Property Damage Attorney

Florida Property Insurance Claim Lawyer

Florida law gives a policyholder one year from the date of loss to report a property damage claim to the insurer, and eighteen months to file a supplemental claim (Fla. Stat. § 627.70132). Once the claim is reported, the insurer is on its own statutory clock: 7 days to acknowledge your claim, 30 days to inspect the property after receiving your proof of loss, and 60 days to pay or deny the claim in whole or in part (Fla. Stat. § 627.70131). If the insurer denies the claim, pays less than the repairs cost, or simply stalls, you can sue for breach of the insurance contract (after serving a pre-suit notice of intent to litigate under Fla. Stat. § 627.70152) and you have five years from the date of loss to file (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(2)(e)).

Cory Cannon represents homeowners, business owners, and community associations across Tampa Bay in these disputes. Some policyholder matters may be accepted on contingency. Under a contingency agreement, you owe no attorney’s fees, case costs, or expenses unless there is a recovery. The written engagement agreement controls. My practice is built on a construction foundation. I grew up around construction, and my family has worked in the Florida construction trades for generations. That background shapes how I work an insurance file: I read carrier estimates, engineer reports, and repair scopes line by line, compare them with the work needed to repair the building, and litigate the gap between the policy and the carrier’s payment.

What Is a First-Party Property Insurance Dispute?

A first-party claim is a claim you make under your own insurance policy for damage to your own property. It is different from a third-party claim, where you pursue someone else’s insurer. Every page in this section deals with first-party disputes: you paid premiums, a covered peril (wind, water, fire, lightning, theft, vehicle impact) damaged your property, and the insurer is not holding up its end of the contract.

The policy is a contract. It obligates the insurer to investigate your claim, adjust it honestly, and pay what the policy promises within timelines the Legislature has set. When that does not happen, the dispute usually takes one of three shapes (a denial, an underpayment, or a delay) and Florida law provides a specific procedure for each.

Florida’s property insurance statutes were rewritten in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The reforms shortened policyholder deadlines, repealed the one-way attorney’s fee statute that once let homeowners sue carriers at little personal cost, and added mandatory pre-suit steps. The rules that exist now still work, but only for policyholders who use them precisely and on time. That is the discipline this practice is organized around.

What Are the Deadlines on a Florida Property Insurance Claim?

Every deadline in a Florida property claim runs from the date of loss: the day the damage happened, not the day you discovered it and not the day the insurer responded. For a hurricane claim, the date of loss is generally the date the storm hit your property.

A supplemental claim is a claim for additional money on a loss you already reported: for example, damage found after the adjuster left, or repair costs that exceed the first estimate. It has its own 18-month deadline, and it matters because most underpaid claims are fixed through supplements before anyone files suit.

Worked example: Hurricane Milton crossed the Tampa Bay area on October 9, 2024. For Milton damage, the deadline to report a new claim was October 9, 2025; the supplemental deadline was April 9, 2026; and the deadline to file suit is October 9, 2029. Helene (2024) claims run on the same one-year, 18-month, and five-year structure from their own date of loss. Ian (2022) predates the December 2022 reforms, so the older two-year notice and three-year supplemental windows applied to Ian claims. Both of those windows have now closed, though the five-year deadline to file suit on an already-reported Ian claim runs to September 28, 2027. You can run your own dates through our insurance claim deadline calculator, and our guide to Florida hurricane claim filing deadlines walks through the edge cases.

One exception to note: flood insurance issued through the National Flood Insurance Program is a federal contract with its own, shorter rules, including a 60-day sworn proof of loss requirement (sometimes extended by FEMA after major storms) and a one-year deadline to sue after a written denial. If your loss involves flood water, start with our flood insurance claim page.

What Must Your Insurer Do, and When?

Fla. Stat. § 627.70131, tightened by the December 2022 reforms, puts the insurer on a fixed schedule for residential property claims:

• 7 days to review and acknowledge a claim communication after receiving it.
• 7 days to begin its investigation after receiving your proof of loss: the sworn statement of the amount you are claiming.
• 30 days to conduct a physical inspection of the property after receiving the proof of loss, if the insurer determines an inspection is needed.
• 7 days to send you any detailed loss estimate its adjuster generates.
• 60 days to pay or deny the claim (in whole or in part) after receiving notice of it, with a reasonable written explanation for whatever it decides.

For an initial or supplemental claim, section 627.70131(7)(a) provides that a payment made after the 60-day period bears interest from the date the insurer received notice of the claim, unless the delay results from factors beyond the insurer’s control. If your carrier has gone quiet, our insurer response timeline checker will show you which of these deadlines may have passed, and our delayed claim page explains what to do about it. A missed deadline can become part of the claim-handling record. It does not decide coverage or create a claim by itself. Every authorized insurer in Florida answers to the same statutes; what differs company to company is process, and our carrier-by-carrier claim guides set out how the six residential writers most often involved in Tampa Bay claims run one.

Denied, Underpaid, or Delayed: Three Different Problems

Denials. Carriers deny Florida claims most often on causation grounds: the damage is called wear and tear, age-related deterioration, faulty workmanship, or a pre-existing condition rather than a covered peril. Those are engineering-style arguments, and they are tested with evidence: photographs, weather data, moisture readings, and competent repair estimates. Our denied claim practice covers how a denial gets challenged, and our resource on what to do after a homeowners claim denial covers the first steps.

Underpayments. The more common problem is a claim that is accepted and then paid at a fraction of the real repair cost. Two statutes do most of the work here. Fla. Stat. § 627.7011 governs replacement cost versus actual cash value: replacement cost is what it costs to repair or replace the damage with new materials; actual cash value is that number minus depreciation for age and wear. On a replacement-cost homeowners policy, the insurer must initially pay at least the actual cash value and then release the depreciation holdback as work is performed. Fla. Stat. § 626.9744 (Florida’s matching statute) requires repairs to reasonably match adjoining undamaged items such as tile, siding, and flooring, which is often the difference between patching thirty square feet and replacing a continuous surface. See our underpaid claim practice and our plain-English guide to the Florida insurance matching law.

Delays. Some claims are never formally denied. They just sit. Requests for documents repeat, adjusters rotate, and the 60-day pay-or-deny deadline passes without a decision. Florida treats those statutory deadlines as enforceable obligations, not suggestions. Our delayed claim page and our explainer on how long an insurance company has to pay in Florida lay out the sequence.

Common Tampa Bay Property Damage Disputes

Hurricane and wind. Tampa Bay’s building stock has now been through Ian (2022), Helene (2024), and Milton (2024), and the disputes those storms produced follow a pattern: wind damage attributed to age, roof claims paid for repair when the roof system needs replacement, and hurricane deductibles applied in ways policyholders did not expect. Our hurricane damage practice covers wind claims end to end.

Roofs. Roof claims are the center of gravity of Florida property insurance litigation, and they are where my construction background matters most. Whether a shingle crease is wind damage or foot traffic, whether a tile field can be repaired without breaking surrounding tiles, whether a metal panel system can be partially replaced: these are construction questions before they are legal ones, and they decide roof damage claims.

Water. Interior water losses turn on distinctions written into the policy: sudden and accidental discharge is generally covered, while constant seepage over weeks or months is generally excluded, and post-2018 policies often cap non-weather water losses. Our water damage practice covers pipe breaks, supply-line failures, and roof leaks. In pre-1975 homes across St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Sarasota, failing cast iron drain lines are their own recurring dispute. See our cast iron pipe claim page.

Mold. Mold usually arrives as a secondary loss after water intrusion, and most Florida policies cap mold remediation at $10,000 or less unless coverage was endorsed higher. Whether the cap applies (and whether the underlying water loss was handled correctly) drives mold damage claims.

Fire and smoke. Fire claims are usually accepted as covered, then disputed on scope: smoke and soot migration, odor remediation, code-required upgrades, and additional living expenses while the home is uninhabitable. When current building codes force a repair beyond like-for-like (a full re-roof, upgraded electrical, new impact standards) payment depends on ordinance and law coverage, a policy provision many owners do not know they carry. Our fire damage practice addresses each.

Flood. Rising water is excluded from standard homeowners policies and covered, if at all, under a separate flood policy. After Helene, many Tampa Bay owners faced both carriers at once: the wind insurer blaming flood and the flood insurer blaming wind. Our flood claim practice and our guide to wind versus flood claim disputes cover that seam.

How Do You Protect the Claim Before Hiring Anyone?

Most of the damage done to Florida claims happens in the first weeks, before any lawyer is involved. A few habits preserve your position:

• Report in writing, early. The one-year notice clock under § 627.70132 does not pause while you get estimates. Report the loss, keep the claim number, and keep every letter and email.
• Photograph everything before cleanup. Your policy requires you to mitigate: take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, such as tarping a roof or drying wet flooring. Document the damage thoroughly first, and keep every mitigation receipt; those costs are part of the claim.
• Be careful with recorded statements. Policies require cooperation, but a recorded statement is transcribed and used to fix your story before you know the facts. Innocent guesses about dates and causes become the carrier’s exhibit. Our FAQ on whether to give a recorded statement covers how to handle the request.
• Read before you sign. Assignments of benefits, managed-repair authorizations, and releases each change your legal position. Cashing a routine claim check usually does not waive the rest of the claim. A signed release can end it.
• Know who does what. A public adjuster is licensed to estimate and negotiate a claim for a fee; only an attorney can file suit and pursue bad faith. The two roles are compared in our guide to public adjusters versus attorneys, and adjusters whose file has already hit the legal line can see where we pick it up on our page written for public adjusters.

How a Disputed Claim Actually Gets Resolved

Most disputed claims settle before trial. The sequence below is the standard path; where a claim exits the path depends on the evidence and the carrier’s posture.

1. Rebuild the file. We start with documents: the full policy, the carrier’s estimate and correspondence, photographs, and a repair scope grounded in real construction pricing. Most underpayments become visible the moment two estimates are placed side by side, line by line.
2. Demand and supplement. Within the 18-month supplemental window, we present the corrected scope and demand the difference. Some carriers reinspect and pay; that is the fastest resolution available.
3. Appraisal, where it fits. Appraisal is a contractual process, found in many policies, in which each side hires an appraiser and a neutral umpire resolves the difference in valuation. It can be faster than litigation for pure pricing disputes, but it is generally a poor fit where the carrier disputes coverage itself. Our insurance appraisal page and our comparison of appraisal versus mediation in Florida explain when to invoke it, and when not to.
4. Pre-suit notice. Before filing suit, Fla. Stat. § 627.70152 requires a notice of intent to initiate litigation, served through the Department of Financial Services at least ten business days before the complaint is filed, stating the amount in dispute. The carrier gets a final window to respond, pay, or demand appraisal.
5. Lawsuit. If the claim is still unresolved, we file a breach of contract action within the five-year window of § 95.11(2)(e). Discovery reaches the carrier’s own file: the adjuster’s notes, the engineer’s drafts, and the internal estimates that never made it into a payment.
6. Bad faith, in the right case. Bad faith is a separate statutory claim for an insurer’s failure to settle fairly and honestly. It requires a civil remedy notice under Fla. Stat. § 624.155, which gives the carrier 60 days to cure, and under Fla. Stat. § 624.1551 a property policyholder must first establish the breach through an adverse adjudication before the bad faith action proceeds. It is a second lawsuit built on winning the first: sequencing it correctly from day one is the point. See our insurance bad faith practice.

What Does a Property Insurance Lawyer Cost?

Fee arrangements depend on the matter. Some policyholder claims may be accepted on contingency. Under a contingency agreement, no recovery means no attorney’s fee, case costs, or expenses are owed. The written engagement agreement states the terms before any work begins.

The 2022 reforms repealed the one-way attorney’s fee statute that historically applied to these cases. A proposal for settlement under Fla. Stat. § 768.79 can create fee-shifting consequences in some cases if a party rejects a qualifying offer and the later judgment meets the statutory threshold. The rule can affect either side, so every proposal requires case-specific advice. Costs, fee arrangements, and the questions to ask any firm are covered in our guide to what a property insurance lawyer costs, one of the answers in our property insurance question library. The consultation itself is free.

Why Cory Cannon

Property insurance disputes often turn on construction facts: the damaged components, the cause of the damage, and the scope and cost of repair. I grew up around the Florida construction trades, and my family has worked in them for generations, which is how this practice came to focus on property damage. That background informs my review of estimates, repair scopes, photographs, and expert reports.

The firm compares carrier figures with available local repair pricing and checks estimates for omitted labor, materials, access, and code-related work. When an insurer attributes damage to wear, installation, or mechanical causes, photographs, measurements, weather records, and appropriately qualified independent professionals may be needed to evaluate that conclusion.

Commercial, Condo, and Association Claims

The statutes above protect businesses and associations as well as homeowners, but the claims are structurally different. Commercial losses add business income and extra expense coverage, co-insurance math, and larger appraisal fights; our commercial property claim practice handles them. Condominium and homeowners associations face master-policy claims measured in millions, board fiduciary duties, and the seam between the association’s policy and unit owners’ policies; that work runs through our condo and HOA insurance claim practice.

Identify the Responsible Party

Damage may result from a covered event, defective construction, or both. A claim against a builder, developer, or contractor follows different notice procedures and deadlines from a claim under an insurance policy. Insurers may also attribute storm-related damage to faulty workmanship. When the building’s design or construction may be involved, review our construction defects practice as well.

Start With Your Deadline

Every option on this page sits behind a date: one year to report, eighteen months to supplement, five years to sue. The first step costs nothing: run your dates through the deadline calculator, gather your policy and the carrier’s letters, and request a free consultation. I will tell you plainly whether you have a claim, what it is worth pursuing, and what the statute requires next.