A quick compliance reminder as hurricane season peaks
If you're renting a home in Florida, or renting one out, you should know about a new piece of paperwork. Since last October, Florida law has required landlords to hand every tenant signing a lease of a year or longer a separate, written flood disclosure before the lease is signed. Not a clause tucked into page nine. Its own document.
For owners, it's a compliance step worth getting right. For tenants, it's information you're now entitled to before you sign anything.
What the disclosure says
The form itself is short. Based on what happened during the landlord's own ownership of the property, it covers:
- Any past flooding in the unit
- A flood insurance claim filed on the property, including through the National Flood Insurance Program
- Flood assistance received for the property, including from FEMA
It also must include a plain warning: renters' insurance does not cover flood damage. If a tenant wants that protection, they need a separate flood policy.
The rule applies to any residential lease of a year or longer, including renewals signed after the law took effect. There's no exemption for properties outside a flood zone. Landlords only have to speak to what happened during their own ownership, not history from before they bought the property.
Why the state stepped in
Florida has never had a great track record here. A home seller has been required to disclose known defects, including flooding history, since a 1985 Florida Supreme Court case. Renters had no equivalent right. If a landlord knew a unit had flooded, a tenant signing the lease had no legal way to find that out beforehand.
That gap became impossible to ignore after 2024. In the space of about two months, three hurricanes, Debby, Helene, and Milton, combined for tens of thousands of flood insurance claims and billions of dollars in payouts across the state. Renters, many with no flood coverage at all, were disproportionately left without a safety net.
The bill that closed the gap passed the Florida House 114-0 and moved through the Senate without a single vote.
"This is a simple piece of paperwork with a real purpose. It protects tenants, but it also protects owners who are already doing the right thing by being upfront," said Benjamin Gene, President of Keyes Property Management.
What happens if it's skipped
The penalty isn't a state fine; it's a remedy for the tenant. If a landlord fails to provide the disclosure and the tenant later suffers a substantial flood loss (damage or replacement costs equal to half or more of their personal property's value), the tenant can terminate the lease within 30 days and get back any rent paid in advance for the period after they move out.
Why this is worth a second look right now
September sits at the peak of hurricane season, which makes this a good moment for a check-in on both sides. Owners and property managers should confirm every active and upcoming lease has the disclosure on file, not just newly signed ones:
- Use the statutory form of language, or a pre-built version, rather than writing your own from scratch.
- Keep the disclosure as its own signed, dated document in the tenant file, not folded into the lease.
- If a condo association carries the insurance and has filed a flood claim, that likely still needs to be disclosed, even if the owner never filed one personally.
- When in doubt about a property's flood history, check insurance records and flood maps before answering.
Tenants, meanwhile, should take the warning on that form seriously. Renters' insurance never covers floods, and most Florida renters don't carry out a separate flood policy at all. Nationally, only about a fifth of one percent of all flood insurance coverage protects a renter's belongings. Florida alone accounts for nearly 450,000 flood insurance claims and more than $19 billion in payouts going back to the late 1970s, and almost a third of claims over the past decade came from areas outside the highest-risk flood zones. With roughly a third of Florida households renting, that's a lot of people who wouldn't know they're exposed until it's too late.
The bigger picture
This law doesn't require landlords to fix flood risk, insure it, or disclose more than they know. It just makes sure tenants aren't finding out the hard way. For property owners, it's a small, one-time piece of paperwork. For everyone else, it's the difference between a surprise and a decision made with real information.
Whether you're an owner making sure your leases are current or a renter with questions about a property, the Keyes Property Management team is happy to help. To learn more, visit www.keyespm.com.
Data and Information Sources
Florida Senate, Fla. Stat. 83.512 (2025) and CS/CS/SB 948 Bill Analysis: flsenate.gov
Florida Realtors, "Lease – Flood Disclosure (LFD-1)" form: floridarealtors.org
Federal Emergency Management Agency / National Flood Insurance Program, flood claims data: fema.gov, floodsmart.gov
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, "More States Requiring Landlords to Disclose Flood Risk, but Laws Vary Nationwide": jchs.harvard.edu
Florida Politics, legislative coverage of SB 948: floridapolitics.com
