The storm has passed. Now what?
Most people have never filed an insurance claim, let alone one after a hurricane. What follows is what to do and when, and why documenting your loss matters more than anything else you’ll do.
- 2001AllisonTropical Storm · Freeport, Texas
- 2002LiliIntracoastal City, Louisiana
- 2002FayTropical Storm · Port O'Connor, Texas
- 2003IsabelDrum Inlet, North Carolina
- 2004CharleyCayo Costa, Florida
- 2004FrancesSewall's Point, Florida
- 2004IvanGulf Shores, Alabama
- 2004JeanneHutchinson Island, Florida
- 2005KatrinaBuras, Louisiana
- 2005WilmaCape Romano, Florida
- 2012IsaacTropical Storm · Florida
- 2012SandyBrigantine, New Jersey
- 2017IrmaCudjoe Key, Florida
- 2018MichaelMexico Beach, Florida
- 2022IanCayo Costa, Florida
- 2024HeleneBig Bend, Florida
- 2024MiltonSiesta Key, Florida
Named storms worked, 2001–2024, from Texas to New York.
The satellite image is courtesy of NASA and is in the public domain.
Before the impending hurricane
- Get all of your insurance policy information together.
- Photograph the inside and outside of your home, including your personal belongings. Every room, every wall, the roof, the exterior, and the contents. Put them on a drive, a disc, or in prints.
Those photographs are the single most valuable thing you can produce. They show the insurance company’s adjuster the condition of your home and your belongings prior to the loss. That is what a disagreement on a claim usually comes down to. Without them, the condition of your property before the loss becomes a matter of opinion — and proving your loss is your burden, not your insurance company’s.
Keep the policy information and the photographs together, somewhere safe and easy to reach in a hurry.
Suggested photographs and video to take
- Everything that services the dwelling. The air conditioning system and the condenser, the water heater, the electrical panel, the well or pump equipment, the generator, the irrigation, etc.
- Everything outside the walls. The pool and its equipment, the cage or enclosure, the deck, the dock, sheds and outbuildings, fencing, the driveway and the landscaping.
- Personal contents, all of them if time allows.
If you evacuate
- Take your policy and photographs with you. If the house doesn’t survive, neither do the records you left inside it.
- Bring your pets, your medications and your medical records.
- Unplug electrical items, secure the home.
- Bring everything from outside indoors if you can.
- Food, water, fuel, cash, batteries, a charged phone and first aid.
FIGA claims
Insurance companies fail, and it happens after storms more than at any other time. What is behind your policy if yours does is worth knowing now. §631.57
- FIGA stands for the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association. When a Florida-admitted insurance company is declared insolvent, it generally picks up covered claims.
- Its obligation is generally each covered claim under $300,000.
- On a homeowner’s policy there’s an additional $200,000 for the part of a covered claim relating to damage to the structure and contents.
- For a condominium or homeowners association that insures the residential units, the figure is $200,000 multiplied by the number of units. As to homeowners’ associations the statute applies that only to damage or loss to residential units and structures attached to them.
- It never owes more than the insolvent insurance company owed under your policy.
- A surplus lines carrier isn’t a member of FIGA. If it fails, there is nothing behind the policy.
- Find out which kind of company wrote your policy before a storm rather than after one. It’s on your declarations page.
Associations and businesses
- For an association, the deductible becomes an assessment. The deductible is a percentage of coverage in the declarations pages, and Florida makes it a common expense of the association. Homeowners pay this assessment. Model that in week one and bring it to the membership once, early, with the reasoning attached — not in pieces over three meetings.
- A homeowner and an association — who owns what. On a condominium that line is set by statute as well as by your declaration. §718.111
- Your building safety reports and milestone inspections get read next to your storm scope. Have them ready to go just in case they’re asked for.
- For a business, the income claim starts the day the doors close. Business interruption
Additional association and commercial claim information is located here: Commercial & Association.
Golf courses, and what’s different about them
A golf course is a commercial property with an agricultural asset attached, and a named storm hits both at once. The course is usually the bigger loss, debris removal is routinely the largest single line, and several deductibles can apply at the same time.
Additional golf course claim information is located here: Golf Courses.
Two time limitations on every loss, one yours and one the carrier’s
Your clock
- One year from the date of loss to report a hurricane claim. §627.70132
- Eighteen months from the date of loss to supplement a claim you already reported. §627.70132
- Ten days to answer a request for material claim information. Their clock pauses until you do.
Their clock
- Seven days to acknowledge anything you send. §627.70131
- Seven days to begin the investigation after receiving your proof-of-loss statements.
- Thirty days to physically inspect, from their receipt of your proof-of-loss statements.
- Seven days to send you a copy of any detailed estimate their adjuster generates.
- Sixty days to pay or deny, with a written explanation.
- Thirty additional days at most after a declared emergency.
What to look for in your policy
After the storm, get your policy and look for these items listed below.
- Your hurricane deductible, what is it?
- The endorsement titled Special Provisions — Florida. It modifies the policy and there are changes that apply after a hurricane.
- What it says about emergency measures and mitigation.
- The separate sublimit on shrink wrapping a roof, often one to two percent of your dwelling limit and commonly subject to the carrier’s written approval. Tarping is treated differently.
- Law and ordinance coverage, do I have it and how much?
- Additional living expense, how much and what are the time limits?
- Roof coverage — RCV or ACV, and whether a roof schedule applies due to age.
- Who wrote the policy. A Florida-admitted carrier or a surplus lines carrier.
- Flood policy. It’s a separate policy with a separate deductible. What flood does and doesn’t cover.
After a hurricane loss: Dos and Don’ts
Dos
- Photograph the damage before you repair anything. A tarp covers the very thing that proves your claim. Photograph first, then make the temporary repairs.
- Report it even if you’re told it falls under your deductible. Most wind damage is on the roof and none of it’s visible from the driveway. A reported claim has a number and a date and can be reopened. One you never reported has neither.
- Get written approval before anyone shrink wraps your roof. Approval obtained after the fact isn’t approval.
- Save every receipt, including food, lodging and additional utilities if you can’t live in the home.
- Pay by check or card, which leaves a paper trail the insurance company can follow.
- Confirm your contractor is licensed and insured in the state of Florida.
- Answer any of the insurance company’s requests in writing within ten days.
- Keep a record of every adjuster — name, phone and email — who has inspected your loss or handled your claim from the desk.
- Put everything in writing and keep a copy. A phone call you can’t prove is a deadline that never started.
Don’ts
- Don’t let a conversation stand in for a reported claim. If there’s no claim number and no date, nothing has been reported — that makes it more difficult to open up later when damages are worse or were hidden. No claim filed, no claim number to fall back on.
- Don’t take “it’s under your deductible” as an answer from anyone who hasn’t seen the damages for themselves.
- Don’t tarp, dry or repair before it’s photographed.
- Don’t let anyone haul the failed material away. Damaged property has to be retained so far as reasonably possible for inspection and testing.
- Don’t wait because the claim has gone quiet. The deadlines that run against you keep running the whole time.
- Don’t pay a contractor in cash. Without an acceptable invoice the insurance company may decline to reimburse you.
- Don’t accept a handwritten slip as an invoice. A proper one carries the company’s printed information, its license numbers and the date of payment.
- Don’t hand over originals. Photographs, invoices, receipts and records go to the carrier as copies.
- Don’t give a number you can’t support. Not on the phone, not in an email.
This isn’t everything. Your policy carries conditions and duties that apply after a loss, and they’re yours to meet whether or not they appear here. Read your own policy in full. If something in it doesn’t make sense, call me — it’s a twenty-minute phone call about the loss, whether or not you hire me.
These are the ones specific to this kind of loss. Select the link for the Dos and Don’ts that apply to every claim.
The call that matters
If you’ve had a loss, call or email me now rather than later. Not because you couldn’t handle it yourself, but because the decisions that determine what your claim is worth, get made in the first days — and once they’re made they’re hard to undo. Twenty minutes on the phone and I’ll tell you plainly where you stand. Your home, your investment and your livelihood are worth that.
You stay in control of your claim. That’s the whole point.