notice goes out, the buyer can't evict for rent that came due in the meantime, though the rent is still owed. TOPA carries the deposit exchange in the contract; the duties come from the statute. When a tenant leaves and gets the deposit back before closing, there's nothing to pass on.
Local rent control. Does a city or county rent-control or just-cause ordinance cover this rental? lists the Local rent-control and just-cause check at Offer when you answer Yes or Not sure yet. It reads Your client, since whichever side is ending or taking over the tenancy has to know: check with the city's or county's rent program whether its ordinance covers the unit, what rent limits and registration the buyer takes on, and its notice, relocation and buyout rules, before anyone gives notice. A local just-cause ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2019 applies instead of the state's rules, and an owner who ends a tenancy under a rent-control ordinance to move in must actually live there. Check title too: once a city records an Ellis Act notice after units were taken off the rental market, its limits on renting them again can bind a buyer. Required here on the Files tab lists the local rules LetterScript knows, which aren't all of them.
San Francisco: Qualified Nonprofits. A San Francisco building of three or more units lists COPA notice of intent to sell to Qualified Nonprofits, and their right of first refusal at Listing, whether or not a tenant lives there now. Under the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), which covers buildings with three or more rental units, the seller emails every Qualified Nonprofit on the city's list before showing the building or asking for offers; they have 5 days to say they're interested and 25 more to make an offer. An offer the seller accepts from anyone else is subject to their right of first refusal, for 5 days, or 30 if they had no chance to make a first offer, and the buyer and the seller acknowledge that in writing. Transfers by foreclosure, in bankruptcy, between close relatives, on death or into a living trust are among the exclusions; for one of those, mark the row Doesn't apply to this deal.
Vouchers and assisted housing. Is the property government-assisted housing, or does a tenant pay with a housing voucher?, under Only in unusual cases, separates two things. A tenant paying with a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) is owed at least 90 days' written notice before the tenancy ends, stating the grounds, and during the initial lease term an owner move-in, a remodel or a sale isn't a ground; a voucher alone adds no row and doesn't make the building assisted housing. An assisted housing development is a rental building of five or more units assisted under one of the programs the statute lists: project-based Section 8, certain HUD and USDA rental programs, low-income housing tax credits, tax-exempt housing bonds, CDBG or HOME funds, state housing loans or grants, or city or county assistance whose rent limits are in a recorded or other enforceable agreement. An ordinary government-insured mortgage doesn't make it one. Such a building whose restrictions end, or could be ended, within five years lists the notice of opportunity to offer to qualified entities (Government Code §65863.11) at Listing: the qualified buyers on the state Department of Housing and Community Development's list must first get the chance to make an offer, and the seller records a certificate of compliance before close.
A foreclosed home with a tenant. On a lender-owned (REO) sale, the branch note says what the tenants are owed. A tenant who was there when the lender took title at the foreclosure sale, and isn't a borrower on the loan, gets at least 90 days' written notice, and a lease made before that sale runs to its end unless one of four exceptions applies, which the lender or the buyer must prove. That's for title taken at a foreclosure sale, not by a deed given in lieu of foreclosure, and the Tenant Protection Act and any local just-cause ordinance still apply.
Tenant estoppel certificates. The buyer wants tenant estoppel certificates lists the Tenant Estoppel Certificate (TEC), one per tenant; it's optional, chosen in TOPA. The seller fills it in and asks the tenant to sign, but can't make the tenant sign. The buyer can rely on what a signed certificate says, but it's no substitute for reading the leases: a renewal option it leaves out can survive. It also doesn't show the lowest rent of the past 12 months, which a rent-cap increase is measured from; get that from the rent ledger.
Notices a lease owes in some buildings. What do the property and the tenancy add? (Tenancy) has an answer for each. A methamphetamine clean-up order is pending on the property lists the Methamphetamine Contamination Notice (MCN) and the Rental Property Owner Disclosure (RPOD): before the lease is signed, the tenant gets written notice of the order with a copy of it and acknowledges both in writing, and the notice is attached to the lease, or the tenant may void it. MCN is that notice and the tenant's acknowledgment, with the order attached; RPOD only records the order and promises the tenant a copy. The order bars use or occupancy of the property, and the duty lasts, until the health officer issues notice that nothing more is needed. A former military ordnance location lies within one mile and Built before 1979, with known asbestos-containing materials list RPOD, which carries both notices, as the RLAS and the IOA expect. RPOD asks about asbestos that's there now or was ever removed, whatever the building's age, so answer the asbestos question for a newer building too. The RLAS and the IOA send their other conditional notices to RPOD as well, so it's also listed by Built before 1978, Water submetering and Pest control contract, past or present mold, HOA or CC&Rs, or a death on the premises within 3 years: a contract for periodic pest control (the tenant gets a copy of the pest company's notice), elevated mold now or in the past, a condominium, planned development or other property under CC&Rs, and an occupant's death there within the last 3 years. Separately, an owner with employees working in a pre-1979 building that's known to contain asbestos gives them the asbestos notice and mails it to the other owners, a new owner within 15 days after a sale agreement. Unreinforced masonry building, not retrofitted lists no form: a lease of such a building in the state's highest seismic zone states that it's unreinforced masonry and that such buildings have proven unsafe in earthquakes, so put that in the lease's additional terms. On a sale, Methamphetamine contamination order exists (Listing) lists MCN, which goes to the buyer with the purchase agreement, and the buyer signs its acknowledgment. MCN also says a remediation lien has been recorded and that the order bars anyone from using or living in the property until the health officer's notice that nothing more is needed, so plan the buyer's possession, any seller stay and any early move-in around that notice. A lease of more than a month negotiated mainly in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean goes to the tenant in a translation before signing, unless the tenant negotiates through an adult interpreter of their own, not one you or the landlord supply; the RLAS and the IOA print that notice.
Rent-backs and early occupancy. Who is in the property, and for how long? (Offer) picks the form by the purchase agreement's convention: a license to remain (SIP) for a seller staying 29 days or fewer, the Residential Lease After Sale (RLAS) for 30 or more, and for a buyer moving in early, the Buyer Early Occupancy Addendum (BEO) under 30 days and the Interim Occupancy Agreement (IOA) from 30. The 30-day line picks the form; it isn't the law's line between a license and a tenancy. On a short sale, read the short-sale lender's terms before agreeing to any stay: short-sale lenders generally require that the seller not stay in the home after the sale. If the BEO has the buyer increase the deposit (its paragraph 2B), the parties sign the Delivery of Increase Deposit and Liquidated Damages Addendum (DID) with it: answer The increased deposit is actually paid under A term of the accepted contract is changing (Escrow). Buyer stores possessions only, no occupancy lists the Buyer Pre-Occupancy Storage Addendum (POSA): storage isn't occupancy, the form says brokers don't recommend it and advises both parties to see a real estate attorney, the buyer has no access between move-in and closing, and the goods come out within 3 calendar days if the sale fails. The question takes one answer, so a seller who also stays after closing goes under After closing (Post-Close): Seller stays 29 days or fewer or Seller stays 30 days or more. A seller staying 30 days or more gets the same lease packet whether you answer it here or under After closing in Post-Close: the RLAS with the Bed Bug Disclosure (BBD) and Tenant Flood Hazard Disclosure (TFHD) it attaches, the Rent Cap and Just Cause Addendum (RCJC) and the mold booklet, all due when the RLAS is signed, plus the pre-1978 lead papers for an older home. The buyer signs TFHD as the landlord: if the natural hazard disclosure shows a flood area, or the buyer's lender requires flood insurance, check its box saying the property is in one. The animal, mold and water-submeter addenda and the rent-reporting offer aren't added on their own: answer them in the Tenancy stage when the facts call for them. A buyer moving in 30 days or more early gets the IOA with BBD, TFHD, RCJC, the mold booklet and the Residential Environmental Hazards booklet, both of which the IOA acknowledges in boxes already checked. The IOA ends on the scheduled closing date, as changed in writing, or when buyer and seller both cancel the sale, whichever comes first: a cancellation only one side signs doesn't end it, and if closing slips without a written change, it still ends on the old date. Possession before closing passes the risk of loss to the buyer unless the purchase agreement or an addendum keeps it on the seller. When the seller stays after closing, the buyer should get the lender's approval of the arrangement before it's signed, since most owner-occupant loans limit a seller's stay, typically to 30 or 60 days; a deposit or holdback for the stay can create a tenancy, and escrow may not hold one after closing; and the buyer walks through again when the seller moves out. If the seller hasn't left by the agreed date, Seller has not moved out by the agreed date (Post-Close) lists C.A.R.'s Notice to Quit (NTQ), whose paragraph 3D covers a former owner holding over after a sale and whose own instructions say to consult a local landlord-tenant eviction attorney before using it: the buyer removes the seller only by written notice and an unlawful detainer case, never by changing the locks or shutting off utilities, and taking rent or a daily fee after the end date can turn the stay into a month-to-month tenancy. Talk to a landlord-tenant attorney before serving anything.
The lease track. In the Tenancy stage, What do the property and the tenancy add? lists BBD and TFHD whenever anything there is answered, because every new lease carries the bed bug notice and the flood disclosures. Every prospective tenant also gets the mold booklet before signing; it's listed with the RLAS, the IOA and Mold and ventilation responsibility. Any other new lease owes it too, though it isn't listed: add the booklet to that lease yourself. An animal will be kept lists the Animal Terms and Conditions Addendum (ATCA). A pet deposit is part of the security deposit and counts toward its cap: one month's rent on top of the first month's, or two for a small landlord (a person, or an LLC whose members are all people, owning no more than two rental properties with no more than four units between them), never two with a tenant who is a service member. Security deposit lists the Security Deposit Disclosure and Addendum (SDDA), which prints that limit for a deposit received on or after July 1, 2024; a landlord claiming two months says it qualifies by checking and signing its paragraph 4. A lease may not require an animal to be declawed or devocalized, and an assistance animal isn't a pet: charge no pet deposit, fee or rent for it. ATCA still covers it: in its paragraph 1 the tenant says whether the animal is a service animal, a support, emotional support or companion animal, or a pet, and its paragraph 12 terms are for pets only. The lead papers apply to a lease of a home built before 1978 unless an exemption fits: a lease of 100 days or less qualifies only if it can't be renewed or extended, and the others are housing certified lead-free, a renewal after the disclosure was already given, and a studio or housing for the elderly or disabled where no child under 6 lives. The Megan's Law Data Base Disclosure (DBD) is needed only with a lease that doesn't print the notice itself, as C.A.R.'s residential lease and the RLAS do. Positive rent reporting must be offered lists the Offer of Tenant Positive Rental Payment Reporting (TRPR): it's owed for a building of 16 or more units, and for one of 15 or fewer only when the landlord owns more than one residential rental building and is a REIT, a corporation or an LLC with a corporate member; assisted housing developments are exempt. It comes with a lease signed on or after April 1, 2025, and at least once a year after; a tenant who accepts can be charged no more than the actual cost or $10 a month, whichever is less.

Homeowners association requests

Any common interest development, under Is the property in a common interest development? (Offer), lists all three association requests. The statute has the seller request the association's documents (HOA-RS), which the association delivers within 10 days of the request. A stock cooperative is a common interest development too: on a co-op, answer this as well as Stock cooperative under Does the property need a hub modifier?. The C.A.R. purchase agreements ask for more: within 3 days after acceptance unless the contract says otherwise, the seller orders through the information request (HOA-IR), unless the seller has already delivered the most current version of a document, both those documents and the other items the contract lists (HOA-RN) — any pending or anticipated claim or litigation, the parking and storage spaces, 12 months of meeting minutes, every association that governs the property, and the pet and smoking rules — pays the fees, and delivers what comes back. HOA-RS is also the delivery record: the seller signs to confirm that anything it handed the buyer directly is current, and the buyer signs for a copy of each item checked. Its row for the latest inspection report on balconies, decks and other exterior elevated elements has no box for the association's answer, so check that the report is attached, or that the association says it has none.

Mello-Roos: the subdivider's notice and the resale notice

When the property is in a Mello-Roos community facilities district (CFD), who gives the buyer the Notice of Special Tax depends on who is selling.

A resale. The seller makes a good-faith effort to get the notice from each district that levies the tax and delivers it to the buyer (Civil Code §1102.6b). The district fills it in.
The subdivider's sale. When the subdivider — the developer who divided the land into two or more lots or units, a condominium included — or its agent sells a lot or unit of that subdivision, the subdivider's own notice is owed instead (Government Code §53341.5): the buyer receives and signs it before signing the purchase contract, and may cancel within 3 days of getting it in person, or 5 days after it was mailed. There's no exception for vacant land or for a sale without a public report, and a lease of more than five years is covered too. The list carries it under Offer as Subdivider's Notice of Special Tax, and the resale notice moves under Doesn't apply here.

On a new-home deal, About this property asks whether the seller is the subdivider; a builder of one home on its own lot isn't one. A sale under a public report, or a completed home in a city subdivision that needs none, answers it yes, and a resale answers it no. Until it's answered, the resale notice stays listed and the subdivider's reads Depends on an answer. This holds whatever purchase agreement the subdivider uses, the RPA included. The notice for a 1915 Act bond assessment stays listed unless the sale is under a public report or is a completed home that needs none: the resale-notice law (Civil Code §1102.6b) applies only to a sale that owes the TDS. Where the parcel carries both a Mello-Roos tax and a 1915 Act assessment, the subdivider's notice takes that law out entirely, but the 1915 Act notice stays listed as a precaution. The Workflow tab's Mello-Roos item names whichever notice applies.

Escrow, title and the closing papers

The preliminary title report. Every purchase lists it, under Escrow, tagged Collect a copy. The title company orders it when escrow opens and delivers it within the time the purchase agreement sets. It's an offer to insure on the terms and exceptions it states, not a statement of the condition of title, and a buyer who accepts title subject to what it lists takes those exceptions: go through the liens, easements, CC&Rs and other exceptions, and the documents behind them, with the buyer before the title contingency is removed. A manufactured home or mobilehome sold without its land, while it's still on its HCD title, has no county title to report on: order an HCD title and lien search instead.
The owner's title insurance policy. Under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), The buyer will receive an owner's title insurance policy lists it under After closing: the title company issues it after the deed records, usually within a few weeks, and you keep the buyer's copy. Under the purchase agreement it's an ALTA Homeowner's Policy where the property and the buyer qualify, or a CLTA Standard Coverage policy otherwise, unless the buyer chose another in writing. A lender's policy insures the lender, not the buyer, and isn't this.
No title policy for the buyer. No title insurance policy will be issued to the buyer, in the same question, lists the Title insurance advisory notice (Civil Code §1057.6) under Escrow, title & lender prepare these — collect a copy: escrow gives the buyer, as a separate document, the statutory notice that title insurance may be advisable, and the buyer signs and acknowledges it. The two answers rule each other out, and until one is given the notice sits under Doesn't apply here, left off until answered.
The final closing statement. Every purchase lists escrow's final settlement statement under Closing, tagged Collect a copy. Keep your client's — the seller's if you represent the seller, the buyer's if you represent the buyer, both on a dual-agency file. Within one month after closing the broker tells the buyer and the seller the selling price in writing, and an escrow closing statement that shows it does that (Business and Professions Code §10141). The broker keeps it with the transaction file for 3 years after closing (§10148). On a financed sale the lender's Closing Disclosure is a separate row.
A seller carry-back. When a deed of trust secures the seller's carry-back financing (Seller carry-back under How is the buyer paying?), the broker who negotiated the sale records it, or delivers it to the seller with a written recommendation to record it at once, within one week after closing, unless the seller instructs otherwise in writing; delivering it to escrow within that week does it (§10141.5).
When you also arrange the loan. Broker both represents a principal and arranges the loan (Loan and disclosure mechanics during escrow, Escrow) lists the Loan Broker–Sales Broker Disclosure (LBSB), two disclosures on one form, each to every party to the sale and to the loan: your two roles within 24 hours, as Business and Professions Code §10177.6 and the form put it, so give it as soon as you take on both; and the amount, form and source of your compensation, before close of escrow. The regulation (10 CCR §2904) requires that for compensation from the lender for arranging the loan, disclosed to both buyer and seller; the form also asks for your compensation for the sale. LBSB sits under Any time in Your forms, not Escrow: your brokerage can take on the loan as early as the offer, so tick Broker both represents a principal and arranges the loan as soon as it does.

Probate sales

Probate or estate sale, under Is this a distressed or court-supervised sale? (Offer), depends on the personal representative's authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, which the Probate Listing Addendum (PLA, paragraph 3) records. With full authority, the representative can sell without court confirmation — so without published notice of sale, the appraisal minimum or a court-approved commission — after mailing or delivering a Notice of Proposed Action at least 15 days before the date it names, to each heir and devisee the sale affects and anyone who asked for special notice, and to the Attorney General when part of the estate may go to the state for lack of heirs: tick Estate sale under full independent administration authority, without court confirmation as well, which lists that notice (DE-165; see Probate, receivers and other court-ordered sellers, above). The representative may still choose court confirmation. With limited authority, which doesn't include selling real property, or with no independent authority, the court must confirm the sale, with open bidding at the hearing: answer Court confirmation required as well. The deed for a court-confirmed sale refers to the order confirming it, and a certified copy of the order is recorded with it; a sale under full authority has no confirming order. The Probate Agreement Purchase Addendum (PA-PA) that this answer lists also covers a conservatorship, guardianship or receivership, and as printed it puts such a sale under court confirmation: answer Court confirmation required for it too. If confirmation turns out to be required after the offer — the seller says so, or a beneficiary or heir objects — the buyer can cancel within 3 Days after the seller's notice and get the deposit back. And PA-PA deletes the purchase agreement's liquidated damages, mediation and arbitration paragraphs even if they were initialed, because the probate court decides disputes: a seller can't count on liquidated damages to keep the deposit. That doesn't protect a buyer who defaults: after the court confirms the sale, a buyer's default may vacate the order and cost the buyer the full deposit, or whatever amount the court decides (PA-PA paragraph 4A).

The listing: its term and its end

How long it can run. An exclusive listing of a home of one to four units, a condominium or other unit, or a manufactured home sold through a licensee may run no more than 24 months, can never renew itself, and is never recorded; one that breaks these rules is void (Civil Code §1670.12). Treat an extension as a renewal: in writing, dated and signed by everyone, never automatic, and no more than 12 months at a time. A corporation, LLC or partnership seller is outside the 24-month and 12-month limits. Every exclusive listing needs a definite end date (Business and Professions Code §10176(f)). Which listing instrument? and Is the listing itself changing? (Listing) list this among their common mistakes.
When it's running out without a sale. The listing period is running out without a sale, under Is the listing itself changing?, lists the Notice of Prospective Buyer – Transferees (NPB). Before the listing ends, give the seller the list of prospective buyers you or a cooperating broker showed the property to, or who made a written offer, and get the seller's signed receipt: the right to be paid if the seller sells to one of them during the continuation period holds only if the list reached the seller before the listing expired. The seller should hand it to any broker the property is relisted with, or may owe two commissions. A listing that ends early names its protected buyers on the Cancellation of Listing (COL) itself.
A tenant-occupied listing. Tenant-occupied, under What does the property itself add to the listing?, lists the Notice of Sale and Entry (NSE), the written notice that the property is for sale. For the next 120 days each showing needs only notice of the date, approximate time and purpose, which may be oral (24 hours ahead is presumed reasonable), and whoever enters leaves written evidence of the entry inside the unit; serve a new NSE when the 120 days run out. Mailed, it needs 6 days before the first entry. The NSE covers only showings to buyers: an inspector, appraiser or contractor needs written notice before entering (see Entering a tenant's unit during escrow, below). The Keysafe – Lockbox Addendum (KLA) records the tenant's permission, on top of anything the lease allows, for a lockbox, for showings on the terms written in it and, for a single-family home, for a sign. Those permissions are printed without checkboxes, so strike any the tenant won't give before the tenant signs. NPB isn't a tenant notice.
Who is on the listing. The listing agreement's signature page names a form for each of three situations, and What does the property itself add to the listing? lists it: More than one agent of your brokerage works the listing (the Additional Agent Acknowledgment, AAA), Another brokerage co-lists the property (the Additional Broker Acknowledgment, ABA) and More than two sellers sign the listing (the Additional Signature Addendum, ASA). When the same is true at the offer, the purchase agreement needs its own copy, in the Offer stage. The seller and your broker agree to arbitrate disputes between them lists the Arbitration Agreement (ARB), which the listing agreement says is how they record that choice. Every listing also lists the Possible Representation of More Than One Buyer or Seller disclosure and consent (PRBS), whose receipt the listing agreement has the seller acknowledge, and the Market Conditions Advisory (MCA), whose seller half says the asking price is the seller's decision.

Entity and trust buyers: FinCEN's real estate report

Buyer is a legal entity or trust and the purchase is all-cash or financed by a lender with no independent money laundering reporting obligation, under How many people and firms are on this deal, and what does not fit on the printed page? (Offer), lists the Federal Reporting Requirement Purchase Addendum (FRR-PA). The federal rule behind it was vacated on March 19, 2026 (Flowers Title Companies v. Bessent, E.D. Tex.), and FinCEN's appeal to the Fifth Circuit is pending: while the order stands, no FinCEN report is required, and FinCEN has said reporting wouldn't be retroactive if the rule is reinstated. Recheck the status before relying on it. The contract's duty to give the reporting person the information it asks for (RPA paragraph 19D, or FRR-PA paragraph 4A, within 7 Days) still applies. Whether the purchase is financed isn't the test: a purchase financed by the seller or a hard-money lender would be reportable if the rule is reinstated, and one with a conventional bank loan isn't. FinCEN's own report isn't in the list.

Situational forms

Keeping an offer confidential. Offer terms or a party's identity must stay confidential, under How is the offer being answered? (Offer), lists the Confidentiality and Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA): an agreement between the buyer and the seller about the proposed purchase agreement. The party receiving it, and that party's agents, keep confidential only what's checked on it (a party's name, the price offered, the terms offered or something else), until the deal closes or ends unless the form says longer, and never against the brokers' reporting of the sale's terms to the MLS at closing. Without a signed NDA, the seller or the listing agent may tell other buyers that an offer exists and what it says. Confidential information will change hands, at buyer intake, lists it too, as a reminder to have it signed with the offer.
The buyer's own inspection choices. The buyer chooses which investigations to order, under Which inspections are being ordered, and who pays? (Offer), lists the Buyer's Investigation Elections (BIE), for use only when you represent the buyer. The buyer is waiving investigations the broker recommended lists it too, with the Buyer's Inspection Waiver (BIW, printed as Buyer's Investigation Waiver). Both are between the buyer and the buyer's broker and don't change the contract with the seller. Signing either removes no contingency: that takes Buyer removes contingencies, under Contingencies come off (Escrow).
Entering a tenant's unit during escrow. Someone must enter a tenant-occupied unit during escrow, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), lists the Notice of Entry (NOE): an inspector, appraiser or contractor going into a tenant's unit needs written notice first, at least 24 hours after it's handed to the tenant or 6 days after it's mailed, for entry during normal business hours. The Notice of Sale and Entry from the listing covers only showings to buyers.
A short sale approval letter during escrow. The lender's short sale approval letter arrives during escrow, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), lists the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Offer of Mortgage Relief Notice (MARSMRN), the same notice as the Listing stage's The lender's short sale approval letter is being presented to the seller. The listing agent gives it to the seller with the lender's approval letter, which on a sale with the Short Sale Addendum comes after acceptance. It restates the amount from the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Short Sale Negotiation Notice (MARSSN) given at listing, so it follows that notice. If you represent only the buyer, leave it unanswered.
Furniture or equipment sold for its own price. Personal property is sold for its own price, under Are there terms the printed contract does not cover? (Offer), lists the Bill of Sale (BOS). Under the purchase agreement alone, items the contract includes in the sale are transferred without the seller's warranty. With tenants staying under TOPA, or on a mixed-use sale under MU-PA, the seller also delivers the personal property used in running the property, included in the price, by Bill of Sale: answer this then too (the mixed-use answer lists BOS already).
A farm or ranch with a home. Agricultural property with a home on it, under Does the property need a hub modifier? (Offer), lists the Agricultural Addendum (AGAD) and the Seller Agricultural Land Supplementary Questionnaire (SALSQ) it requires. Bare agricultural land is sold on a vacant land agreement, which this set doesn't carry.
A client who negotiates in another language. The client negotiates primarily in another language, under What did the buyer intake turn up? (Engagement), and The seller negotiates primarily in another language, under What does the property itself add to the listing? (Listing), list the Interpreter/Translator Agreement (ITA): the client appoints an interpreter for everything in the deal, contracts and disclosure documents included, and you and the client each rely only on that interpretation. A seller's rent-back (RLAS) and a buyer's early occupancy (IOA) print their own interpreter box and attach the ITA: answer The tenant has the lease interpreted into another language, under What do the property and the tenancy add? (Tenancy). A lease of more than one month negotiated mainly in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean still goes to the tenant in translation unless the tenant negotiates through an adult interpreter of their own who isn't employed or supplied by the landlord or the brokerage (Civil Code §1632).
A HUD-owned home. A home HUD itself owns (HUD REO), sold on HUD's sales contract, under Is this a distressed or court-supervised sale? (Offer), lists HUD's Radon Gas and Mold Notice and Release Agreement (RGM, HUD-9548-E) under Offer, and so does HUD-related transaction, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow); one answer is enough. It's only for a home HUD itself owns and sells, on HUD's sales contract, and the buyer signs it with the offer, releasing HUD and its contractor from radon and mold claims. It has no place in an ordinary sale with an FHA-insured loan. The HUD notice that required it expired in 2005, so use it only if HUD's current sales package for the home includes it.
Work the owner didn't contract for. Work on the property the owner did not authorize, under Situational forms during escrow (Escrow), lists the Notice of Nonresponsibility (NNR), for work on the property the owner knows of but didn't contract for, such as a tenant's, an early-occupying buyer's or an optionee's. That's what "did not authorize" means here: an owner who allowed the work without contracting for it can still give the notice. Without it the owner's interest is subject to the liens of whoever did the work. The owner signs and verifies it, and it protects the owner only if it's both posted in a conspicuous place on the property and recorded within 10 days after the owner learns of the work (Civil Code §§8442, 8444). An owner whose lease requires the tenant to make the improvement can't rely on it.

Forms, and the rules behind them

The form set is the paper you collect. Required here on the Files tab is the rules behind it — the point-of-sale rules LetterScript knows for the property (not necessarily all of them), each with its law and its deadline — checked against the documents you upload. See Point-of-sale requirements.

Marking forms collected

Tick a form in Your forms once you have it; the tick saves straight away. A questionnaire form can only be ticked after the set is saved; a government form, once it's in your set. Only a person ever ticks a form: nothing marks it collected automatically, even when a matching document is uploaded — that document is marked On file beside the form and left for you to tick. (The point-of-sale (POS) disclosure checklist on the Files tab works the other way — it ticks itself as documents arrive.) So a form can be On file and unticked, or ticked with nothing on file, and both are right: On file says what's in this transaction's files, and collected is your word that you have what you need. Ticks are saved on the transaction, so everyone who can open it sees them, and anyone with edit access can change them. A form that needs more than one copy shows the count, such as ×2, with the reason beneath.

Export as CSV, in the section header, downloads the saved set as a spreadsheet: each form's code (for a government form, the number it prints, if any; blank for an escrow or title paper tagged Collect a copy), name, stage, copies, whether it's collected and why it's on the list, then its status, level, issuer, who prepares it and its official link. Forms that still depend on an answer are listed last, marked To confirm. The last two rows are notes: that the list is informational only, not legal advice, with each requirement to be confirmed with the city or county before close; and that it isn't a Natural Hazard Disclosure report and doesn't satisfy California Civil Code §1103. It's the summary to hand a broker at file review. Export as CSV downloads the set as it stands. Review first… beside it opens the same list on a review screen, where you can leave rows off this copy before you download it or, as the transaction owner, attach it to an email. The Send menu in the transaction's header has it too, as Forms list, offered once a set is saved with at least one form in it (see Send and share from a transaction). Anyone who can open the transaction can download it, including a collaborator with view-only access.

When the form model changes

The questions and forms behind the form set are updated from time to time — adding the government forms was one such update. A set saved before an update keeps showing exactly what you saved. Anyone who can edit the transaction sees a note that it was built against a different version of the form model. See what changed lists the forms the update would add or drop, including the local forms For this address (or says that only the wording behind them changed), and any answers you'd need to give again. When every saved answer still fits, Update this set adopts the update. When some need giving again, answer those questions in the questionnaire and click Save form set instead. Keep it as saved leaves the set alone.

An update can also retire a form. Septic, well, propane tank or property boundaries, under Which inspections are being ordered, and who pays? (Offer), now lists only SWPI-C, the current septic, well, propane tank and property boundaries addendum. A set saved with the older SWPI still shows it, marked Replaced by SWPI-C, until you adopt the update: use one or the other, and never attach both to one contract.

If the transaction is shared with you as view-only, you see the questionnaire, the questions about the property and the list, but you can't answer anything, tick a form or add one: the answers and ticks are greyed out.

Informational only — not legal advice. Which forms a deal needs depends on facts only you can confirm, and local rules change; confirm local requirements with the city, county or district before close.

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