For Florida Public Adjusters
Your authority as a licensed Florida public adjuster runs from first notice through documentation, estimating, negotiation, and appraisal participation. It ends at the line where a claim stops being an adjusting problem and becomes a legal one: legal advice, suit on the policy, and first-party bad faith. This page is written for public adjusters.
We are Cory Cannon, a Tampa Bay property damage firm. We do not adjust claims. We handle the files that have reached the legal side of the line (denials on exclusions or engineer reports, lowball appraisal awards, carriers that blow their Fla. Stat. 627.70131 deadlines) and carry them through pre-suit and litigation as part of our property insurance claims practice. Consultations are always free, and that includes a lawyer’s read of the policyholder’s notice-of-intent package before it is served; we pay no referral fee, and your policyholder always chooses counsel. Below is exactly where the handoff sits, how a referral works, and a deadline desk card you can bookmark.
Findings Summary
- A public adjuster is licensed under Fla. Stat. 626.854 to adjust, estimate, and negotiate a first-party claim. That license does not authorize legal advice or a lawsuit.
- A file has crossed into legal territory when the carrier misses a 627.70131 deadline, denies on an exclusion or engineer report, demands appraisal while disputing coverage, underpays after accepting coverage, or nears the 627.70132 supplemental-claim bar.
- The 627.70152 notice of intent must be filed with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) at least 10 business days before suit. A defective notice gets the suit dismissed without prejudice: lost months. Consultations are free, and reviewing the policyholder’s notice package before it goes out is part of that consultation.
- Your 626.854(11) fee contract and the firm’s fee agreement are separate documents, signed by the client, governing separate work.
- We pay no referral fee and share no legal fee with a public adjuster. Florida Bar Rules 4-5.4 and 4-7.22 prohibit it. The relationship is professional courtesy; the policyholder retains the firm directly and freely.
- The five-year deadline to sue for breach of the policy under Fla. Stat. 95.11(2)(e) runs from the date of loss and does not pause for negotiation. Section 627.70152(4)(b) pauses an expiring suit period during insurer-required presuit appraisal or alternative dispute resolution.
Where Your Authority Ends and Ours Begins
Section 626.854 defines a public adjuster as a person who, for compensation, prepares, negotiates, or settles a first-party claim on behalf of an insured. That is broad authority over the facts and the numbers. It is not authority over the law. A public adjuster may not give legal advice, may not serve the statutory pre-suit notice as counsel, and may not file or prosecute a lawsuit: doing any of those is the unlicensed practice of law, and it puts both the adjuster and the claim at risk. The moment the dispute turns on what the policy language means, what an exclusion covers, or whether the carrier’s conduct is actionable, the file needs a lawyer.
Appraisal is the gray zone, so be precise about it. You can participate in appraisal, document the loss, and build the scope the panel prices. What you generally cannot do, since Parrish v. State Farm Florida Insurance Co., No. SC21-172 (Fla. Feb. 9, 2023), is serve as the “disinterested” appraiser a policy requires while you hold a contingency interest in the claim or while you are representing the policyholder in that appraisal. The Court held an appraiser is not “disinterested” if the appraiser, or a firm the appraiser has an interest in, is compensated as a public adjuster on contingency, and its reasoning reaches anyone whose pay rides on the award. If the policy demands a disinterested appraiser, sort the appointment out before the demand goes in. We take on appraisal and valuation disputes.
Where a File Crosses the Line
You know when a claim stops moving. The question is whether the wall is a valuation gap you can still close or a legal problem that only counsel can move. Use this as a triage sheet.
| Trigger on your file | Why it is now a legal question | Where it routes |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier misses a 627.70131 deadline (acknowledge, investigate, inspect, or pay/deny) | Prompt-pay violation; interest accrues, and a pattern can support bad faith | prompt-pay timeline |
| Denial cites an exclusion, a causation finding, or the carrier’s engineer report | Coverage interpretation is a court question, not an adjusting question | denied-claim strategy |
| Appraisal demanded, but coverage itself is disputed | A panel fixes the amount of loss; it cannot decide whether the loss is covered | appraisal vs. mediation |
| Coverage accepted, but the payment or award is far below a defensible scope | Underpayment on an accepted claim may need suit or a proposal for settlement | underpaid-claim review |
| Supplemental claim approaching the 627.70132 18-month bar | Miss the notice window and the supplemental claim is barred outright | see the desk card below |
| Documented pattern of delay, lowballing, or misrepresentation | Section 624.155 civil-remedy territory: a bad-faith setup, not a valuation fight | bad-faith evaluation |
Free Notice-of-Intent Review Before It Goes Out
The 627.70152 notice of intent to initiate litigation is the gate to every first-party property suit, and it is where files die on technicalities. The notice must be filed with DFS on the department’s form at least 10 business days before suit; it must state the acts or omissions of the insurer, and, where the dispute is not a flat denial, a presuit settlement demand that itemizes the disputed amount, damages, attorney fees, and costs. The insurer then has 10 business days to respond under 627.70152(4). Get the contents or the timing wrong and the court dismisses the suit without prejudice: the claim survives, but months evaporate, and on an aging loss those months can run into the 95.11(2)(e) deadline.
So before a notice package is served, we will read it at no charge (the DFS filing, the presuit demand, and the estimate behind it) and say plainly whether it will hold up. That review belongs to the policyholder, not to you: the consultation is theirs, they bring the package or authorize you to send it, and the answer goes back to them. If the matter proceeds, we handle the notice and the suit as counsel; our overview of suing a homeowners insurer in Florida walks the full sequence. Nothing about that review obligates the policyholder to retain us.
Florida Property Claim Deadlines: Public Adjuster Desk Card
A bookmarkable reference for the statutory clocks on a first-party property file. Each citation links to the current statute on Online Sunshine.
| Statute | Trigger | Deadline | If missed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 627.70131(1)(a) | Insurer receives a claim communication | Acknowledge within 7 calendar days | Prompt-pay violation; evidence toward bad faith |
| 627.70131(3)(a) | Insurer receives proof-of-loss statements | Begin investigation within 7 days | Prompt-pay violation |
| 627.70131(3)(b) | Insurer receives proof-of-loss statements | Physical inspection within 30 days | Prompt-pay violation |
| 627.70131(7)(a) | Insurer receives notice of claim | Pay or deny within 60 days | s. 55.03 interest accrues from the notice date |
| 627.70132 | Date of loss | Initial or reopened claim notice within 1 year; supplemental within 18 months | Claim barred |
| 627.70152(3)(a) | Before filing suit | File notice of intent with DFS at least 10 business days pre-suit | Suit dismissed without prejudice |
| 627.70152(4) | Insurer receives the notice of intent | Insurer responds within 10 business days | Presuit step complete; suit may proceed |
| 624.155(3) | Civil remedy notice filed with DFS | 60-day cure period for the insurer | No bad-faith action if the insurer cures |
| 95.11(2)(e) | Date of loss | 5 years to sue for breach of the policy | Claim time-barred |
| 626.854(11) | Residential or condo unit-owner public adjuster contract | 10% emergency-year or 20% general ceiling, subject to lower caps and excluded amounts; reopened/supplemental fees apply only to additional money obtained | Fee unenforceable; disciplinary exposure |
What Your Policyholder Can Expect on Fees
Before a policyholder hires any lawyer, they should hear the economics plainly. Fee arrangements depend on the matter. Contingency matters run on a simple rule: no recovery, no attorney’s fee. We may advance case costs. In certain circumstances, you may be responsible for case costs under your written agreement or the opposing party’s attorney’s fees or costs under applicable law, even without a recovery. The written engagement agreement states the terms before any work begins.
Florida’s former one-way attorney-fee award for policyholders was repealed in the recent reforms, so today fee-shifting in these cases typically runs through proposals for settlement under Fla. Stat. 768.79: a served offer that can shift fees from the offer forward.
How a Referral Works
This part is governed by the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, so we state it directly. We pay no referral fee to a public adjuster, and we share no portion of any legal fee with one. Rule 4-5.4 protects a lawyer’s professional independence by barring fee-sharing with nonlawyers, and Rule 4-7.17(b) bars a lawyer from giving anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer’s services. There is no percentage, no per-file payment, and no success bonus in this relationship: offering or accepting one would be a disciplinary violation for us and a problem for you.
What the relationship is: professional courtesy between an adjuster and a firm that respects the work. You identify a discrete matter that has crossed into legal territory; you tell your policyholder that litigation counsel is an option; the policyholder decides, freely, whether to talk to us and whether to retain us. We do not solicit your clients, and we do not use you as a channel to pitch legal services to your customers: Rule 4-7.18 forbids solicitation by proxy, and we take that line seriously. You refer a matter; we evaluate it; the client chooses.
For residential and condo unit-owner policies, section 626.854(11), (19) caps compensation at 10% for emergency-event claims made during the year after the declaration and 20% otherwise. Reopened or supplemental fees cover only new payments obtained through your work, capped at 20%, subject to lower caps. The cap is 1% when an insurer pays or commits to policy limits within 14 days after loss or 10 days after your contract, whichever is later; 0% for precontract payments or commitments. Attorney fees and costs are excluded. The firm’s fee agreement is separate, for separate work, signed by the same client.
When a File Is Ready
I am a Florida attorney with a family history in construction for generations; I read carrier scopes line by line and check their figures against what licensed local contractors charge, and when causation or structural scope is contested we retain independent licensed engineers to inspect and report. Start with our resources library for the deadline calculators and statute explainers your policyholders ask about, then reach out when a file is ready.