Seller's Property Disclosure - Residential (SPDR-4) - a voluntary Florida Realtors association form; NO state-mandated disclosure form exists in Florida — Common-law duty from Johnson v. Davis, 480 So. 2d 625 (Fla. 1985), supplemented by narrow statutes: Fla. Stat. 689.302/689.303 (flood disclosure, amended effective Oct. 1, 2025), 404.056(5) (radon gas notice), 689.25 (non-disclosure of deaths/HIV status permitted), 162.06 (pending code enforcement actions), 475.278 (licensee disclosure duties), and 720.401/Chapter 718 (HOA/condo governance document disclosures)
Florida is NOT a pure "caveat emptor" state, but it also has no single comprehensive statutory disclosure form or checklist like California's TDS. Its core seller disclosure duty comes from case law: Johnson v. Davis (Fla. 1985) held that a seller who knows of facts materially affecting the property's value that are not readily observable and not known to the buyer must disclose them. This is a judicially-created "material defect" rule, not a statute, and it applies even in "as-is" sales - an as-is clause limits repair obligations but does not waive the duty to disclose known defects. Layered on top of this common-law duty, Florida has a handful of specific statutory disclosure requirements (flood history, radon, HOA/condo documents, pending code enforcement) rather than one omnibus disclosure law. There is no legally required standard form - the widely-used "Seller's Property Disclosure" document is a Florida Realtors association form that is customary/recommended but optional, not mandated by statute. Honest characterization: Florida sits between caveat emptor and full mandatory-form disclosure regimes - it has real, enforceable disclosure obligations (via case law plus targeted statutes) but not a single mandatory form or omnibus disclosure statute the way many other states have.
Florida's flood disclosure law (originally enacted as HB 1049, codified at Fla. Stat. 689.302/689.303) took initial effect October 1, 2024, requiring written flood disclosure to buyers at or before contract signing covering flood insurance claims and federal flood assistance received. It was expanded effective October 1, 2025 to: (1) require sellers to disclose known flood damage that occurred during their ownership even if no insurance claim was ever filed, (2) remove the limitation that only federally-sourced remediation assistance counted (now any remediation assistance received must be disclosed), (3) extend equivalent flood-history disclosure obligations to condominium developers selling units, and (4) require landlords offering leases of one year or longer to disclose flood history to tenants. Separately, in January 2025 Florida Realtors released a revised/redlined version of its (non-mandatory) Seller's Property Disclosure - Residential (SPDR-4) form reflecting updated guidance on material fact disclosures, including historic district status.
Facts on this page reflect research current as of 2026-07-05. Programs, rates, and laws change — confirm current figures with the relevant state agency before relying on them.