614.17  Claims to real estate antedating 1980.
  1.  An action based upon a claim arising or existing prior to January 1, 1980, shall not be maintained, either at law or in equity, in any court to recover real estate in this state or to recover or establish any interest in or claim to real estate, legal or equitable, against the holder of the record title to the real estate in possession, when the holder of the record title and the holder’s immediate or remote grantors are shown by the record to have held chain of title to the real estate, since January 1, 1980, unless the claimant in person, or by the claimant’s attorney or agent, or if the claimant is a minor or under legal disability, by the claimant’s guardian, trustee, or either parent, within one year from and after July 1, 1991, files in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county in which the real estate is situated, a statement in writing, which is duly acknowledged, definitely describing the real estate involved, the nature and extent of the right or interest claimed, and stating the facts upon which the claim is based.
  2.  For the purposes of this section, section 614.17A, and sections 614.18 to 614.20, a person who holds title to real estate by will or descent from a person who held the title of record to the real estate at the date of that person’s death or who holds title by decree or order of a court, or under a tax deed, trustee’s, referee’s, guardian’s, executor’s, administrator’s, receiver’s, assignee’s, master’s in chancery, or sheriff’s deed, holds chain of title the same as though holding by direct conveyance.
  3.  For the purposes of this section and section 614.17A, such possession of real estate may be shown of record by affidavits showing the possession, and when the affidavits have been filed and recorded, it is the duty of the recorder to index the applicable entries specified in sections 558.49 and 558.52 and to index the name of the owner in possession, as named in the affidavits, and in like manner, the affidavits may be filed and recorded where any action was barred on any claim by this section as in force prior to July 1, 1991.
[C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §11024; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §614.17]
91 Acts, ch 183, §36; 2007 Acts, ch 101, §5