What Delaware Sellers Must Disclose

Delaware requires sellers to put it in writing. The form is the Seller's Disclosure of Real Property Condition Report. Under Title 6, Chapter 25 of the Delaware Code the seller must disclose in writing all known material defects at the time the property is offered for sale or known before final settlement, and must separately disclose known radon information and any radon test results in the seller's possession.

What the disclosure covers — and what it is

You should receive the Real Estate Commission's disclosure report plus a separate radon disclosure before you make an offer. No standalone Delaware flood-disclosure requirement was verified in the sources reviewed, so check FEMA flood maps and flood-insurance needs independently.

Flooding: the answer that matters most

Whether Delaware law specifically requires flood disclosure, treat it as your job either way: run the exact parcel through FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer before you offer. A flood-zone home means a flood-insurance requirement if you finance — and that premium belongs in your monthly-cost math from day one.

The Delaware traps inside the paperwork

Mandatory radon disclosure is separate from the main form. Title 6, section 2572A requires every buyer to be notified the home may present radon exposure, requires the seller to share any radon test results or reports in the seller's possession, and gives the buyer the right to test before settlement.

Decades-old assessments were just replaced. All three counties reassessed between 2021 and 2025 after a 2020 ruling found the old system unconstitutional; New Castle's prior base year was 1987 and Sussex's was 1974, so historical tax bills are a poor guide to post-reassessment bills.

What no disclosure will ever tell you

A disclosure is the seller's knowledge, on the seller's timeline. It says nothing about the street's crime trend, the registry, the tax bill you will pay after the sale, permits pulled (or never pulled) for the renovation in the photos, or the rezoning working its way through the planning office. In Delaware, property tax reassessment works like this: A sale does not by itself reset the assessment, but Delaware's recent first-in-decades reassessments reset values county-wide to current market value and sharply changed many individual bills. Ask which base year and rate your county now uses rather than assuming the seller's old bill reflects current values — which is why the seller's current bill is a poor guide to yours. Pull those records yourself; they are all public.

Your checks, in order

• Read the disclosure line by line, and get 'unknown' answers in writing anyway — an unknown is a flag, not a pass.
• Run the exact parcel on FEMA's flood map.
• Estimate your post-sale tax bill with the Delaware records guide — never budget from the seller's bill.
• Check the address against the official Delaware registry.
• Ask the county for open and expired permits on the address before you waive anything.

Frequently asked questions

Is a seller disclosure form required in Delaware?

Yes — the Seller's Disclosure of Real Property Condition Report. Under Title 6, Chapter 25 of the Delaware Code the seller must disclose in writing all known material defects at the time the property is offered for sale or known before final settlement, and must separately disclose known radon information and any radon test results in the seller's possession.

Does a Delaware seller have to disclose flooding?

Do not rely on the paperwork either way — check the parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, which is the map lenders and insurers use.

The seller answered 'unknown' to half the form. Now what?

'Unknown' is legal in most regimes and useful to nobody. Treat every unknown as a job: inspection, permit search, and the county record file. If the seller genuinely doesn't know, the records usually do.

Sources: housedems.delaware.gov · sexoffender.dsp.delaware.gov · legalclarity.org · nolo.com · recordinglaw.com