ORLANDO, Fla. – Not all of Florida got a direct hit from Hurricane Helene, but heavy rain caused major flooding concerns.
Homes that aren’t even in flood zones can still end up with thousands of dollars in water damage.
A new law — HB 1049 — went into effect on Tuesday, requiring disclosure of a property’s flood risk to a buyer. This includes providing buyers with filed insurance claims related to flood damage and disclosing whether federal assistance was given due to flooding.
Though it does not require the seller to disclose information about a home’s past flood damage, this new law still provides greater transparency than before.
[READ: Here are all of the Florida laws that went into effect on Oct. 1]
News 6 spoke with Jupiter Properties owner and broker Khalid Muneer, who has been in business here in Central Florida for over 27 years.
“This law will protect buyers from finding out when it’s too late that they have bought a home with flooding problems,” he said. “It will give them an opportunity to decide if they want to buy a property that could potentially have issues later on. And if they choose to buy it, they are equipped with the proper information to decide on getting flood insurance even if the property is not in a flood zone.”
News 6 also spoke with Rose Kemp of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association, who has confidence in the new law.
“A seller shouldn’t be concerned that this is going to make my home harder to sell. It’s more about, ‘Let me be as honest as possible and transparent to the buyer so that they don’t run into any surprises,’ but also there’s liability,” she said.
The law also has a specific definition of what the term “flooding” means. It includes more than just water damage from storms.
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