What New Hampshire Sellers Must Disclose

New Hampshire puts the homework on the buyer. Limited. That is the regime you are buying into: whatever the seller does not volunteer, you have to go and find.

What sellers still have to tell you

New Hampshire has no omnibus seller disclosure form; RSA 477:4-d requires written disclosure, prior to or during preparation of an offer for a 1-4 family dwelling, only about private water supply, private sewage/septic, insulation, and whether the property is in a federally designated flood hazard zone, and RSA 477:4-a requires notices about radon, arsenic, lead and other specified hazards. Expect only the narrow statutory notices from a New Hampshire seller, not a full condition report — the broader Seller's Property Disclosure used in most deals is a New Hampshire Association of REALTORS form, not a statutory form. Read the RSA 477:4-d notice closely for well, septic, insulation and flood-zone status, and if information is unavailable the seller must say so in writing. Your protection is inspection and specific written questions, plus the agent's duty to disclose known material conditions.

Flooding: the answer that matters most

New Hampshire law specifically requires flood disclosure: the seller has to tell you about flood risk or history. Read that answer carefully, then verify it against the official map — FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer is the map your lender will use, and a seller's 'never flooded' is not the same as 'not in a flood zone.'

The New Hampshire traps inside the paperwork

Transfer tax is split — buyer pays half. Under RSA 78-D, New Hampshire's real estate transfer tax is $0.75 per $100 of price on the seller and $0.75 per $100 on the buyer ($1.50 per $100 combined) — buyers from states where the seller pays transfer tax should budget their half at closing.

Well and septic facts are the statutory disclosure, and they are thin. RSA 477:4-d limits required seller disclosure to private water, private sewage and insulation (plus flood-zone status) — a clean statutory notice says nothing about roof, foundation or heating, so a buyer who skips a full inspection and water test has no form to fall back on.

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 New Hampshire, property tax reassessment works like this: Your bill is driven by the town's assessment, its revaluation cycle and the locally set tax rate, not by your purchase price alone. Because a town may go up to five years between full revaluations, a revaluation year can move your assessment to current market value all at once — ask when the town last revalued before you rely on the seller's bill — 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 New Hampshire records guide — never budget from the seller's bill.
• Check the address against the official New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire?

No standard statutory form. New Hampshire has no omnibus seller disclosure form; RSA 477:4-d requires written disclosure, prior to or during preparation of an offer for a 1-4 family dwelling, only about private water supply, private sewage/septic, insulation, and whether the property is in a federally designated flood hazard zone, and RSA 477:4-a requires notices about radon, arsenic, lead and other specified hazards.

Does a New Hampshire seller have to disclose flooding?

Yes — New Hampshire requires flood disclosure. Verify it on the FEMA map anyway; the disclosure is the seller's statement, the map is the lender's rulebook.

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: business.nh.gov · dover.nh.gov · hamptonnh.gov · northwoodspropertyteam.com · lawserver.com · nolo.com