Hurricane Claim Timeline in Florida: Notice, Inspection and Payment Deadlines

After a hurricane, most homeowners want to know one thing: how long will this take? Florida law sets deadlines for both sides of a home or condo claim. They apply to residential property insurers, including Citizens and surplus lines insurers (s. 627.70131). Here they are in order.

1. You report the claim

A new or reopened claim must be reported within 1 year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months. For a hurricane, the date of loss is the day it made landfall (s. 627.70132). Those are outer limits. Your policy also asks for prompt notice, so report as soon as it is safe and write down your claim number.

2. The insurer acknowledges: 7 days

Within 7 calendar days after receiving a communication about a claim, the insurer must review and acknowledge it, unless it pays within that time. If the communication is a notice of claim, the reply must include the claim forms, instructions and a phone number, unless it tells you the claim appears not to be covered.

3. Investigation and inspection: 7 and 30 days

• The insurer must begin its investigation within 7 days after it receives your proof-of-loss statements.
• If it inspects the property in person, it must do so within 30 days after receiving the proof of loss. The adjuster must give you his or her name and state adjuster license number, and later messages about the claim must include them too.
• The insurer may also inspect electronically, with photos, video calls or drone footage, and may ask you to help with those.
• If the adjuster prepares a detailed estimate, the insurer must send you a copy within 7 days after it is generated.

4. Pay or deny: 60 days

Within 60 days after it receives notice of an initial, reopened or supplemental claim, the insurer must pay or deny the claim, or the part of it in question, and explain in writing the basis in the policy. If it pays less than its own detailed estimate, it must explain the difference in writing. A payment made after the deadline generally bears interest from the date the insurer received notice.

When the clock can pause or stretch

• Mediation or another dispute process pauses the deadlines while it lasts.
• Missing information: if the insurer asks for material claim information and you do not provide it within 10 days, the deadlines pause until it arrives. This applies only to requests sent at least 15 days before the pay-or-deny deadline.
• Major events: after a state of emergency, a data breach or an IT failure, the Office of Insurance Regulation can give insurers more time, but no more than 30 extra days to pay or deny.
• Fraud, lack of cooperation or misrepresentation by the policyholder can also excuse a missed deadline.

If you disagree with the decision

Florida’s Department of Financial Services runs a residential property mediation program (s. 627.7015). A claim becomes eligible after the insurer pays or denies it. The dispute must be at least $500 after the deductible, over the cause of the damage or the amount offered, and the insurer pays the cost of the mediation unless you miss the conference and ask to reschedule (DFS). Once a mediator is assigned, the conference should happen within 21 days (DFS FAQ). Mediation is non-binding (DFS guide), and it does not handle NFIP flood policies (DFS).

Keep a simple claim log

• Date and way you reported the claim, and the claim number.
• Each adjuster’s name and license number.
• Dates of inspections, estimates, information requests and your replies.
• Every payment and letter, with the date received.
• Photos and receipts for temporary repairs.

Before any of this, it helps to know how much of the loss is yours under your hurricane deductible; see our Florida hurricane deductible guide. Condo owners facing an association assessment can also read about milestone inspections and SIRS.