Florida Expands Flood Disclosures
Effective Oct. 1, 2025, the state requires updated flood disclosures for home sales and rentals, including all flooding and repair assistance received.
ORLANDO, Fla. — During the 2024 session, the Florida Legislature – perhaps concerned about the flood damage caused by recent hurricanes – created section 689.302, Florida Statutes.
Entitled “Disclosure of flood risks to prospective purchasers,” section 689.302 mandated that a seller complete and provide such a disclosure to any “purchaser of residential real property.” The statute also sets forth the exact wording such a disclosure must use.
In the 2024 version of the form, the seller was required to disclose “claims with insurance providers relating to flood damage” and “federal assistance received to remediate flood damage.” The seller was compelled to provide the disclosure “at or before the time the sales contract is executed.”
Though the statute mandated a new specific flood disclosure form, a seller was already required under Florida law to make known most of the facts the disclosure references. Under the Florida Supreme Court case Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), a seller must disclose to a buyer “facts materially affecting the value of the property which are not readily observable and are not known to the buyer.” Over the years, questions have arisen whether latent defects in a property must be disclosed if the seller believes they have been remediated. The first flood disclosure removes that uncertainty, at least with respect to flood-related insurance claims and federally assisted remediation.
In 2025, the Legislature went a step further and expanded the flood disclosure for residential sales. In addition to the two categories from the original disclosure, the amended version of section 689.302 added seller’s “knowledge of any flooding that damaged the property during the ownership of the property,” not just that which required an insurance claim. The amended statute also removed the requirement that remediation assistance be from a federal source. Now sellers must disclose any assistance they may have received to fix the flood damage.
In addition to expanding the residential sales flood disclosure, the Legislature created an additional flood disclosure for rental properties. Section 83.512 now obligates the landlord to make the same three disclosures found in section 689.302 “at or before the execution of a rental agreement for a term of 1 year or longer.” As with section 689.503, the language that must be in the disclosure is set out directly in the statute. Critically, this disclosure “must be in a separate document” – it cannot be part of the lease.
Section 83.512 also provides for penalties if the landlord does not comply. If the landlord does not provide the disclosure, and the tenant suffers substantial loss or damage due to flooding, the tenant may give written notice of termination to go into effect no later than 30 days after the date of damage. The landlord must then refund all advance rent from the date of termination (though the tenant is still liable for pre-flood delinquent rent).
Both section 83.512 and the amended version of section 689.302 go into effect on October 1, 2025. As with other disclosure forms, it is critical that the seller or landlord fill out the disclosure. A real estate licensee can point them in the right direction, but the disclosure of information should always be the client’s or customer’s responsibility.
Richard Swank is an Associate General Counsel for Florida Realtors.
Note: Information deemed accurate on date of publication.
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