What Must a Seller Disclose When Selling a House in Florida?

Florida sellers must disclose every known fact that materially affects the property’s value and is not readily observable to the buyer. That court-made duty from Johnson v. Davis sits on top of specific written notices required by statute: a flood disclosure, a radon notice, a property-tax warning, and condo, HOA, coastal and lead-paint disclosures where they apply.

The Rule Every Florida Seller Is Held To

Florida does not hand sellers a single checklist and call it a day. The core duty comes from the Florida Supreme Court’s 1985 decision in Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625. The court held that where the 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. Before that case, Florida followed the old rule of buyer beware. After it, silence about a hidden problem became a basis for liability.

Three words carry the weight. The fact must be known to the seller, so you are not responsible for a defect you genuinely had no idea existed. It must be material, meaning it affects what the property is worth or whether a reasonable buyer would go through with the deal. And it must be not readily observable, which is why a cracked tile in plain view is different from a roof that leaks only in a heavy storm, a past termite infestation that was treated and painted over, or a foundation repair hidden behind new drywall.

The duty applies to residential property. Florida courts have kept the older buyer-beware rule for commercial transactions, so a seller of a warehouse or office building is in a different position than a seller of a home in Coral Gables.

Is a Seller’s Disclosure Form Required in Florida?

No statute requires a Florida seller to complete a general property-condition form. The Seller’s Property Disclosure – Residential published by Florida Realtors is the form most agents put in front of sellers, and it is a sensible tool, but using it is a matter of practice rather than law. What the law requires is the substance: known, material, hidden facts must reach the buyer in some form before the sale.

That cuts both ways. Filling out a form does not protect a seller who leaves a known problem off it, and skipping the form does not excuse a seller from the Johnson v. Davis duty. The safest approach is to put every disclosure in writing, keep a copy, and have the buyer sign for it. Written disclosures are what settle arguments months after closing, when a buyer claims the seller “must have known.”

Alongside that general duty, several Florida statutes require specific written notices at or before the time the contract is signed. The sections below cover the ones that come up in nearly every Miami-Dade residential sale.

The Flood Disclosure Every Residential Seller Must Provide

Since October 1, 2024, Fla. Stat. § 689.302 has required the seller of residential real property to complete and deliver a written flood disclosure to the buyer at or before the time the sales contract is executed. The form, titled Flood Disclosure, asks the seller to answer yes or no to three questions: whether the seller has knowledge of flooding that damaged the property during the seller’s ownership, whether the seller has filed an insurance claim for flood damage, including a claim with the National Flood Insurance Program, and whether the seller has received assistance for flood damage, including assistance from FEMA.

The statute defines flooding broadly. It covers partial or complete inundation of the property caused by the overflow of inland or tidal waters, by the unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff or surface waters from an established source such as a river, stream, or drainage ditch, or by sustained periods of standing water resulting from rainfall. A yard that sat under water for days after a tropical storm can count even if no water entered the house.

The Legislature expanded the law in 2025 through chapter 2025-166, effective October 1, 2025. Among other changes, the disclosure now reaches any flooding the seller knows damaged the property, not only events that produced an insurance claim, and the assistance question is no longer limited to federal aid. The 2025 law also extended flood disclosures to residential leases and to developer sales of condominium and cooperative units.

Other Statutory Notices Required at or Before Contract

Radon. Under Fla. Stat. § 404.056(5), at least one document executed at or before the contract for sale must carry the state’s radon gas notification, which explains that radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas and that levels exceeding federal and state guidelines have been found in Florida buildings. The standard Florida contract forms include it.

Property taxes. Fla. Stat. § 689.261 requires a property tax disclosure summary at or before execution of the contract. Its message is blunt: the buyer should not rely on the seller’s current property taxes as the amount the buyer will pay in the year after purchase, because a change of ownership or property improvements triggers a reassessment that could result in higher taxes. In a county where long-held homes carry large Save Our Homes caps, this warning matters.

Energy efficiency. Fla. Stat. § 553.996 requires that a buyer receive information on Florida’s building energy-efficiency rating system at or before signing the contract.

Coastal property. For property located partially or totally seaward of the coastal construction control line, Fla. Stat. § 161.57 requires a written disclosure that the property may be subject to coastal erosion and to coastal regulations, and, unless the buyer waives it in writing, an affidavit or survey showing the location of the control line at or before closing.

Sinkhole claims. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.7073(2)(c), a seller who made a sinkhole claim that the insurer paid must tell the buyer before closing that a claim was paid and whether the full proceeds were used to repair the damage.

Lead-based paint. For housing built before 1978, federal law (the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4852d) requires the seller to give the buyer the EPA pamphlet Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home, disclose any known lead-based paint or hazards, hand over available reports, include a lead warning statement in the contract, and allow the buyer a 10-day period to conduct a lead inspection or risk assessment unless the buyer waives it.

Condo and HOA Sales: Document Packages and Cancellation Windows

A seller of a condominium unit owes the buyer a document package, not just a disclosure. Under Fla. Stat. § 718.503(2), the seller must provide, at the seller’s expense, current copies of the declaration of condominium, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws and rules, the association’s annual financial statement and budget, the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers sheet, the inspector-prepared summary of any milestone inspection report, the most recent structural integrity reserve study, and any turnover inspection report performed on or after July 1, 2023. The contract must either acknowledge that the buyer received those documents more than 7 days before signing, or give the buyer the right to void the contract within 7 days after signing and receiving them, with Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays excluded.

A home in a mandatory homeowners’ association carries its own notice. Fla. Stat. § 720.401 requires that a prospective buyer be presented with a disclosure summary before executing the contract, in a form set by statute that warns the buyer they will be obligated to be a member of the association and to pay assessments, and that unpaid assessments can become a lien on the home. If the summary is not provided before signing, the buyer may void the contract by written notice within 3 days after receiving it or before closing, whichever comes first. The buyer cannot waive that right, and it ends at closing.

The firm’s pages on milestone inspections and SIRS and on HOA estoppel letters walk through what those documents contain and who pays for them.

What a Florida Seller Does Not Have to Disclose

Florida draws a few clear lines. Under Fla. Stat. § 689.25, the fact that an occupant has or had HIV or AIDS is not a material fact that must be disclosed, and neither is the fact that the property was, or was suspected to have been, the site of a homicide, suicide, or death. The statute also bars claims against owners and real estate licensees for not disclosing those facts.

Defects that are readily observable are the buyer’s job to find. A buyer who walks through the house, or whose inspector does, is expected to notice what is in plain sight, and the seller’s duty is aimed at what a reasonable inspection would not reveal. Problems the seller genuinely does not know about are also outside the duty, which is one reason sellers should resist guessing about conditions they have never investigated.

One thing that does not shrink the duty is an as-is contract. As the firm explains in its page on as-is contracts in Florida, selling as-is shifts the cost of repairs to the buyer; it does not permit the seller to conceal a known, material, hidden defect. A seller who knows the roof leaks and says nothing is exposed to a claim whether or not the contract says as-is.

Selling a Home in Miami-Dade: What Local Buyers Ask About

Miami-Dade sales raise a few disclosure issues more often than the rest of the state. Flooding is the obvious one. Large parts of the county sit in mapped flood zones, and the 2024 and 2025 flood-disclosure laws were written with South Florida in mind. If water has ever come into the garage, pooled against the slab, or ruined flooring after a storm, it belongs on the Flood Disclosure form, and a seller who has filed a flood claim or received FEMA help should expect the buyer to ask for the paperwork.

Older condominium buildings are the second. A Miami-Dade unit seller must furnish the milestone inspection summary and structural integrity reserve study described above, and buyers in this market read them closely because the results drive special assessments. The firm’s page on who pays a condo special assessment explains how assessments that have been levied or discussed in the past 12 months are handled in the standard rider.

Unpermitted work is the third. Enclosed patios, converted garages, and added bathrooms are common across the county, and a seller who knows an improvement was built without a permit knows a fact a buyer cannot see on a walk-through. Buyers’ attorneys routinely order a municipal lien and permit search before closing, so an undisclosed open permit or code violation tends to surface anyway, usually at the worst possible time. If you are searching for a real estate attorney near me before listing a Miami-Dade home, the most useful first meeting is one where you bring everything you know about the property, including the things you would rather not mention, so your lawyer can tell you what must be disclosed and how to word it.

Related Questions

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