Archaelogical Artifacts
By Jim Palmer Jr.

A few years ago in Stevens County the owner of a subdivision was forced to cease his ground work because of the discovery of archaeological artifacts from an era when indigenous tribes populated the area.  When he requested information from the state Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP), he was forced to sign an application that says when they give him information concerning the previous discovery of artifacts in that area,  he cannot disclose this information to the public (RCW 42.56.300) in order to prevent looting. 
The fact that artifacts did and could exist on this property was not disclosed to him because of this law.  Now in order to move forward, he must pay designated observers thousands of dollars to control and monitor excavation of the property.  In turn, he cannot disclose any findings to buyers of the individual lots. 

In another case, a home owner was forced to pay approx. $5,000 in fees so a monitor could observe the excavation of two post holes for a lean-to addition on a mobile home porch.  Evidently the first discovery of this issue for that home owner was when the county notified them upon receipt of their building permit.  The whole porch project didn’t cost as much as the monitors fee.

In a Deer Park case a landowner was forced to excavate deep and long trenches on their property, at great expense, to satisfy county requirements to investigate the “possibility” that there could be aboriginal artifacts on the property because of a request for a zoning variance.  The county reasoned that because this property was close to a creek and a cemetery it could be possible that there had been encampments of indigenous tribes there in the past.

The revelation of the possibility of artifacts on a property poses particular legal problems for brokers because of their statutorily mandated duty to disclose material facts to the public.  If a seller is not willing to disclose facts, or (as in this case) is bound by law not to disclose certain facts, the broker is still obligated to disclose all known material facts. 

This conflict is being handled by Spokane Realtors® with an addendum that asks sellers to check a box disclosing whether or not they are aware of the existence of an Archaeological Site on their property.  Sellers are then asked whether they will cooperate with buyers to execute a Prospective Purchaser Information Request Form, wherein Seller grants permission to release information from the DAHP.

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