What Environmental Threats Must You Disclose When Selling a Home?

California doesn't always require sellers to provide Natural Hazard Disclosure (NHD) reports— unless your property falls within one of six specific danger zones. These include:

- FEMA-designated flood zones

- Potential flood areas post-dam failure (per Cal OES)

- High fire hazard severity zones (per Cal Forestry)

- Wildland fire areas (per Cal Forestry)

- Earthquake fault zones

- Seismic hazard zones

But here's where it gets tricky—most sellers have no idea if their property is in one of these zones until they order an NHD report. It's a bit of a "chicken or egg" situation, isn't it?

Even if you're not required to provide this report, you are still on the hook for disclosing any other environmental threats that don’t fall neatly into these six categories. For example, Orange County's coastal areas—bordered by the Pacific—are all in tsunami zones. That’s kind of a big deal!

Now, who usually handles this? The listing agent, if you have one. But if you're selling solo, that responsibility lands squarely on your shoulders.

So, how confident are you that you can check all the boxes and avoid potential penalties?

When hiring an agent, make sure they're not only familiar with your legal obligations but know how to expertly navigate them. This isn't something you want to defend in court. As I always say, "I didn’t know" isn’t a defense!

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