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By Steven Rodas
Potential opens in a new windowhomeowners and renters take note.
Sellers and landlords must now make prospective buyers or tenants explicitly aware of the flood dangers they could be taking on.
Flooding is a dire problem that New Jerseyans are no stranger to — in the decades since opens in a new windowHurricane Sandy, the years after the remnants of opens in a new windowHurricane Ida and the too-many-to-count string of storms and downpours in between and since.
A stronger flood disclosure policy was signed by Gov. opens in a new windowPhil Murphy last opens in a new windowsummer after a push from climate advocates and Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex.
The NJDEP said starting Wednesday the law will work in the following ways.
For real estate sales
Every seller of real property must disclose specific flood risk information via a property condition disclosure statement before the purchaser becomes obligated under any purchase contract, including:
- whether the property is located in FEMA’s Special Flood Hazard Area or Moderate Flood Hazard Area
- any knowledge concerning flood risks of the property
For landlords and tenants
Every landlord must provide notice to prospective renters, including:
- whether the rental property is located in a flood hazard area
- any knowledge that the rental premises or any portion of the property, such as tenant parking spaces, have experienced flooding
New Jersey’s existing property disclosure statements had already asked whether properties were in a flood zone and if any prior flood damage had taken place there.
The new legislation expands disclosure so it’s more comprehensive and renters are made more aware of their likelihood of flooding too.
For instance, the new law requires prospective renters to receive a separate flood disclosure document with a font size no smaller than 12 points.
For new home buyers and real estate transactions, additional flooding information will be added to the existing property condition disclosure statement (therefore not a separate document) and be provided to the purchaser before they are obligated under any contract to purchase the property.
Peter Kasabach, executive director of non-profit opens in a new windowNew Jersey Future, explained that the new law does not outline specific fines for landlords and home sellers who do not disclose flood risks. Nevertheless, he highlighted that it creates a system to hold them accountable and violations could be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Between last July and this month, an opens in a new windowonline look-up tool was revamped by the state so anyone can check their flood risks more easily.
To use New Jersey’s new tool and check the risks of flooding at an address, opens in a new window click here. Find the template for a homeowner opens in a new windowflood disclosure statement here.
More homes at risk
The opens in a new window National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said between 1980 and March 8, 2024, New Jersey had at least 66 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each.
Climate change — with the concentrated heavy rainfall, flash flooding and unpredictably strong nor’easters it can fuel — is only expected to force more residents in the Garden State to think about flooding when considering where they can and want to live.
Passage of stricter flood disclosure requirements is part of a larger effort to arm families with more information as they make these decisions, leaders with New Jersey Future, which fought for the legislation, said.
“Coastal and inland areas may experience significant flooding now and in the near future, including in places that were not previously known to flood,” New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection officials said while opens in a new windowannouncing disclosure details.
The department said by 2050, it is likely sea level rise will meet or exceed 2.1 feet above 2000 levels. That would put more than 40,000 New Jersey properties at risk of permanent coastal flooding.
Roughly 35 states have some form of flood disclosure information either implied or required during real estate transactions, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a 2022 report.
Kasabach, of New Jersey Future, said while disclosure was important, how exactly the new policy is implemented will be paramount.
Leanna Jones, an Ida survivor and organizer with the New Jersey Organizing Project, also noted that disclosure is not a cure-all — especially for families forced to reckon with existing flood risks where they live, the costly aftermath of opens in a new windownatural disasters and a complicated recovery system.
“Without a much more robust investment by the state in programs that make mitigation affordable and possible for families on the frontlines of flooding and worsening storms — this flood disclosure law going into effect is a very mixed bag,” Jones said Wednesday. “While it’s great for families to know there is a flood risk, it doesn’t help if we can’t afford to do anything about it, such as raising our homes, or moving our utilities out of the basement.”