According to the Miami Herald, the state of Florida does not require a home's flood history to be revealed to prospective buyers, which can lead to heartache and financial distress. Heather Gaker bought a home in Boynton Beach in 2015 with no apparent history of flooding. In 2017, right after Hurricane Irma, the house flooded and her insurance company paid out more than $100,000, more than half the value of the house. The insurance company then told her it was the fourth time the house had been flooded and the property was now considered a “severe repetitive loss.” Her choices are elevating the home for nearly the same price as she bought it, selling it for the land value or tearing it down and starting over.
“I never would have bought this house if I knew it had the flood history it had. I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I knew it had one flood,” she said. “If I had known what was going to happen no way on earth I would have gone near this house.”In other states, homeowners like Gaker do have access to that kind of detailed information about flooding. But not Florida.
As of last month, Texas home sellers have to disclose a lot more information about flood risk and flood history. Now they must tell potential buyers if the home has ever flooded or if it’s in a flood pool, in or near a reservoir or if it’s within a 500-year floodplain. Previously, Texans only had to tell buyers if a home was within a 100-year floodplain, which is FEMA’s AE zone.
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