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House · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 618: Property; require any seller of real property to make certain disclosures regarding flood damage to such real property

Last action March 31, 2026 · Senate Tabled

HB618 would require sellers of one-to-four family homes in Georgia to disclose past flood damage and related insurance claims to buyers, and would fine frivolous mechanic liens $1,500.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Currently Georgia law has no specific requirement that home sellers tell buyers about past flooding. HB 618 fills in a previously reserved section of state property law (O.C.G.A. § 44-1-18) to require sellers of one-to-four family residential properties to disclose, in writing, any flood damage, insurance claims, repairs, or federal flood-insurance notices tied to the property during the seller's ownership. Failing to make these disclosures on purpose would count as a violation of Georgia's Fair Business Practices Act of 1975, which covers unfair or deceptive business practices. The bill does not require sellers or real estate agents to investigate flood history themselves; it only requires disclosure of what they already know. Separately, the bill adds a $1,500 fine plus attorney's fees and court costs for anyone who files a mechanic's lien on real property without good faith or legal justification. Both changes would take effect January 1, 2027.

What the bill does

  • Requires sellers of one-to-four family residential real property to disclose known flood damage, repairs, and insurance claims from their ownership period.
  • Requires disclosures to be in writing and include approximate dates of flooding and the nature of any repairs made.
  • Makes willful failure to disclose flood history a violation of the Fair Business Practices Act of 1975 (O.C.G.A. Title 10), Georgia's consumer protection law.
  • Clarifies that sellers and real estate agents are not required to independently investigate a property's flood history, only disclose what they already know.
  • Creates a new $1,500 fine per lien, plus attorney's fees and court costs, for mechanic's liens filed without good faith or legal justification.
  • Sets the effective date for all these changes as January 1, 2027.

Who it affects

Sellers and buyers of one-to-four family homes in Georgia, real estate brokers and agents involved in those sales, and contractors or others who file mechanic's liens on real property. Homeowners who have experienced flooding or filed flood insurance claims are especially affected.

Why it matters

Buyers would gain access to a home's flood and repair history before purchase, information that can affect insurance costs and safety decisions. Sellers face a new legal disclosure duty enforceable under consumer protection law, and anyone filing a bad-faith mechanic's lien would risk a financial penalty.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 44-1-18, previously reserved (blank), to define 'flood' and require written seller disclosures for one-to-four family homes.
  • Subsection (b) lists five specific disclosure items: physical flood damage, insurance claims, repairs, repetitive loss designations, and federal flood insurance notification history.
  • Subsection (d) makes willful nondisclosure a violation of the Fair Business Practices Act of 1975 (O.C.G.A. Title 10, Chapter 1, Article 15, Part 2).
  • Subsection (e) exempts sellers and real estate agents from any duty to independently investigate flood history beyond what they already know.
  • Section 2 adds O.C.G.A. § 44-14-361.6, imposing a $1,500 fine per lien, plus attorney's fees and court costs, for mechanic's liens filed without substantial justification, good faith, or for a wrongful purpose.
  • Section 3 sets the effective date as January 1, 2027.

From the bill

“it shall be the seller's responsibility to disclose any knowledge of a flood impacting such property during such seller's ownership of such property”

This is the core disclosure obligation the bill creates for home sellers.

“Any willful omission to any disclosure requirement provided for under this Code section shall be considered an unlawful act as provided under Part 2 of Article 15 of Chapter 1 of Title 10, the 'Fair Business Practices Act of 1975.'”

This makes intentional failure to disclose flood history a consumer protection law violation.

“shall be subject to a fine of $1,500.00 per lien filed, in addition to reasonable attorney's fees or court costs.”

This sets the penalty for mechanic's liens filed without good faith or legal justification.

Discussed in meetings (6)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. Senate Judiciary Committee, March 16, 2026

    From 0:39:29 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair said the substitute for HB 618 matched the version the committee approved the previous year, which had not received a floor vote. The sponsor said the bill would require sellers of residential property to disclose whether the property had flooded. The sponsor also said Georgia Realtors already included that disclosure requirement in their contracts. No substantive questions were asked. The committee unanimously recommended passage by substitute.

  2. Senate Rules Committee, March 20, 2026

    From 0:12:58 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would require sellers to disclose a property’s flood risk and past flood damage to potential homebuyers. The sponsor said Georgia already provides flood disclosure rights to renters but has no comparable statutory or regulatory requirement for buyers. No questions or calendar decision followed.

  3. Senate Rules Committee, March 23, 2026

    From 0:18:42 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 618 would require sellers to disclose a property's flood risk and past flood damage to prospective homebuyers. The sponsor said Georgia already provided flood disclosure rights to renters but had no comparable statutory or regulatory requirement for home sales. The sponsor reported support from the Realtors Association and no known opposition. Members clarified the bill's identity, but asked no substantive questions. No vote was shown.

  4. Senate Rules Committee, March 25, 2026

    From 0:46:05 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: A committee member requested HB 618 on behalf of an absent member. The exchange that followed included uncertainty about the selection, but the chair included the bill in the final calendar list. No provisions were discussed. The calendar package was approved unanimously.

  5. Senate floor session, March 31, 2026 (legislative day 39, part 2)

    From 5:25:53 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Taken from Table)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The majority leader requested that the bill be removed from the table. The clerk read its title as requiring sellers of real property to disclose certain flood damage. The chair explained that removing and retabling the bills would preserve their availability for Thursday. The Senate removed this bill from the table without objection, then tabled it again without substantive debate.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-31Senate Tabled (Senate)
  2. 2026-03-31Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
  3. 2026-03-27Senate Tabled (Senate)
  4. 2026-03-18Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
  5. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
  6. 2026-01-12Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
  7. 2025-04-02Senate Tabled (Senate)
  8. 2025-03-28Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
Show full history (16 actions)
  1. 2025-03-28Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
  2. 2025-03-10Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  3. 2025-03-06House Passed/Adopted (House)
  4. 2025-03-06House Third Readers (House)
  5. 2025-03-04House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  6. 2025-02-27House Second Readers (House)
  7. 2025-02-26House First Readers (House)
  8. 2025-02-24House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Joe Campbell (R, HD-171)Primary sponsor
  • Scott Holcomb (D, HD-101)
  • Bill Yearta (R, HD-152)
  • Steven McNeel (R, SD-18)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2025

    170 yea, 2 nay (4 not voting, 4 excused)

    PASSAGE: House Vote #239

  2. PassedSenate voteMarch 27, 2026

    26 yea, 22 nay (3 not voting, 3 excused)

    MOTION TO TABLE REMAINING LEGISLATION ON THE RULES CALENDAR: Senate Vote #835

Topics

  • flood disclosure
  • real estate transactions
  • home buying
  • consumer protection
  • mechanic's liens

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Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb618.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp

HB618: Property; require any seller of real property to make certain disclosures regarding flood damage to such real property | Georgia Commons