Requires a person selling real property to provide disclosures as it relates to flooding on the property which occurred either through natural events or mechanical failures.
H5827 expands Rhode Island’s real estate seller disclosure law by adding explicit flood- and water-damage-related disclosure requirements. The bill requires sellers of vacant land and residential property to disclose whether the property has sustained damage from flooding, water seepage, or pooled water caused by natural events, and whether any flood-damage insurance claim has been filed, including claims under the National Flood Insurance Program. It also ties those disclosures to existing requirements about wetlands, flood plains, and other property conditions already included in the state’s real estate disclosure framework.
The bill also broadens and updates the list of items that must appear on the state-approved disclosure forms for both vacant land and 1-4 family residential properties. Those forms would continue to cover issues such as sewage systems, wells, easements, zoning, historic districts, lead paint, mold, hazardous waste, and shoreline/public access, while adding or clarifying language about water damage and flood-related impacts. The Rhode Island Real Estate Commission retains authority to amend disclosure requirements through rulemaking when health, safety, or legal needs change, and the act would take effect on January 1, 2026.
The bill amends § 5-20.8-2 of the Rhode Island General Laws, which governs real estate sales disclosures. Its practical effect is to require more detailed seller disclosures about flood history and water damage, and to ensure those disclosures are incorporated into the standardized forms used in real estate transactions. Sellers, buyers, and real estate agents would need to account for the new disclosure items, and buyers would receive more information relevant to property condition, insurance history, and flood risk before signing a transfer agreement.
The available context suggests generally favorable or at least precautionary support for the bill’s consumer-protection purpose. The bill text frames the changes as informational disclosures intended to help buyers understand flood risk, water damage, and related property conditions before purchase. No committee transcript or recorded vote is available here, so there is no evidence of formal opposition or divided sentiment in the provided materials.
The main policy issue is the breadth of seller disclosure obligations, especially whether sellers should be required to disclose past flooding or water damage from both natural events and mechanical failures, and whether insurance-claim history should be included. Potential concerns could come from sellers or real estate industry participants worried about added compliance burdens, liability exposure, or the difficulty of determining the full history of a property. On the other hand, buyers and consumer advocates would likely favor the bill for improving transparency about flood risk, wetlands, and water-related defects.