Florida’s Flood Disclosure Rules Leave Homebuyers in the Dark
And 20 other states earn a failing grade on transparency, according to a new NRDC rating of property rules.
Children walk through flooded streets in the town of Immokalee, Florida, which was especially hard hit by Hurricane Irma.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
There are few places to purchase a home in the U.S. that have a greater risk of flooding than on the coast of Florida. But sellers needn’t lose sleep over that. That’s because the Sunshine State doesn’t mandate disclosure of whether a property has previously flooded.
Some 21 states have no rules requiring owners to reveal a property’s flood history, according to a newly updated rating by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based non-profit advocacy group. That’s down only one from 2018, when NRDC did its first disclosure report.