Iowa Code 558.46 – Mandatory recording of certain residential real estate installment sales contracts
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1. Every real estate installment sales contract transferring an interest in residential property shall be recorded by the contract seller with the county recorder in the county in which the real estate is situated not later than ninety days from the date the contract was signed by the contract seller and contract purchaser.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 558.46
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Purchaser: means a person who enters into a membership camping contract with a membership camping operator and obtains the right to use the campground owned or operated by the membership camping operator. See Iowa Code 557B.1
- real property: include lands, tenements, hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
2. Failure to record a real estate contract required to be recorded by this section by the contract seller within the specified time limit is punishable by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars per day for each day of violation. The county recorder shall record a real estate contract presented for recording even though not presented within ninety days of the signing of the contract. The county recorder shall forward to the county attorney a copy of each real estate contract recorded more than ninety days from the date the contract was signed by the contract seller and contract purchaser. The county attorney shall initiate action in the district court to enforce the provisions of this section. Fines collected pursuant to this subsection shall be deposited in the general fund of the county.
3. Failure to timely record shall not invalidate an otherwise valid real estate contract. However, a contract seller is prohibited from initiating forfeiture proceedings on the basis of a failure to comply with the terms of a real estate contract, if the contract has not been recorded.
4. If a real estate contract is required to be recorded under this section, the requirement is satisfied by recording either the entire real estate contract or a memorandum of the contract containing at least the names and addresses of all parties named in the contract, a description of all real property and interests in the real property subject to the contract, the length of the contract, and a statement as to whether the seller is entitled to the remedy of forfeiture and as to the dates upon which payments are due.
5. This section applies to residential real estate installment sales contracts entered into before, on, or after July 1, 1998. However, such contracts entered into before July 1, 1998, shall not be subject to the fine in subsection 2.
6. If a contract seller is subject to the requirements of section 558.70, the contract must be recorded within thirty days rather than ninety days and the recording requirement is only satisfied by recording the real estate contract rather than a memorandum of the contract.