Iowa · TitleIowa ancient mortgages: no foreclosure 20 years after the recorded date, unless maturity was within 10 years

Iowa limits enforcement of old recorded security instruments. An action to foreclose or enforce a real estate mortgage, bond for deed, trust deed or contract for the sale of real estate is barred after twenty years from the date of the instrument as shown by its record (Iowa Code §614.21(1)). The bar doesn't apply if the record shows that less than ten years have passed since the maturity of the secured debt or since the right of action accrued, or if the record shows an extension of maturity and ten years from the end of that extension haven't expired (§614.21(1)(a)–(b)). Before those periods run out, the holder of the debt or the owner of the instrument may record an extension agreement or other documentation confirming an agreement to extend maturity in the recorder's office where the instrument is recorded (§614.21(2)). The section also reaches unrecorded instruments described or referred to in another recorded instrument (§614.21(3)).