Houston’s Flood Disclosure Questions, Mapped

Somewhere around page four of the Texas Seller’s Disclosure Notice, you hit a block of eight checkboxes about water. The Houston flood disclosure questions are the most important paragraph on the form for a buyer here, and they’re the ones people skim — partly because the vocabulary is federal (floodway, flood pool, Zone AE) and partly because a page of unchecked boxes looks like good news. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it means the seller bought the house in 2021 and honestly doesn’t know what happened in 2017. Here’s how to read Section 8 and Section 9 line by line, and what to do after you’ve read them.

The short version: Section 8’s eight questions split into two very different groups — three about whether the house has flooded, and five about where it sits on a federal map. A “no” in the first group doesn’t tell you anything about the second. And the whole notice is a statement of what the seller knows, not a warranty, so it’s a starting point for your own check rather than the end of one.

The one distinction that organizes all of Section 8

The current form is TXR 1406, revised 06-15-26. Section 8 opens with a single instruction, “Are you (Seller) aware of any of the following conditions?”, and then runs eight lines together as if they’re all the same kind of question. They aren’t.

The first three ask about history: has water actually come? The last five ask about geography: where does this dirt sit relative to lines FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have drawn? A house can have a spotless history and sit in a bad spot. A house can have flooded twice and sit outside every mapped zone, which happens constantly in Houston because street-level drainage doesn’t care what the map says. Read them as two separate questions and the section stops being a blur.

The three history questions — and the one buyers skip past

Here they are as the form words them:

• Previous flooding due to a failure or breach of a reservoir, or a controlled or emergency release of water from a reservoir.
• Previous flooding due to a natural flood event.
• Previous water penetration into a structure on the Property due to a natural flood.

That first line is not boilerplate borrowed from another state. It is in the Texas form largely because of Addicks and Barker — two reservoirs about seventeen miles west of downtown, built by the Army Corps in the 1940s after back-to-back floods, and still operated by the Corps today. In late August 2017 the Corps began controlled releases from both, starting around 800 cubic feet per second and climbing to roughly 7,000 by September 1. Homes along Buffalo Bayou downstream, through the Energy Corridor and the Memorial corridor, took water days after the rain had stopped.

So the first box and the second box describe different events with different causes, and a seller can truthfully answer no to natural flooding and yes to the first. I’ve also seen it the other way: a seller focused on the second and third lines, thinking about rain, and giving the reservoir question less attention than it deserves. If any of the three is checked, the form gives the seller room to explain, and that explanation is worth more than the checkbox. Ask when, ask how deep, ask what was repaired and by whom, and ask for the invoices.

Note the third line too. “Water penetration into a structure” is narrower than “flooding.” A yard that goes under and a den that goes under are different disclosures, and the form asks about both.

The five location questions, in plain English

These five come with statutory definitions printed right on the form, which is unusual and useful. Each also has a wholly and a partly box, and that distinction gets overlooked more than any other detail in this section — on a lot of Houston lots the back fence sits in the floodplain and the slab doesn’t. “Partly” is a real answer and it changes what you’re buying.

• 100-year floodplain. A Special Flood Hazard Area, mapped as Zone A, V, A99, AE, AO, AH, VE, or AR. It carries a one percent chance of flooding in any given year, which the form calls high risk. The name misleads people constantly. It is not “once a century,” it’s one-in-a-hundred odds every single year, and over a 30-year mortgage that stacks up. If your lender is federally regulated, this zone is where flood insurance stops being optional.
• 500-year floodplain. Zone X (shaded), a Moderate Flood Hazard Area, with a two-tenths of one percent annual chance. Lower risk, not no risk — and a great many Houston homes that took water in 2017 were sitting in Zone X or outside the mapped zones entirely.
• Floodway. The channel of a river or bayou plus the adjacent land that has to stay clear so a base flood can actually discharge. This is the most restrictive designation of the five: communities regulate what can be built there, and remodeling or rebuilding can be limited or prohibited outright. If you’re planning an addition, find this out before you’re under contract, not after.
• Flood pool. The land next to a reservoir that sits above its normal maximum operating level and is “subject to controlled inundation under the management of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.” Read that again — it means the Corps can deliberately hold water there. Private homes sit inside the Addicks and Barker pools on the upstream side, in west Harris County and into Fort Bend.
• Reservoir. A water impoundment project operated by the Army Corps intended to retain water or delay runoff across a designated surface area.

Those last two definitions name the Army Corps explicitly, which tells you the questions exist for federal reservoir projects. In practice, in this metro, that means Addicks and Barker. If you’re shopping the upstream side of either one, expect these boxes to matter and get the specifics rather than the checkbox.

Section 9: the FEMA and SBA question, and why old aid follows the house

Section 9 is one line: has the seller ever received assistance from FEMA or the Small Business Administration for flood damage to the property? Buyers tend to read it as history: interesting, but the seller’s problem. It can become yours.

Federal disaster aid for flood damage is often conditioned on the owner obtaining and maintaining flood insurance on that property. Under federal law that obligation can follow the house: the seller is required to notify the buyer in writing of the requirement at transfer, and if the coverage lapses, a future request for federal disaster assistance on that same property can be denied. So a “yes” in Section 9 isn’t just a story about 2017 — it may be a coverage requirement you inherit at closing. I’m a broker, not your insurance agent or your attorney, and how this lands depends on the specific aid and the specific address, so route it to your title company and an insurance agent early rather than at the closing table.

A yes here is also useful corroboration. Federal aid means the damage was significant enough that someone applied for help, which should line up with what Section 8 says. When it doesn’t line up, that’s your question.

Sections 5, 6 and 7 are part of the same story

Section 8 gets the attention, but three earlier sections carry flood information and buyers read them separately when they should read them together.

Section 5 asks whether the property is presently covered by flood insurance, and — new in the 2026 form — whether the seller has been unable to insure the property for any reason. That second one is a growing issue in this market and it’s worth a direct follow-up question. Section 6 asks about any claim ever filed, and says explicitly that this includes National Flood Insurance Program claims. Section 7 is the sleeper: has the seller received proceeds for a claim and not used the money to make the repairs. A yes there, sitting under a yes in Section 8, tells you something a photo of a fresh coat of paint will not.

Read 5 through 9 as one continuous answer. The inconsistencies between them are where the real questions live: an NFIP claim in Section 6 next to an unchecked Section 8, say. That’s not necessarily bad faith; sellers forget, and sellers who bought recently genuinely don’t know. It’s just where to point your inspector and your questions.

Don’t stop at the checkboxes — pull the map

Printed at the top of the notice, in capital letters, is the line that governs everything above: this is a disclosure of the seller’s knowledge as of the date they signed, it is not a substitute for inspections, and it is not a warranty of any kind. A seller has a duty under Section 5.008 of the Texas Property Code to disclose what they know. They have no duty to know.

Which is why, on every buyer I represent in a flood-sensitive area, I pull the maps myself rather than take the form’s word for it. Three tools, all free and all public:

• The Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool — type an address, see the 100-year, 500-year and coastal floodplains against the property line. This is the fastest one and the one I use first.
• MAAPnext, the Flood Control District’s updated modeling, which looks at watershed risk beyond the current effective FIRM.
• FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center for the official effective flood map and the letters of map amendment that sometimes change a property’s status.

If the house sits in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area, ask whether there’s an elevation certificate. It tells you where the finished floor sits relative to the base flood elevation, it can move an insurance quote substantially, and older homes built to the rules of their day may sit below current standards. Get a flood quote during your option period, not after. Premium is part of the payment, and on a marginal property it’s the number that decides whether the house works for you. The Texas REALTORS® form Information About Special Flood Hazard Areas (TXR 1414) is the companion the disclosure itself points you to, and your agent can hand it to you.

What to do with the Houston flood disclosure questions before you offer

Four things, in order. Read Section 8 as two questions, not eight — history first, then geography — and check whether “wholly” or “partly” is marked. Read Sections 5 through 9 as one story and write down anything that doesn’t reconcile. Pull the address on the county map yourself before you write the offer, because the map is a fact and the checkbox is a recollection. And if anything is checked, use your option period for a real answer: the repair invoices, the elevation certificate, and a flood quote with your name on it.

Flooding is a solvable question in Houston, not a reason to walk away from a neighborhood you love. Plenty of homes here have never taken water and never will, and plenty of the ones that did have been elevated, re-plumbed, and re-drained since. What you can’t do is find out after closing. If you want the wider picture of what changed on the paperwork this year, I wrote up the 2026 Texas contract changes, and there’s a companion piece on the seller’s disclosure from the seller’s side if you’ll be filling one out yourself. The insurance angle is covered in why you need homeowners insurance.

Last updated: July 2026 · Section and definition references are to the Texas REALTORS® Seller’s Disclosure Notice, form TXR 1406 (06-15-26). This is general information about reading the form — not legal advice, and not a recommendation about any insurance product. For a specific property, talk with your title company, a Texas real estate attorney, and a licensed insurance agent.