Links to bills s3110 and a4783

IANAL anybody wanna translate them to English? Will these only affect overpriced housing in flood-prone areas and underpriced housing in elevated areas?

Was under the impression you would already have to tell home owners you lived in a flood zone? Maybe explaind why my next door neighbor over paid.

uhhh.....that sort of already is the case.

You can pull flood maps very easily. Part of the disclosure process also requires tenants to inform if they have had any issues.

Not to mention your inspector can tell in about 5 minutes if the basement or like has signs of having been flooded and remediated, even if they did an awesome job in the resto.

I feel like the big change for this is having to tell renters about it

ahh i didn't catch that, and it didn't occur to me that you are correct.

But also, again, flood maps are readily available to people. You can google "TOWNNAME Flood" and find stories if stuff happened in the last 20 years, etc.

I mean as a landlord, all these laws would force on me is saying, "You are\are not in a flood zone, here is the map and what the anticipated risks are" Sure, its no big deal for me, but its also something i would have hoped my tenant looked into otherwise.

there is a government website that tells you and another one as well

There are multiple flood\water related questions on the standard disclosure forms.

This shoulda been a thing awhile ago. Cause mandatory flood insurance can be hella expensive on top of home prices. So every buyer should be aware of this so as not to trick them into a bad situation.

NJ has some of the worst standards in the country for flood disclosure during real estate sales.

Better idea;

Stop giving state and federal monies to people asking for help rebuilding their vacation home in flood plains that aren't built to withstand regular flooding.

I lived in a house in a flood zone. A realtor told a potential buyer it wasn't in a flood zone. I laughed and explained how the basement used to be a finished basement until the umpteenth flood. Didn't see those buyers again.

Real estate agents will absolutely lie about this. I watched one do so and told them and the potential buyer how the house had a finished basement at one point, but after too many floods, fuck it.

You mean to say that's not a thing already?

The gov website uses antiquated (and sometimes politicized) methodologies and updates. The better info comes from First Street Foundation, IMO.

Well you can’t get a mortgage without flood insurance if you’re in a flood zone. And the standard-form realtors contract contains a mortgage contingency provision (which no attorney would ever agree to remove). There are multiple barriers in the way of buying a home in a flood zone, unless you’re paying cash, which is not common.

You're assuming the flood zone maps are up to date though, which they are not. Increased frequency of heavy rainfall added to continuous development leaving less open areas to absorb rainfall means flooding will only get worse and worse. There have been a number of significant flooding events in my town in recent years for houses that are not located within a flood zone.

That happened to my mom in the early 2000s, they told her oh yeah it barely floods, just get the insurance don't worry. Yeah, 200 ft from the Passaic River isn't, "barely floods" - we moved right before the March 2010 floods and my mom told the guy, don't put anything in the basement, a flood is coming. He said, yeah sure lady, whatever. And about 2 weeks later, water filled the basement and went up the the first floor for the first time. Irene the next year put I believe 7 ft of water on the street.

https://www.nrdc.org/flood-disclosure-map

That's assuming the sellers answer honestly.

Well you’re right about that. I think the flood maps are about to be updated soon. I believe they’re updated every 10 years.

https://www.nrdc.org/flood-disclosure-map

There is no legal requirement in the state specifically for floods. I know a lawyer that has had homes go to the point of the buyer not knowing they'd need flood insurance until the mortgage lender comes back and tells them it'll be needed. Our flood data in the state is old and antiquated and that makes everything worse. Some things show up in the floodplain on the data, that actually aren't in it, and others show up outside it that really should be in it now. I can be as dodgy as I want about the severity of any flooding I've gotten in the past to make it seem not nearly bad enough for a prospective buyer to overlook the issue. I've seen it happen, and it's happened to my mom when she bought our house when I was younger.

pretty sure the home inspection or appraisal tells you if it's in a flood zone

the key word here is "considering" - I have my doubts but will keep my fingers crossed.

90% of Manville is a flood zone.

False- Also NYC has sued FEMA on the coastal maps because they do not want to devalue all the newly expanded flood zones.https://therealdeal.com/2021/08/06/new-flood-maps-could-sink-development/

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/joel-scata/femas-outdated-and-backward-looking-flood-maps

Google Manville nj and look at the images- No one with 1/4 of a brain can say I did not thik it would flood here.

correct, but that is something you can easily nail them on and prove so people generally don't mess around with it.

Also termites\pests. You think the 3 exterminators in your town protect your data? "Hi, this is 123 YourStreet. I just bought the house, I want to get a service....the previous folks said you did a great job, can you tell me what you want for the same service? Really, thats a good deal....when did they last have it done....ok....awesome, i'm new here so just need to call the other guys really quick....i'll get back to you today"

Tada. Now i can show you lied in court. "So about those concessions i was asking for......"

Flood is the same thing. Unless you bring that basement or wherever down to the masonry and scrub everything, there will be indications of a water line. if you are sloppy its something as simple as "hey this drywall is all strangely joined at 2' horizontal with the floor....and has vertical and horizontal seems" That shelf in the corner has indications of water damage on the base plywood.....etc.

Hell just googling the town during big storms might find you a picture of your seller wading to his front door.

Basically its one thing to say, "The furnace is about 10 years old, i think i had a chimney sweep out a couple of years ago...." its another to lie about something impossible to miss and easily proven.

Edit: And if you had a flood claim, your buyer will more than likely find out, when they call their agent for a quote on the address.

Don't lie on your disclosure, even if your realtor tells you too. Its expected that you may have a cloudy....or creative....memory and swear you remember getting a permit for that 25 year old deck....but that isn't substantially affecting the value of your home.

Taxes often off set the cost of flood insurance. I was looking at homes in Wayne about two years ago. That area is famous for flooding. Just by looking at the taxes you could figure out if it was in a flood zone. 600k home taxes on average were 13 to 14k. You found a 600k home with taxes at around 10k it was in a flood zone.

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Ty

No legal requirement for non professional sellers but wilful misrepresentation and omission is illegal in NJ under the consumer fraud act which covers real estate and the broker is liable. Bummer that this happened to your mom and not sure when it happened, but if it happened in NJ after 76 and she bought from a licensed broker she should have been protected. If you're buying from owners, all bets are off. So yes you can be dodgy but the broker can't

Also as someone who bought a home recently, nowhere near a flood zone or a source of water, a flood assessment was still required by the bank (even though the bank didn't require the appraisal and viewed it as a low risk mortgage). So today of you're buying through professionals and using a reputable mortgage lender, you should (extra emphasis on should) be covered

Yep this happened to someone I know-- bought a house on a piece of property with a suuuper outdated FEMA map, found out the hard way. Apparently the neighbors knew it had flooded in the past but realtors asked them to stop telling that to prospective buyers. They were more or less misled, and that's terrible.