Written and reviewed by Cory Cannon, Esq.
Published Updated
If Tower Hill denied, underpaid, or has simply gone quiet on your property insurance claim, Florida law gives you a specific set of tools and deadlines. Under Fla. Stat. 627.70131, your insurer must acknowledge your claim within 7 days, begin its investigation within 7 days of receiving your proof of loss, conduct any physical inspection within 30 days after receiving the proof of loss, and pay or deny the claim within 60 days. If the answer you got at the end of that process is wrong (a denial that misreads the policy, or an estimate far below what licensed local contractors will actually charge), you can demand appraisal where the policy allows it, serve a pre-suit notice of intent to litigate under Fla. Stat. 627.70152, and file suit within 5 years of the date of loss under Fla. Stat. 95.11(2)(e).
One detail matters more with Tower Hill than with most carriers: “Tower Hill” is a brand, not a single company. The Gainesville-based group has written Florida property coverage for more than 50 years through several separate underwriting companies, and since 2022 most of its personal residential policies have moved to Tower Hill Insurance Exchange, a policyholder-owned reciprocal. Your rights are the same either way, but your pre-suit notice and any lawsuit must name the specific company on your policy. We review Tower Hill denial letters and estimates at no charge, line by line, and we explain below exactly how to find your issuing company and what the public record shows about Tower Hill disputes.
Findings Summary
- Tower Hill Insurance Group is based in Gainesville and has written Florida property insurance for more than 50 years. Since 2022, most of its personal residential policies have transferred at renewal to Tower Hill Insurance Exchange, a reciprocal insurer owned by its policyholders.
- The issuing company is printed on your declarations page. Tower Hill Insurance Exchange, Tower Hill Prime, and Tower Hill Signature are separate legal entities; suit papers must name the right one.
- Fla. Stat. 627.70131 requires acknowledgment within 7 days, any physical inspection within 30 days after receiving the proof of loss, and payment or denial within 60 days of notice.
- Fla. Stat. 627.70132 gives you 1 year from the date of loss for original or reopened notice and 18 months after the date of loss for supplemental notice. Fla. Stat. 95.11(2)(e) allows 5 years from the date of loss to file suit.
- Pre-suit notices filed against any insurer under 627.70152 are public record, searchable by company name in the DFS PIITIL database. DFS also publishes civil remedy notices filed under Fla. Stat. 624.155.
- Tower Hill claims are filed at 800-342-3407 or through the customer portal at thig.com. Tower Hill also sells private flood coverage; NFIP flood claims follow federal deadlines, not the Florida timelines above.
Which Tower Hill Company Actually Insures You?
Pull out your declarations page, the summary sheet the insurer sends at each renewal listing your coverages, limits, and deductibles. The issuing company’s full legal name is printed at the top. Under the Tower Hill brand you will see one of several entities:
- Tower Hill Insurance Exchange: a reciprocal insurer formed in 2022. A reciprocal is an insurance company owned by its policyholders (called members or subscribers) rather than by shareholders, managed day to day by an attorney-in-fact. Most Tower Hill Prime, Preferred, and Signature personal residential policies have transferred to the Exchange at renewal since 2022, so if you bought or renewed a Tower Hill homeowners policy recently, this is probably your insurer.
- Tower Hill Prime Insurance Company and Tower Hill Signature Insurance Company: legacy stock companies in the group. Older claims, and some commercial and specialty policies, may still sit with these entities.
- Flood coverage: Tower Hill currently sells private flood insurance, as a standalone policy or an endorsement to a homeowners policy. It formerly wrote flood policies through the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), but transferred processing and administration of that book to another company in 2018, so a current NFIP policy is likely issued and serviced elsewhere, even if your wind coverage is with Tower Hill. Private flood and NFIP coverage run on entirely different rules, which we cover below.
Why this matters: the pre-suit notice required by 627.70152 and any later lawsuit must identify the insurer that issued the policy. Naming the brand instead of the entity invites a procedural fight that has nothing to do with your roof or your water line. It also matters when you research the company: public databases index each entity separately.
What the Public Record Shows About Tower Hill Disputes
We do not characterize any carrier. We point you to the public data and let you read it yourself.
- DFS pre-suit notice database (PIITIL). Since 2021, a policyholder who intends to sue a property insurer in Florida must generally first file a notice of intent to initiate litigation under 627.70152. Those notices are collected in the Department of Financial Services’ Property Insurance Intent to Initiate Litigation database, which is searchable by insurer name. Search each Tower Hill entity separately (“Tower Hill Insurance Exchange,” “Tower Hill Prime,” “Tower Hill Signature”) because the database indexes the legal entity, not the brand. Each notice shows a filing date and the general nature of the dispute. DFS acts as a conduit for these notices and does not involve itself in the disputes; the counts show how often policyholders reached the brink of suit, not who was right.
- DFS civil remedy notices. When a policyholder believes an insurer handled a claim in bad faith, the first formal step is a civil remedy notice under Fla. Stat. 624.155, also filed with DFS and publicly searchable. Note that under Fla. Stat. 624.1551, a bad-faith action against a property insurer now requires an adverse adjudication (a court ruling against the insurer on the underlying claim) before it can proceed.
- OIR market data. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation publishes residential market share reports, monthly at the county and ZIP code level as of January 2025. One quirk worth knowing: OIR’s reports note that Tower Hill Signature, Prime, and Preferred asserted trade-secret protection over their data beginning in the first quarter of 2019, so those entities’ policy counts do not appear in the public spreadsheets. The company reports a Demotech Financial Stability Rating of A (Exceptional) for the Exchange as of 2026.
Tower Hill’s long history and large legacy book in Florida mean a steady volume of claims, and a steady volume of disputes. The databases above put dates and numbers on that; what they mean for your claim depends on your policy language and your evidence.
How to File a Tower Hill Claim and Protect Your Deadlines
Tower Hill accepts claims 24 hours a day at 800-342-3407, through the customer portal at thig.com, and through its mobile app. When you file, three clocks start or are already running:
| Statute | What it requires | The clock |
|---|---|---|
| 627.70132 | Your original or reopened notice | 1 year from the date of loss |
| 627.70132 | Supplemental claim (additional loss or damage from the same peril previously adjusted, or costs incurred completing repairs or replacement under an open, timely noticed claim) | 18 months from the date of loss |
| 627.70131 | Insurer acknowledges your claim | 7 days |
| 627.70131 | Insurer begins investigation | 7 days after proof of loss |
| 627.70131 | Insurer conducts any physical inspection | Within 30 days after receiving proof-of-loss statements |
| 627.70131 | Payment or denial for residential claims and commercial structures or premises no larger than 10,000 square feet; multistate nonresidential policies excluded | Within 60 days after notice |
| 95.11(2)(e) | Lawsuit on the policy | 5 years from the date of loss |
A proof of loss is a sworn statement of the amount you are claiming; a supplemental claim concerns additional damage from the same peril the insurer already adjusted or costs incurred completing repairs under an open claim reported on time. For hurricanes, the date of loss is the date of landfall. A worked example: for Hurricane Milton (October 9, 2024), the initial notice window closed October 9, 2025, the supplemental window closed April 9, 2026, and the deadline to file suit runs to October 9, 2029. The same math applies to Helene (September 26, 2024). For Ian (September 27, 2022) losses, the notice periods were 2 years and 3 years after the date of loss. The report lists that first Florida landfall, at the Dry Tortugas, in UTC as September 28, which was about 10 p.m. September 27 in Florida. Both periods ended, but Ian’s 5-year suit window under 95.11(2)(e) remains open until September 27, 2027. In other words: even if the notice windows have passed, a claim you already filed and Tower Hill denied or underpaid can usually still be litigated. Run your own dates through our insurance claim deadline calculator, and use the insurer response timeline checker to see whether the handling of your claim tracked 627.70131. For a fuller walkthrough of the payment clock, see how long an insurance company has to pay in Florida.
Wind or Flood? With Tower Hill, You May Hold Both Policies
Tower Hill is unusual among Florida residential carriers in that it also sells private flood coverage, and many of its homeowners carry a separate NFIP policy through another carrier. After a storm surge event, many policyholders discover they have a wind claim on their homeowners policy and a flood claim on a separate flood policy, sometimes both bearing the Tower Hill name. Treat them as two different claims under two different legal systems:
- Your homeowners policy covers wind. Florida law (everything in the table above) governs it.
- An NFIP flood policy is a federal contract. The standard policy generally requires a signed, sworn proof of loss within 60 days of the loss (FEMA sometimes extends this after major storms), and any lawsuit must be filed within one year of the first written denial, in federal court. Florida’s one-year notice rule, 60-day payment rule, and 5-year suit window do not apply.
- A private flood policy follows its own terms plus Florida law. Check your declarations page to see which kind you hold.
When wind and water hit the same house, how the damage is allocated between the two policies often determines what gets paid. That allocation fight has its own rules in Florida: we explain them in our guide to wind versus flood damage claim disputes. If your dispute is on the flood side, our flood insurance claim practice handles both NFIP and private flood policies; for windstorm losses, start with our hurricane damage claim page.
How a Denied or Underpaid Tower Hill Claim Moves Forward
- Documented demand. If the numbers are short, we present the difference in writing, item by item, including matching costs under Fla. Stat. 626.9744 where undamaged tile, siding, or flooring must be replaced to achieve a reasonably uniform result, and replacement-cost holdbacks governed by Fla. Stat. 627.7011. When the claim is still open and the dispute is over price, the law does not clearly say which notice period applies. We present the dispute promptly in writing within 1 year after the date of loss as the safe limit under current section 627.70132.
- Appraisal where it fits. Appraisal is a policy-based process in which each side names an appraiser and a neutral umpire resolves the amount of loss. It can be faster than suit when the only dispute is price, not coverage. Our appraisal page explains when it helps and when it does not.
- Pre-suit notice under 627.70152. We file the notice of intent to initiate litigation through the DFS portal at least 10 business days before suit. Tower Hill then has 10 business days to respond, with a payment, a settlement offer, or a demand to inspect or go to appraisal.
- Suit. If the response does not resolve the claim, we file against the correct Tower Hill entity within the 5-year window.
Whether your claim was denied outright or paid at a fraction of the real repair cost, the sequence is the same; only the emphasis changes.
What It Costs
Fee arrangements depend on the matter. Some Tower Hill disputes may be accepted on a contingency basis. Under a contingency agreement, no recovery means 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 agreement states the terms before any work begins. In litigation, a proposal for settlement under Fla. Stat. 768.79 can create fee consequences when the statutory conditions are met.
Why Cory Cannon
I am a Florida attorney with a family history in construction for generations. That background is the working method here: I read Tower Hill’s estimates the way a builder reads a scope (checking unit prices, quantities, and what the line items quietly leave out), and I test the carrier’s numbers against what licensed local contractors actually charge in Tampa Bay. When the dispute turns on engineering, we retain independent licensed engineers rather than asking you to accept the carrier’s retained opinion as the last word. Start with our property insurance claims overview to see the full practice, or compare carrier-specific pages (including how to research any Florida insurer in the DFS databases) at our carriers index.
One boundary note: this page is about disputes with your insurer. If your damage traces back to defective construction, a bad roof installation, or a repair contractor’s mistakes, your claim may run against the builder or contractor instead of (or alongside) Tower Hill. That is a different body of law with its own notice requirements, covered in our construction defects practice.
Talk to Us Before the Next Deadline Passes
Every option above sits inside a statutory window, and several of them close permanently. If Tower Hill has denied, underpaid, or stalled your claim, send us the denial letter or estimate and your declarations page. We will tell you which entity insures you, which deadlines still stand, and what the claim is actually worth, at no charge. Request your free Tower Hill claim review here.