DC's new seller disclosure form says the association does not fill it out
DC's new seller disclosure form says the association does not fill it out
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Regulation
Every District of Columbia condominium resale since November 28, 2025 has used a rewritten seller disclosure form — one that tells sellers, in terms, that the management company and the association do not complete it. The Real Estate Commission's final rulemaking amended 17 DCMR §§ 2708 and 2799, published at 72 DCR 013205.1
What the rule changed
The seller discloses their unit, not the building. New § 2708.8 provides that “[t]he transferor or seller of a condominium unit, cooperative unit, or a lot in a homeowners association shall provide information only as to the transferor's or seller's unit or lot and not as to any common elements, common areas, or other areas outside the unit or lot.”
A common-interest checkbox at the top. The form now opens by asking whether the property is included in a condominium association, a cooperative, or a homeowners association with mandatory participation and fee.
Per-system common-element checkboxes. For the roof, the basement and foundation, and the heating system, the form carries a checkbox reading that the item “is a common element maintained by condominium, cooperative, or homeowners association.”
Who completes it. The instructions state that the seller must complete the statement themselves — “not the broker, broker's agent, management company, condominium association, cooperative association, or homeowners association.”
And what it does not do. The form states expressly: “This form does not satisfy the requirements outlined in D.C. Official Code § 42-1904.11 related to the disclosure of information for the resale of a condominium unit.”
New questions were added elsewhere on the form, including one on stormwater Declarations of Covenants and one on whether the property has a Department of Buildings vacant or blighted building exemption.
Two things this means for a board and manager
The misdirected requests should drop, and you can now point at the rule. Managers spend real time each month declining to complete seller disclosure statements for owners who assume the association does it. There is now a line in the form's own instructions naming the management company and the association as parties who do not complete it. Quoting it is faster than explaining it.
The resale package obligation is untouched and still mandatory. This is the more important half. D.C. Code § 42-1904.11 requires the association to furnish a resale certificate on the sale of a unit, and the new form says in terms that it does not satisfy that requirement. Two separate documents, two separate authors, on every District condominium resale.
An association that has been treating the disclosure form and the resale certificate as alternatives has a problem on both ends: it is refusing to produce something it does not owe, and it may be under-producing something it does.
Where the division of labour actually helps
The rule draws the line in the right place, and it is worth understanding why.
A seller knows about their unit — the leak under their sink, the window that does not close, the appliance that failed. They do not reliably know about the roof, the foundation or the central plant, and their guess about a common element is worse than no answer at all. Confining the seller's disclosure to the unit, and flagging the common elements as the association's territory, means the buyer gets each fact from the party who actually has it: the unit facts from the seller, the building facts from the association's resale certificate.
For a board, the consequence is that the resale certificate carries more weight than it used to. It is now the only place a buyer learns about the common elements. Reserve balances, pending special assessments, litigation, insurance and the budget all reach the buyer through that document or not at all.
The two new questions worth an association's attention
Stormwater Declarations of Covenants. Where an association has entered into a recorded stormwater retention covenant, that is now a question on every unit resale in the building. That puts the answer on the association — and a seller who does not know the answer will ask the manager.
The vacant or blighted exemption. Relevant to any association with a chronically empty unit, and worth knowing about because a Class 3 or 4 vacant designation has tax consequences the association's other owners feel indirectly.
What to watch next
Nothing pending on this form. The point of watching is the underlying resale-certificate regime at § 42-1904.11, which the Council has not amended in this period — and which, with the disclosure form now expressly disclaiming it, is doing more work than ever.
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