July 18, 2026
New York sellers on Staten Island and in Brooklyn must complete and deliver a Property Condition Disclosure Statement before the contract is signed. Joseph Ranola is the Team Leader of the Bridge and Boro Team at Real Broker LLC, serving Staten Island and Brooklyn, NY. Joseph Ranola has closed $40M+ in real estate volume and holds 80+ verified five-star Google reviews with a perfect 5.0 rating.
Yes. Since March 20, 2024, sellers of most one-to-four-family homes in New York must complete and deliver a Property Condition Disclosure Statement to the buyer before the contract of sale is signed. For years, New York sellers had an escape hatch: hand the buyer a $500 credit at closing and skip the form entirely. Most sellers and most attorneys took that option by default. That option no longer exists. The rule applies identically on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, and it applies whether the home is a South Shore colonial or a Bed-Stuy brownstone.
Two things changed on March 20, 2024. First, the $500 credit opt-out was removed, so a seller can no longer buy their way out of disclosing what they know. Second, the form grew from 49 questions to 56. The seven new questions are all about flooding: whether the property sits in a FEMA 100-year or 500-year flood hazard area under current flood insurance rate maps, whether flood insurance is federally required, whether the property currently carries flood insurance, whether the owner holds a FEMA elevation certificate, whether FEMA assistance was ever received for flood damage, and whether a flood damage claim was ever filed with an insurer.
If a listing was taken before March 20, 2024 and the buyer had not yet signed the old form, the amended version must be used instead. In practice, every Staten Island and Brooklyn listing in 2026 uses the 56-question form.
All seven of the new flood questions, honestly and completely. This is the single biggest practical change for NYC sellers, and it lands hardest on the two boroughs Joseph Ranola serves. A seller who received FEMA assistance after Hurricane Sandy, or who carries flood insurance because a lender required it, now has to say so in writing before the contract is signed rather than hoping it never comes up. Buyers are also asking better questions than they were five years ago, and a seller who discloses cleanly up front almost always fares better than one whose flood history emerges during the buyer’s title search.
The flood questions carry the most weight on Staten Island. Large parts of Midland Beach, South Beach, Ocean Breeze, New Dorp Beach, and stretches of the South Shore sit inside FEMA-mapped flood zones, and a significant number of homes were rebuilt, elevated, or bought out after Hurricane Sandy. Those histories are now disclosable facts rather than neighborhood knowledge.
Staten Island also has an unusually high rate of certificate of occupancy mismatches. Finished basements, converted garages, and rear extensions added over decades often never made it onto the certificate of occupancy, and the disclosure form asks about unpermitted work. Joseph Ranola pulls the certificate of occupancy and Department of Buildings records before a Staten Island home is listed, so the seller decides how to handle a discrepancy on their own timeline instead of hearing about it from a buyer’s attorney three weeks before closing. See the best realtor on Staten Island page for how that process works.
Multi-family and converted properties drive most Brooklyn disclosure problems. Basement and cellar apartments are extremely common and frequently do not appear on the certificate of occupancy. If the certificate says two-family and the house is operating as a three-family, the buyer’s lender can refuse the loan late in the deal, and the disclosure form has already asked the seller about it in writing.
Co-op and condo sellers face a separate layer. The Property Condition Disclosure Statement generally does not apply to co-op sales, since a co-op is personal property rather than real property, but the buyer’s attorney will still review board minutes, building financials, pending assessments, and any litigation. Waterfront Brooklyn — Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, Manhattan Beach, Red Hook, Coney Island — triggers the same FEMA flood questions as Staten Island. See the best realtor in Brooklyn page for more.
Since the $500 credit opt-out ended, a seller who fails to deliver the statement, or who knowingly gives a false answer, is exposed to actual damages. A buyer who discovers an undisclosed known defect after closing can pursue the seller directly, and the removal of the credit took away the argument that the seller had validly opted out.
The practical risk is bigger than the legal one. Undisclosed problems do not stay hidden; they surface during the inspection or the title search, at the point in the deal when the seller has the least leverage and the buyer has the most. A defect disclosed up front is a negotiation. The same defect discovered in week six is a price reduction or a dead deal. Sellers who disclose early and completely consistently do better.
With the 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.55% as of July 16, 2026, buyers are already stretched and are scrutinizing condition harder than they did in the low-rate years. A clean, complete disclosure package is a competitive advantage rather than a liability. Joseph Ranola has nearly a decade of full-time NYC real estate experience and $10M+ listed in 2026 so far, and he assembles the disclosure, certificate of occupancy, and Department of Buildings records before a home is listed on either side of the Verrazzano.
Get a free home valuation, review a Staten Island estate sale in the Eltingville inherited home guide, see how disclosure plays out on a multi-family in the Sheepshead Bay 2-family guide, or work with Joseph Ranola.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Joseph Ranola is a licensed real estate agent, not an attorney. Every New York sale should be reviewed by a real estate attorney.
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