What Florida's Flood Disclosure Form Asks Sellers

Answer From Your Own Records Before You Check a Box

Florida's flood disclosure form is fixed by law, so your job is the answers. Section 689.302 says the flood disclosure must be made in a set form, and then it prints the form. It opens with a flood insurance note. Homeowners' insurance policies don't include coverage for damage resulting from floods. The buyer is encouraged to discuss separate flood insurance coverage with the buyer's insurance agent. Then come three items, each answered with a check box.

1. Whether you have knowledge of any flooding that has damaged the property during your ownership of it.

2. Whether you have filed a claim with an insurance provider relating to flood damage on the property, including, but not limited to, a claim with the National Flood Insurance Program.

3. Whether you have received assistance for flood damage to the property, including, but not limited to, assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The form defines flooding as a general or temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of the property. It names three causes. Inland or tidal waters overflow. Runoff or surface water from an established water source, such as a river, stream or drainage ditch, piles up unusually fast. Rainfall leaves standing water for a sustained period.

The questions ask about your house. A flood map won't answer them. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program says 29% of its flood insurance claims from 2014 to 2024 came from areas outside current high-risk flood areas. A house outside those areas can still have flooded.

The Legislature has changed the form once. The version that took effect October 1, 2024 asked only about claims and federal assistance. Chapter 2025-166 took effect October 1, 2025. It added item 1 and dropped the word federal from item 3. Check each answer against your records. Your insurer's claim history is one place to start. Assistance letters and repair invoices are others.

Get It to the Buyer by the Contract, Not Closing

Florida's flood disclosure is due at the sales contract, not at closing. Section 689.302 says the seller must provide it "at or before the time the sales contract is executed." Hand it over before you sign the contract, so it can't be late. You fill it out yourself. A Florida Realtors associate general counsel wrote in September 2025 that a real estate licensee can point a seller in the right direction, but the disclosure of information should always be the client's or customer's responsibility. On September 30, 2025, Florida Realtors announced an updated form, FD-2, with the new statutory language and a new checkbox for the seller.

The section lists no penalty and no remedy for the buyer. Don't read that as room to shade an answer. The same counsel noted that a seller was already required to make known most of the facts the form references, under Johnson v. Davis. In that 1985 case the Florida Supreme Court held that where a seller of a home "knows of facts materially affecting the value of the property which are not readily observable and are not known to the buyer, the seller is under a duty to disclose them to the buyer." The sellers there also told the buyers the roof had no problems. The court held that statement a fraudulent misrepresentation and said the buyers were entitled to their deposit back.

The Florida Realtors/Florida Bar AS IS contract has a sentence on the same ground. Paragraph 10(j), titled Seller Disclosure, reads: "Seller knows of no facts materially affecting the value of the Real Property which are not readily observable and which have not been disclosed to Buyer." Answer the flood form and the contract the same way.

Choose Your Route Knowing What the Buyer Can Do

Florida's flood disclosure form tells the buyer what you know. The Florida Realtors/Florida Bar AS IS contract has its own flood paragraph, and it can give the buyer a way out.

Paragraph 10(d) advises the buyer to verify the flood zone by elevation certificate and to find out whether the buyer's lender requires flood insurance. It also lets the buyer cancel when two things are true. One, the property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area or an area designated or otherwise protected under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act. Two, its lowest floor elevation, for the building or for flood insurance rating purposes, is below the minimum flood elevation, or it is ineligible for flood insurance coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program or private flood insurance as defined in federal law. The buyer then has the number of days filled in, or 20 if the blank is left empty, counted from the day the last of you and the buyer signed or initialed and delivered the offer or final counter-offer. A buyer who cancels in writing inside that window gets the deposit back. A buyer who misses the window accepts the existing elevation and flood zone designation.

Your flood answers reach the buyer at or before the contract is executed, so consider what they say when you compare your options. You choose between the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer. With the Fast Cash Offer, Cash Flow Deals buys your house as-is and closes, with one walk-through by our team and no repairs for you to make. With the Premium Cash Offer, a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. Their lender funds the purchase, title passes directly from you to them, and Cash Flow Deals is paid as a separate line item on the closing statement.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. On the Premium Cash Offer, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed. Those repair costs are covered up front and settled from the sale proceeds, from our share rather than your agreed number. The Fast Cash Offer buys your house as-is.

For either offer, the number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens.

If the Premium buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours, and you can still take the Fast Cash Offer at its own number. You can compare the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer side by side, including what you would receive after the payoff and anything owed.

The Fast Cash Offer has 15 business days of inspection. Those 15 business days are the inspection period, not the closing timeline. Our closing term is 30 business days on the Fast Cash Offer or 45 to 60 business days on the Premium Cash Offer; you help pick the date, and your written contract sets out the timing for the offer you choose. Take 10 to 15 minutes to read the terms, or take longer if you need it. Nothing is binding until a written contract is signed by both sides, and you can take it to an attorney first.