A Florida property claim is a defined process with statutory clocks on both sides. Knowing the sequence is worth money, because most of the loss happens at two predictable points and both are avoidable.
Step 1: read your declarations page first
Before you call anyone, find out what you actually bought. Your coverage limits, your all-other-perils deductible, your separate hurricane deductible, your sublimits, whether contents settle at actual cash value or replacement cost, whether you carry ordinance or law coverage, and whether you have flood at all.
On the hurricane deductible specifically, Florida requires insurers offering personal lines residential property insurance to offer alternative deductible amounts of $500, 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of the policy dwelling limits, unless the percentage would be less than $500. On a Florida home the difference between 2 and 10 percent is tens of thousands of dollars, and most people have never consciously chosen theirs.
Step 2: document the loss before you clean up
Photograph and video everything, build a contents inventory with values, and preserve damaged property. The standard homeowners form requires you to prepare an inventory of damaged personal property showing quantity, description, actual cash value and amount of loss, with all bills, receipts and related documents attached that justify the figures. That inventory is the single most under-built document in a typical claim. Full detail in documenting storm damage.
Step 3: report the claim promptly
Florida bars a claim or reopened claim unless notice was given to the insurer, in accordance with the terms of the policy, within 1 year after the date of loss. A supplemental claim is barred unless notice was given within 18 months. You do not need a finished estimate to give notice.
Give the basic facts and be careful not to speculate about cause or minimize the damage in early conversations. Describe what you observed, not what you think caused it. Get the claim number and a dated written confirmation.
Step 4: the carrier investigates, on a clock
Florida requires an insurer to acknowledge a claim communication within 7 calendar days, to begin the reasonably necessary investigation within 7 days after receiving proof-of-loss statements, to conduct any physical inspection within 30 days after receiving them, and to pay or deny an initial, reopened or supplemental claim, or a portion of it, within 60 days after receiving notice. Each of those bends for factors beyond the insurer’s control as the statute defines them, and after a declared emergency.
There is a request worth making once your proof of loss is in. Under the unfair claim settlement practices provisions it is a violation for an insurer to fail to affirm or deny full or partial coverage, and as to partial coverage the dollar amount or extent of coverage, or to fail to provide a written statement that the claim is being investigated, upon the written request of the insured within 30 days after proof-of-loss statements have been completed. A written request forces a written position.
Step 5: the sworn proof of loss
This is the document with teeth. Under the standard form you must send the insurer, within 60 days after their request, your signed sworn proof of loss setting out the time and cause of loss, all interests and liens, other insurance, changes in title or occupancy, specifications of damaged buildings and detailed repair estimates, and the contents inventory.
Note the trigger: the clock runs from their request, not from the date of loss. And note the risk: signing before your scope is finished swears you to a number lower than your loss. See proof of loss deadlines and what to include.
Step 6: read the offer critically
This is where most of the money is lost, and it is rarely where people look. Compare the carrier estimate against the true cost to repair or replace, line by line. Underpayment hides in scope: missing line items, patch-instead-of-replace where matching material no longer exists, aggressive depreciation, code-required work omitted, overhead and profit stripped from a job that genuinely needs a general contractor.
If the payment is smaller than the estimate, that is usually depreciation rather than an error, and on a replacement cost policy most of it is designed to come back to you once the work is done. See ACV vs RCV.
Step 7: negotiate, supplement, or escalate
A first offer is not a settlement. If repairs uncover damage nobody scoped, that is a supplemental claim. If the dispute is purely about the amount of an agreed covered loss, your policy may allow appraisal. Florida also runs a mediation program for disputed residential claims in which the insurer bears all of the cost of conducting the conference, though it excludes commercial coverages, motor vehicle insurance, claims under $500 unless both sides agree, and denials based on an agreed cause of loss.
Where owners lose the most
- Accepting the carrier’s scope as the starting point for negotiation instead of producing their own.
- Cleaning up before documenting, which removes the evidence of both scope and value.
- Signing a sworn proof of loss before the scope is complete.
- Never claiming the withheld depreciation because nobody explained there was a second payment.
- Missing the one-year notice deadline while waiting to find out whether the damage was "worth" claiming.
Filing one in South Florida
We handle claims from an office in Oakland Park and work statewide, including Miami Beach, Hialeah and Doral. The policy read and the inspection are free, and there is no fee unless there is a recovery.
Your policy is the contract, and forms vary by carrier. The provisions described here come from the standard Homeowners 3 Special Form that most Florida homeowners policies are built on. Read your own declarations page and policy form, or send them to us and we will read them with you.
Sources
- Fla. Stat. s. 627.70132, Notice of property insurance claim
- Fla. Stat. s. 627.70131, Insurer’s duty to acknowledge communications regarding claims
- Fla. Stat. s. 626.9541, Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts
- Homeowners 3 Special Form, ISO form HO 00 03 10 00 (sample published by the Insurance Information Institute)
- Fla. Stat. s. 627.701, Liability of insureds; coinsurance; deductibles
- Fla. Stat. s. 627.7015, Alternative procedure for resolution of disputed property insurance claims