Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ)

The seller completes and signs it. The buyer signs to acknowledge receipt. Agents do not answer for the seller, though a good listing agent walks through the form with the seller and asks the uncomfortable follow-up questions before a buyer does.

Where multiple sellers hold title, each should review and sign. In a trust or estate sale the successor trustee or personal representative may have limited knowledge; the right response there is to answer what is known and say plainly where knowledge is limited, rather than leaving the form thin and unexplained.

With the rest of the disclosure package, as early as practicable — ideally at listing, alongside the TDS. Since the SPQ is not statutory, it does not carry its own statutory rescission period. However, it commonly becomes a contractual deliverable inside the purchase agreement's disclosure and investigation timelines, so a late SPQ can extend the buyer's contractual contingency period.

If the seller learns something new during escrow — a leak appears, a neighbor dispute escalates — update the SPQ or issue a written supplemental disclosure. Either vehicle works; what matters is that the new information goes out in writing, dated, and lands in the file.

Nothing statutory happens, because nothing statutory required it. What happens is practical: the file is weaker. An SPQ that was never delivered removes the seller's best evidence of diligence, and it removes the record that a specific question was asked and answered.

The larger risk is the SPQ that is delivered but answered carelessly. An inaccurate written answer to a direct question is significantly worse than no question at all, because the buyer can point to the exact line and say they relied on it. Nondisclosure claims turn on reliance, and the SPQ manufactures reliance by design.

If a contract makes the SPQ a required deliverable and it never arrives, that is also a straightforward contract performance issue.

Leaving lines blank. A blank invites the reader to decide what it means. "I don't know" is a legitimate, defensible answer; blank is not an answer at all.

Answering "no" to save the deal. The item you are tempted to hide is the item the buyer's inspector will find, and now you have a written misstatement instead of a disclosed condition.

Over-editing the seller's words. Help the seller be clear and complete; do not smooth the substance out of their answers.

Answering from the agent's knowledge. If you know something the seller did not disclose, that belongs in your own agent visual inspection section or a separate written disclosure — not written into the seller's form.

Treating it as one-and-done. Conditions change during escrow. Update in writing.