Bill Text: IA HF371 | 2017-2018 | 87th General Assembly | Enrolled

Iowa House Bill 371 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: A bill for an act relating to attorney fees and court costs in an action to quiet title after a request for a quitclaim deed. (Formerly HSB 31.) Effective 7-1-17.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Passed) 2017-05-11 - Signed by Governor. H.J. 1148. [HF371 Detail]

Download: Iowa-2017-HF371-Enrolled.html


House File 371 - Enrolled




                              HOUSE FILE       
                              BY  COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

                              (SUCCESSOR TO HSB 31)
 \5
                                   A BILL FOR
 \1
                                         House File 371

                             AN ACT
 RELATING TO ATTORNEY FEES AND COURT COSTS IN AN ACTION
    TO QUIET TITLE AFTER A REQUEST FOR A QUITCLAIM DEED.

 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
    Section 1.  Section 649.5, Code 2017, is amended to read as
 follows:
    649.5  Demand for quitclaim == attorney fees.
    1.  If a party, twenty days or more before Before bringing
 suit to quiet a title to real estate, requests of a party
 may make a written request to the person holding an apparent
 adverse interest or right therein the execution of a in the
 property asking that such person, and that person's spouse
 if any, execute, have acknowledged, and deliver a quitclaim
 deed thereto, and also tenders to the person one dollar and
 twenty=five cents to the property to such requesting party.
    2.  The written request described in subsection 1 shall
 include a draft quitclaim deed to the property, the street
 address of the property, a brief explanation of how the
 apparent adverse interest or right arose, if known, and
 why the party believes the interest or right is not a valid
 claim against title, a copy of this section, a self=addressed
 stamped envelope, and fifty dollars to cover the expense of the
 execution, acknowledgment, and delivery of the deed, and if.
    3.  If the person refuses or neglects holding an apparent
 adverse interest or right in the property fails to comply
 within twenty days of receiving the written request, the filing
 of a disclaimer of interest or right shall not avoid the costs
 in an action afterwards brought, and the court may, in its
 discretion, if the plaintiff succeeds, assess, in addition
 to the ordinary costs of court, an a reasonable attorney
 fee for plaintiff's the requesting party's attorney, not
 exceeding twenty=five dollars if there is but a single tract
 not exceeding forty acres in extent, or a single lot in a city,
 involved, and forty dollars, if but a single tract exceeding
 forty acres and not more than eighty acres. In cases in which
 two or more tracts are included that may not be embraced in one
 description, or single tracts covering more than eighty acres,
 or two or more city lots, a reasonable fee may be assessed, not
 exceeding, proportionately, those provided for in this section.


                                                                                            LINDA UPMEYER


                                                                                            JACK WHITVER


                                                                                            CARMINE BOAL


                                                                                            TERRY E. BRANSTA

                             -1-