What happens when you buy a house in a disaster zone - and no one told you?

In many states, laws don't require sellers to disclose that a property is in a flood or wildfire area, leaving homeowners with unexpected damage and lossesThe house on Weber Hill Road is almost a year gone, but it still haunts Emilie Hayes. Thirteen years ago, when she and her husband Steve bought the Missouri property in a foreclosure sale, Hayes vaguely knew that it was in a 100-year floodplain. But the purchase put her children in public schools ranked among the top in the state, and the Meramec river was a whole two miles away. A trickle of a creek that cut behind the house was too small to merit a name. In Sunset Hills, flooding seemed a distant, rare hazard. Related: Meet the 'climate refugees' who already had to leave their homes Continue reading...