Just what everyone wants right now is a new flood disclosure requirement when selling property. It’s not as if we aren’t aware that Anna Maria Island and the coastal areas of Manatee County could flood after Helene and Milton, it’s just another nail in the coffin for potential sellers.
The new flood disclosure requirements went into effect on Oct. 1, but didn’t get much publicity since it came just before Milton and just after Helene, when coastal residents were busy digging out. Basically, the Florida Statute requires a seller to complete and provide flood disclosure to a buyer of residential real property. The disclosure must be done at or before the time a contract is executed.
There are two points to be disclosed: Whether the homeowner has filed a claim with their insurance provider relating to flood damage on the property and whether they have received federal assistance for flood damage to the property.
The state’s definition of flooding is a general or temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of the property caused by the overflow of inland or tidal waters, the unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff or surface waters from any established water source or sustained periods of standing water resulting from rainfall, particularly a river, a stream or a drainage ditch. The way I read this is that the statute is more of a protection for properties at risk of flooding from rivers than coastal flooding, which is clearly defined by FEMA’s flood zone map.
Nevertheless, even though sellers were always required to disclose anything about the property that would affect the value of the home, adding a specific disclosure for flooding is a good thing. The Seller Property Disclosure form will be updated, making this new law part of the form extending the existing flood sections so that sellers have to provide more information to consumers.
Anna Maria Island has been called a 7-mile-long tropical oasis. For those of us who have lived on, near or worked on the Island, we know this and mourn the damage done by the storms this year. Unfortunately, there are changes to the Island that have been going on for some time but will likely be accelerating in the wake of the damage experienced on the island.
The fulltime population of the Island has been declining steadily. There were double-digit declines in Holmes Beach and Anna Maria and somewhat less in Bradenton Beach according to the last U.S. Census Bureau report between 2020 and 2021. We can only assume that this trend will not only continue but increase when the after-effects of this storm season are added up.
We already know that investors are aggressively buying up properties on the Island that have suffered irreversible damage with an eye to leveling the structures and building even more large three-story homes geared for rentals. We can also expect to see the addition of high-end resort style construction, further elbowing out the private homeowners and retirees.
America’s population has been growing in the southern part of the country for decades. And it has risen especially fast since the pandemic. The South gained an additional 3.9 million people between April 2020 and July 2023 according to the Census Bureau. Deep-pocket investors are looking at this trend, eyeing our beautiful beaches and Gulf waters and aren’t running away.
So, flooding or no flooding, there are plenty of investor groups out there who feel the return on their investment is worth the risk. After all, Milton was a “once in a lifetime event” – you think?
