Texas seller's disclosure rules for a home that flooded
Disclosing Past Flooding When You Sell a Home in Houston Heights
Updated October 2026
What do I have to disclose when I sell a Houston Heights home that has flooded?
In October 2026, a Houston Heights seller of a one-dwelling-unit home discloses known flood history on the TREC notice section 5.008 requires, unless that section exempts the sale.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, Houston Heights
Source: Texas Real Estate Commission news article on Broker-Lawyer Committee changes to the Seller's Disclosure Notice (TREC OP-H) after the 2023 legislative session, October 2026.
What does the Texas notice ask a seller about past flooding?
A Texas Real Estate Research Center article says section 5.008 binds a seller of residential real property consisting of not more than one dwelling unit. Per the Texas Real Estate Research Center, that seller gives the notice in the statute's form or one substantially similar to it.
Subsection (e) of the same section lists transfers it does not reach, so check that list first.
The Texas Real Estate Commission publishes the Seller's Disclosure Notice as form TREC OP-H. The Commission also states that section 5.008 sets out the minimum information required in that notice.
Three items carry the flood questions. Item 6 asks whether you are aware of present flood insurance coverage and of previous flooding from a reservoir failure, breach or release. It also asks about previous water penetration into a structure on the property from a natural flood event. Item 6 then asks whether the property sits wholly or partly in a 100-year floodplain, a 500-year floodplain, a floodway, a flood pool or a reservoir.
Item 7 asks whether you have ever filed a flood damage claim with any insurer, the National Flood Insurance Program included. Item 8 asks whether you have ever received FEMA or U.S. Small Business Administration assistance for flood damage to the property.
You complete the notice to the best of your belief and knowledge on the day you sign. Section 5.008 treats a fact marked unknown on the notice as compliance.
Why does a Houston Heights flood answer belong to one parcel?
Houston Heights sits on high ground, which the City of Houston puts 23 feet above Houston itself, yet White Oak Bayou borders the neighborhood. Floodplain status here is settled parcel by parcel, never by the neighborhood name.
The neighborhood drains to the White Oak Bayou watershed, which covers 111 square miles and about 146 miles of open stream channels. The bayou runs southeast to Allen's Landing downtown, where it joins Buffalo Bayou.
Item 6's location lines are a map question. The Harris County Flood Control District's Flood Education Mapping Tool gives a first look, and the district says plainly that the tool is not the effective FIRM. The official designation comes from FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Map at the Map Service Center.
Print a FIRMette for the parcel there, write the date on the page, and answer the location lines from it. A dated printout gives a buyer something to check, where a recollection gives them nothing.
What should a Heights seller gather before listing a house that has taken water?
Start with the paper behind items 7 and 8: the insurance claim record, any FEMA or Small Business Administration file, and the repair invoices. Add the city permits for the repair work.
The city's online permit search reaches back three years. A complete history comes from its Open Records section, which is worth requesting by address before photographs are taken.
Repairs inside Houston Heights Historic District West, East or South have their own rules. Replacing historic material, even in kind, is an alteration that needs a Certificate of Appropriateness. Ordinary maintenance and repair needs none.
Foundation leveling that neither raises nor lowers the house counts as ordinary maintenance. Raising it falls outside that definition. The Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission meets monthly, and a complete application is due by noon 22 days before the meeting.
Where earlier work needed a certificate and never got one, city permits for that site stop, apart from remediation work, until the commission acts. Find that out before a buyer does.
How does a flood history shape the price and the listing calendar?
Price the house from recent sales of similar age, style and condition within a few blocks. A Heights valuation accounts for the parcel's floodplain designation alongside lot rules and historic district status.
The buyer's lender decides whether flood insurance is required, and that answer changes the buyer's monthly payment. Federal rules tie the requirement to buildings in a special flood hazard area where flood insurance is available.
Median days on market in Houston Heights was 65 days as of October 2026, counted from list date to an executed contract. Half the closed listings went under contract faster and half slower, and condition moves a single house more than the median does.
Request a valuation built from recent Houston Heights closings. Include the address, the flood and repair history, and the permits for that work.
Questions & answers
Houston Heights questions, answered
What can my buyer do if they get my disclosure notice after we sign the contract?
The notice is due on or before the effective date of the contract binding the buyer. Where it arrives later, the Texas Real Estate Research Center says section 5.008(f) allows the buyer to cancel for any reason within seven days after receiving it. Hand it over, flood answers complete, before the buyer signs. Transfers the section exempts carry no such right.
The TREC resale contract, TREC No. 20-19, sets the same window in paragraph 7.B, ending at closing if closing comes first. Where the notice never arrives, that paragraph lets the buyer terminate at any time before closing, with the earnest money refunded. A late notice squeezes a buyer's flood checks into those seven days. Gather the claim record, the repair file and a dated FIRMette before listing, so the notice goes out with the first contract.
If I fixed the flood damage, do I still have to mention the flood?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center says damage that has been repaired is not a defective condition. The flood items on the notice are worded around past events. Item 6 asks what you know of earlier water entering a structure in a natural flood, and item 7 asks about past flood damage claims. A repair finished since then is a separate fact from the flood itself.
A buyer who reads a Yes on item 6 asks what was done and who approved it. Keep the contractor's written scope with the invoices, and note which repairs drew a city permit. Inside a Heights historic district, note any Certificate of Appropriateness as well. If you are unsure how a finished repair bears on a particular line, put that question to a Texas real estate lawyer before you sign.
Can I sell my flooded Heights house as-is and leave the flood off the notice?
An as-is clause does not reach that far. The Texas Real Estate Research Center says as-is clauses give sellers some added protection, but none for a seller who makes false representations or conceals material facts. Listing as-is changes what you repair, not what the notice asks. Where section 5.008 applies, the flood items still call for what you are aware of.
An as-is sale puts more weight on documents, because a buyer prices the house partly from them. Have the notice, the claim history behind item 7, any federal assistance file behind item 8, and a dated FIRMette ready before the first showing. Condition and original features drive the price spread inside the historic districts more than square footage does. Comparable sales for an as-is listing therefore come from houses in similar condition within a few blocks.
Has the Texas seller's disclosure form changed recently?
Yes. The Texas Real Estate Commission reports that HB 697 updates the Seller's Disclosure Notice required under section 5.008 of the Property Code. Its Broker-Lawyer Committee recommended that the Commission adopt the changes to the TREC OP-H notice after the 2023 legislative session. Before you fill one in, get the current version rather than a copy saved from an earlier sale.
A notice filled in years ago for a previous purchase may follow an older set of questions. On a Heights home that has flooded, work through the flood items on the current version line by line. Mark any fact you do not know as unknown, which section 5.008 treats as compliance.
Does the 2025 flood notice change for leases affect me as a seller?
SB 2349 deals with landlord notices. The Texas Real Estate Commission reports that Governor Greg Abbott signed it, effective September 1, 2025. According to the Commission, the law excepts temporary residential leases and short-term leases from the landlord's flood notice obligation. A seller's notice runs under section 5.008, which the Commission says fixes the least a seller's notice may contain.
The exception is narrow: it reaches temporary residential leases and short-term leases. A Heights owner who leases the house before selling should treat the lease notice as its own question. For the sale itself, items 6, 7 and 8 on the seller's notice still apply wherever section 5.008 does.
Does an estate selling a flooded Heights house have to give the disclosure notice?
Where a fiduciary sells in the course of administering a decedent's estate, section 5.008 does not require the notice. Subsection (e) lists that transfer alongside a transfer under a court order, a transfer from one co-owner to another, and others. Many exempt sellers deliver a notice anyway. A representative who never lived in the house can mark the flood facts they lack as unknown.
The exemption names the fiduciary and the court-ordered transfer. An heir who has taken the house out of the estate and sells it personally sits outside those words, so ask the estate's lawyer which applies. A representative can still assemble the flood file: the insurance claim record, any FEMA or Small Business Administration file, and a dated FIRMette for the parcel. Paige Martin of Real Broker, LLC specializes in probate and estate sales. The choice of probate route stays with the estate's lawyer.
My crawl space gets wet after storms but the house never flooded. Does that go on the notice?
Item 4 of the Texas notice carries its own lines for water damage not due to a flood event and for improper drainage. A crawl space that takes water, or a yard that holds it after a storm, belongs on those lines rather than on the floodplain ones in item 6. Answer them on what you are aware of as of the day you sign.
Most Houston Heights houses stand on raised pier-and-beam foundations, roughly four or five steps above grade. Buyers give foundation, framing and drainage their own inspection scope here, and a drainage answer on item 4 tends to send the inspector under the house. Have any drainage work, with its invoices and permits, ready for that visit.