Flood history

Has this house flooded before? How to check a property’s flood history

You can’t type an address into a government website and see whether the house has flooded. But between the seller, a handful of public flood records, and the land itself, a buyer can usually get a clear picture before closing.

By the Terreflow team · Published October 8, 2026

What isn’t public, and why

Most flood insurance in the U.S. is written through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Its records on individual policies and claims are protected under the Privacy Act. FloodSmart, the NFIP’s public site, says prospective buyers can’t get a property’s past claim information under current federal law.

What FEMA does publish is every NFIP claim since 1978 without names or addresses: the year and date of loss, ZIP code, census block group, flood zone and amount paid. Coordinates are rounded to one decimal place, roughly six miles. That’s enough to see when and how often an area has flooded, but never a single house.

Ask the seller for these four things

The person who can unlock a property’s own flood history is its current owner. Put these requests in writing, ideally with your agent, before your option or inspection period ends.

Seller disclosure laws vary by state

There is no federal law requiring sellers to disclose past flooding. A growing number of states do, for example:

• Texas (since September 2019): the seller’s disclosure notice asks about previous flooding, flood insurance claims with any insurer including the NFIP, and FEMA or SBA flood assistance.
• New York (since March 2024): sellers can no longer skip the disclosure form with a $500 credit, and it now covers flood history, flood insurance claims and federal assistance.
• Florida (since October 2024, expanded October 2025): sellers must disclose flood insurance claims and federal flood assistance, and now flood damage during their ownership, at or before signing the contract.
• North Carolina (since July 2024): the disclosure form has flood questions, but sellers may answer “No Representation,” so a blank answer tells you nothing.
• South Carolina and Louisiana also ask about flooding on their disclosure forms.

For your state, check NRDC’s flood disclosure map and ask your agent which form applies. Even where disclosure is required, a seller may not know about flooding before they owned the house, which is why the FEMA loss history is worth asking for.

How the seller gets the FEMA flood-loss history

The owner sends the NFIP a signed request with a statement of ownership. Many county floodplain offices hand out FEMA’s request letter, and the NFIP’s data FAQ explains the process. FEMA’s privacy rules allow it to give current owners the dates and dollar amounts of past loss payments on their property.

Check the public record for the area

Public flood records won’t name the house, but they show which storms hit the neighborhood and how hard. Here is what the claims record looks like for one county:

• FEMA flood claims by ZIP code. The OpenFEMA NFIP claims data can be filtered by ZIP code or census block group to show how many claims an area had, in which years, and in which flood zones.
• USGS high-water marks. After major floods and hurricanes, the U.S. Geological Survey surveys how high the water reached. The Flood Event Viewer maps those marks and storm sensors by event.
• Post-storm aerial photos. NOAA flies emergency response imagery after selected hurricanes and floods, often within days. Find the house and look for standing water, debris lines or tarps.
• Historical satellite imagery. Google Earth’s historical imagery (the clock icon in Google Earth Pro, and now on the web) lets you step back through older photos, sometimes taken right after a flood.
• NOAA Storm Events Database. The National Weather Service record of floods and flash floods by county, with full flood coverage from 1996.
• FEMA Flood Insurance Study. The study behind the local flood map, downloadable from the Map Service Center, often describes the community’s historic floods.
• The neighbors and the county. Ask next-door owners how the street did in the last big storm. County or city stormwater offices can tell you about known problem areas and drainage complaints, though not individual insurance claims.

Read the land and the house

A house that has never flooded can still sit where water collects. Check the FEMA flood zone (see Is my house in a flood zone?), and look at the terrain: is the lot lower than the street, at the foot of a slope, or in the path of a drainage line? Our terrain checklist covers what to look for.

At the showing or inspection, look for physical signs of past water:

• water lines or staining on walls, fences, the foundation or the water heater;
• new drywall, baseboards or flooring only on the lowest floor or the bottom few feet of walls;
• a musty smell, mold, or a dehumidifier running in a basement or crawlspace;
• rust on the bottom of appliances and HVAC equipment, or silt in the crawlspace;
• a sump pump, French drain or fresh grading, and ask why it was installed.