LEWES, Del. - In Lewes, realtors are required to disclose flooding risks to potential home buyers, but a new proposal would require those disclosures to include sea level rise.
Ted Hack lives in Lewes and says a nor'easter a few years ago caused major damage to his home.
"We discovered there had been thirteen inches of water in the first floor and it was flooding throughout the entire area," said Hack. "The entire beach section was flooded. It was a severe nor'easter."
Hack knew that this was a possibility when he bought his house 10 years ago, but now the city would require the realtor to talk about the effects of sea level rise.
The City says they want anyone moving to Lewes to understand the risks of living in a coastal community.
"That's the hope is that people as they're making these decisions that they understand that the conditions that are on the ground now, where you might have occasional flooding due to a nor'easter, that the frequency of that is likely to increase over time and that the area that will be affected is likely to increase over time," said Lewes City Manager Ann Marie Townshend.
Real estate Bill Davis, on the other hand, says the disclosure would stop people from buying in Lewes, that the current disclosure does more than enough.
"I just find it that this may be something that scares people. We already have in our disclosure the facts of it's in a flood zone, has it flooded, all kinds of questions on that."
The City says that the disclosure proposal is in its early stages, and would apply to any property within city limits. Townshend says it could be months before the disclosure is implemented, if at all.
