Florida Statutes for Property and Casualty on the 2-20 Exam

The claim clock: acknowledge, inspect, decide, pay

Florida runs a residential property claim on a schedule written into s. 627.70131, F.S., and the exam tests the schedule far more often than it tests coverage.

• Acknowledge any communication about a claim within 7 calendar days, unless payment is made inside that period or the delay is caused by factors beyond the insurer's control — s. 627.70131(1)(a), F.S.
• Begin the investigation within 7 days after receiving the proof-of-loss statements — s. 627.70131(3)(a), F.S.
• If the investigation requires a physical inspection, conduct it within 30 days after receiving the proof-of-loss statements — s. 627.70131(3)(b), F.S.
• Send the policyholder a copy of any detailed estimate of the amount of the loss within 7 days after that estimate is generated. The insured does not have to ask for it — s. 627.70131(3)(e), F.S.
• Pay or deny the claim, or a portion of it, within 60 days after receiving notice of an initial, reopened or supplemental claim. A late payment carries interest at the s. 55.03, F.S. rate, running from the date the claim was filed — s. 627.70131(7)(a), F.S.

Two of those numbers moved recently and older manuals still print the retired figures. Before SB 2-A (ch. 2022-271, Laws of Florida, December 2022 special session) the acknowledgment window was 14 days, not 7, and the pay-or-deny deadline was 90 days, not 60. If an answer choice offers 14 days for acknowledgment or 90 days to pay, it is quoting a repealed version of the statute.

Interim communications carry their own labels. Under s. 627.70131(6), F.S., a preliminary or partial estimate must state, in boldfaced uppercase, that it is the insurer's current evaluation and may be revised, and a payment that is not the full and final payment must say the insurer is still evaluating and may issue more. A partial payment is not a denial of the balance, and the 60-day clock keeps running on the unpaid part.

Layered on top is the Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights, s. 627.7142, F.S. For a personal lines residential property policy the insurer must hand the policyholder that document within 14 days after receiving an initial communication with respect to a claim. Read the two 14s apart: 14 days is when the document arrives, and the rights the document summarizes are the 7-day acknowledgment, a coverage confirmation within 30 days after a written request following a complete proof-of-loss statement, the estimate copy within 7 days, and full settlement or denial within 60 days. The Bill of Rights is a summary of existing law. It creates no coverage and no new duty of its own, and the statute says so.

One escape valve exists. Under s. 627.70131(5), F.S., the Office of Insurance Regulation may grant additional time when a declared emergency or similar event renders insurers unable to comply, but it may not extend the payment or denial deadline by more than 30 additional days.

Notice bar dates and the deadline to sue

Two different clocks decide whether a Florida property claim survives, and candidates lose points by treating them as one clock.

The first is the notice bar in s. 627.70132, F.S. A claim or a reopened claim is barred unless notice was given to the insurer within 1 year after the date of loss. A supplemental claim is barred unless notice was given within 18 months after the date of loss. Both run from the date of loss, not from the date the damage was discovered and not from the date the first claim was reported. Giving timely notice of the initial claim does nothing to extend the supplemental window.

The words matter because the statute defines them. A reopened claim under s. 627.70132(1)(a), F.S. is one the insurer previously closed and the insured reopens seeking additional costs for damage already disclosed. A supplemental claim under (1)(b) is a claim for additional loss or damage from the same peril the insurer already adjusted, or for costs incurred while completing repairs under an open claim. Damage nobody ever disclosed, surfacing while repairs are under way, is supplemental and gets 18 months.

Section 627.70132(3), F.S. fixes the date of loss for weather. For a hurricane it is the date the hurricane made landfall. For a tornado, windstorm, severe rain or other weather-related event it is the date the event is verified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This is the single most rewritten deadline in Florida property law, so learn the history along with the rule. Chapter 2011-39 gave 3 years for hurricane and windstorm claims. SB 76 (ch. 2021-77) replaced that with 2 years for a claim or reopened claim and 3 years for a supplemental claim, and extended the section to every peril. SB 2-A (ch. 2022-271) cut those to today's 1 year and 18 months. Any answer choice offering 2 years, 3 years, or a hurricane-only scope is quoting a superseded version.

One 3-year figure did survive, and it is new rather than old. Chapter 2024-139 added s. 627.70132(4), F.S. for loss assessment coverage under s. 627.714, F.S.: notice may never come later than 3 years after the date of loss, and it must be given by the later of 1 year after the date of loss or 90 days after the condominium or cooperative association's governing board votes to levy the assessment. The board frequently votes long after the storm, which is exactly why the general 1-year bar could not work there.

The deadlines are tolled during a term of deployment to a combat zone or combat support posting that materially affects a servicemember named insured's ability to file.

The second clock is the limitations period for suing. Section 95.11(2)(e), F.S. gives 5 years for an action for breach of a property insurance contract and expressly runs that period from the date of loss rather than from the breach. That is unusual and it is tested: a long claim investigation eats the insured's own filing window. Do not blend it with the 2-year negligence period in s. 95.11(5)(a), F.S., which HB 837 cut from 4 years in 2023, and never treat the 5-year suit period as permission to report a claim late. Blowing the 1-year notice bar kills the claim years before the 5 years expire.

Sinkhole loss versus catastrophic ground cover collapse

Florida splits ground movement into a coverage every property policy must contain and a coverage the insurer must merely offer. Section 627.706, F.S. is the whole framework, and it is one of the most heavily tested items on the 2-20 exam.

Catastrophic ground cover collapse is mandatory. Every authorized insurer writing property insurance in Florida must include it, and it cannot be removed. It is also defined so narrowly that most sinkhole damage fails it. All four elements must be present:

• The abrupt collapse of the ground cover.
• A depression in the ground cover clearly visible to the naked eye.
• Structural damage to the covered building, including the foundation.
• The insured structure being condemned and ordered to be vacated by the governmental agency authorized to issue such an order.

Sinkhole loss coverage is optional. The insurer must make it available for an appropriate additional premium on personal and commercial residential structures and contents, and the policyholder may take it or decline it. It reaches structural damage caused by sinkhole activity without any condemnation requirement, which is why it is the coverage that actually pays. For a residential structure the policyholder may select a sinkhole deductible of 1, 2, 5 or 10 percent of the dwelling limit, each with its own premium discount.

Sinkhole activity means settlement or systematic weakening of the earth supporting the building, but only where that settlement or weakening results from contemporaneous movement or raveling of soils, sediments or rock materials into subterranean voids created by the dissolution of limestone or similar rock. Structural damage has its own five-part statutory definition in s. 627.706(2), F.S., built around interior floor displacement, foundation displacement, exterior wall listing, imminent collapse and the Florida Building Code definition of substantial structural damage. A hairline crack in the drywall is not structural damage.

The notice deadline is the great exception in Florida property law. Section 627.706(5), F.S. bars any sinkhole claim — initial, supplemental or reopened — unless notice was given within 2 years after the policyholder knew or reasonably should have known about the sinkhole loss. The clock runs from discovery, not from the date of loss, because subsidence develops invisibly over years. Contrast s. 627.70132, F.S., where 1 year and 18 months both run from the date of loss.

Two procedures follow the claim.

• Testing on demand. Under s. 627.707, F.S. the insurer may deny a sinkhole claim without ordering the s. 627.7072, F.S. testing if it determines there is no sinkhole loss. The policyholder may then force the testing by written demand within 60 days after receiving the denial, paying 50 percent of the actual cost or $2,500, whichever is less. If the testing confirms a sinkhole loss, the insurer reimburses her.
• The actual cash value holdback. Section 627.707(5), F.S. lets the insurer limit its total payment to the actual cash value of the sinkhole loss, not including underpinning or grouting, until the policyholder enters into a contract for the recommended building stabilization and foundation repairs. She has 90 days after the insurer confirms coverage to sign that contract, and those 90 days are tolled if either party invokes neutral evaluation.

Neutral evaluation, s. 627.7074, F.S., is the sinkhole dispute route. Either party may request it through the Department of Financial Services, participation is mandatory once it is requested, the insurer pays the reasonable costs, and the evaluator's recommendation is not binding on anyone. Filing a request tolls the time to file suit for 60 days after the process concludes or the period in s. 95.11, F.S., whichever is later.

Hurricane: when it starts, when it ends, what deductible applies

Before you can apply a hurricane deductible you have to know when the hurricane legally exists, and Florida answers that with a bulletin schedule rather than with wind speed.

Section 627.4025(2)(c), F.S. as rewritten by ch. 2023-130, Laws of Florida, says the duration of the hurricane in Florida begins when a hurricane warning is issued for any part of Florida by the National Hurricane Center, and ends 72 hours following the termination of the last hurricane watch or hurricane warning issued for any part of Florida. The two triggers are deliberately asymmetrical. Only a warning starts the period, but a watch alone is enough to hold the tail end open, and the 72-hour tail is what pulls late rain-band damage into the hurricane deductible. Older manuals still print a watch-or-warning start trigger and a clause continuing the duration for as long as hurricane conditions existed anywhere in Florida; ch. 2023-130 deleted both.

Hurricane coverage itself is coverage for loss caused by the peril of windstorm during a hurricane, and windstorm for this purpose includes wind, wind gusts, hail, rain, tornadoes or cyclones caused by or resulting from a hurricane.

The deductible menu for personal lines residential sits in s. 627.701(3), F.S., and the exam tests the carve-outs rather than the base list.

• The base offer in (3)(a) is $500 and 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of the policy dwelling limits.
• At dwelling limits of $250,000 or more, (3)(d)1. relieves the insurer of the duty to offer the $500 deductible. The three percentages remain mandatory.
• Between $100,000 and $250,000, (3)(c) lets the insurer offer, in lieu of the $500 deductible, a guarantee that it will not nonrenew for one renewal period if the insured accepts a deductible of up to 2 percent.
• From $1 million to under $3 million, (3)(d)2. lets a 3 percent deductible replace the 2 percent one.
• At $3 million or more, (3)(d)3. drops the 2 percent offer entirely.

Disclosure is a two-part rule in s. 627.701(4), F.S. Paragraph (a) requires the policy to carry on its face, in boldfaced type no smaller than 18 points, the warning that the policy contains a separate deductible for hurricane losses which may result in high out-of-pocket expenses. Paragraph (b) separately requires the insurer to compute and prominently display the actual dollar value of that deductible on the declarations page.

Application is annual, not per storm. Under s. 627.701(5)(a), F.S. the personal lines residential hurricane deductible applies on a calendar-year basis to all covered hurricane losses that year. Once it has been absorbed, a later hurricane in the same year takes the greater of what remains of the hurricane deductible or the all-other-perils deductible — so there is always some deductible, never zero. Commercial residential is different: s. 627.701(5)(b), F.S. requires the insurer to make available both an annual hurricane deductible and one that applies to each hurricane.

The separate roof deductible in s. 627.701(10), F.S. is new law, created by SB 2-D (ch. 2022-268, Laws of Florida, May 2022 special session) and not by SB 2-A. It may not exceed the lesser of 2 percent of the Coverage A limit or 50 percent of the cost to replace the roof — take the smaller of the two figures, every time. It may be applied only to a claim adjusted on a replacement cost basis, the premium must include an actuarially sound credit or discount for it, and the policyholder may reject it on an office-approved form. It may not be applied at all to a total loss under the valued policy law, a roof loss resulting from a hurricane, a roof loss from a tree or other hazard that punctures the roof deck, or a repair of less than 50 percent of the roof. When the roof deductible does apply, no other deductible in the policy applies to that loss.

Windstorm coverage, the exclusion statement, and mitigation credits

A residential property insurer in Florida must provide windstorm coverage. Section 627.712, F.S. permits an exclusion only through a ritual the statute scripts word for word, and the exam tests the ritual.

The policyholder must personally write or type, sign and date the exact statutory statement. For a natural person insuring a home it reads: I do not want the insurance on my home to pay for damage from windstorms. I will pay those costs. My insurance will not. The wording is fixed; she may type it instead of handwriting it, but she may not paraphrase it. Every named insured must sign. If the property is subject to a mortgage or lien, the insurer must also obtain the mortgageholder's or lienholder's written approval of the election. A properly executed statement creates a presumption of an informed, knowing rejection of coverage. The insurer keeps the original and gives the policyholder a copy.

A parallel election lets a policyholder exclude windstorm coverage on contents only, using its own scripted statement. That contents-only option is not available on a condominium unit owner policy or a tenant policy.

Compare this with the uninsured motorist rejection in s. 627.727, F.S., which uses an office-approved form. Windstorm turns on the insured's own written or typed statutory sentence; UM turns on a filed form. Answer choices swap the two mechanisms constantly.

Going the other direction, Florida pays homeowners to strengthen the building. Section 627.0629, F.S. requires every residential property insurance rate filing to include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits or other rate differentials, or appropriate reductions in deductibles, for properties with fixtures or construction techniques demonstrated to reduce loss in a windstorm. The named categories are improved roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, wall-to-floor-to-foundation strength, opening protection, and window, door and skylight strength. The credit is actuarially determined in each filing rather than fixed by statute, and it is mandatory rather than optional. Insurers must also make hurricane mitigation discount information available on their websites.

The paperwork side is s. 627.711, F.S. The insurer must clearly notify the applicant or policyholder, at issuance and at each renewal, of the availability and the range of each hurricane loss mitigation discount, on a form prescribed by the Office of Insurance Regulation. The uniform mitigation verification form may be signed only by a statutorily qualified inspector:

• A home inspector licensed under ch. 468, F.S. who has completed at least 3 hours of hurricane mitigation training.
• A building code inspector certified under s. 468.607, F.S.
• A licensed general, building or residential contractor.
• A professional engineer.
• A professional architect.
• Any other individual or entity the insurer recognizes as possessing the necessary qualifications.

A licensed general lines agent is not on that list, no matter how much mitigation training the agent has taken. The inspector must personally inspect the structure and may not offer or deliver any compensation, inducement or reward to an insurance agency for referring properties, and an agent may not accept one. Knowingly providing a false or fraudulent mitigation verification form to obtain a discount not in fact warranted is a first-degree misdemeanor.

Replacement cost, law and ordinance, valued policy, roof age

Section 627.7011, F.S. governs how a Florida dwelling loss is valued and paid, and it runs opposite to the countrywide instinct at almost every step.

Law and ordinance coverage is opt-out, not opt-in. Before issuing a homeowner's policy the insurer must offer replacement cost coverage excluding law and ordinance costs, and replacement cost coverage including the costs necessary to meet applicable laws and ordinances, limited to 25 percent or 50 percent of the dwelling limit as the policyholder selects. Then s. 627.7011(2), F.S. supplies the default: unless the insurer obtains the policyholder's written refusal of those offers, any policy covering the dwelling is deemed to include law and ordinance coverage limited to 25 percent of the dwelling limit. No signature, no refusal — the 25 percent rides on the policy by operation of law. The 50 percent option exists but must be affirmatively selected. An insurer whose form already builds in the 25 percent need only offer the 50 percent option.

Payment on a partial dwelling loss follows a sequence set by s. 627.7011(3)(a), F.S. The insurer must initially pay at least the actual cash value of the insured loss, less any applicable deductible, and must then pay the remaining amounts necessary to perform the repairs as the work is performed and the expenses are incurred. The insured is not required to finance the repair or sign a contract first. Three qualifications matter:

• If a separate roof deductible under s. 627.701(10), F.S. was applied, the insurer may limit the roof payment to actual cash value until it receives reasonable proof the policyholder paid that deductible — a canceled check, money order receipt, credit card statement or executed financing agreement.
• On a total loss of the dwelling the insurer must pay the replacement cost coverage without reservation or holdback of any depreciation.
• Personal property is different. Section 627.7011(3)(b), F.S. requires the insurer to offer contents coverage that pays replacement cost without reservation or holdback for depreciation, whether or not the insured actually replaces the property.

The valued policy law, s. 627.702, F.S., is a separate rule for total losses. On the total loss of an insured building caused by a covered peril, the insurer's liability is the amount of money for which the property was insured as specified in the policy and for which a premium was charged and paid. The face amount controls; the adjuster's actual cash value figure does not. Three limits sit around it. Subsection (1)(b) withdraws the rule where the loss was caused partly by a covered peril and partly by a noncovered one, unless the covered perils alone would have caused the total loss, in which case only the covered portion is owed. The insurer is never liable for more than the amount necessary to repair, rebuild or replace the structure. And s. 627.702(7), F.S. lets the insurer repair or replace the damaged property at its own expense and without contribution from the insured, in lieu of the liability created by subsection (1), returning unearned premium on limits above the cost of repair.

Roof age underwriting was restricted by SB 2-D (ch. 2022-268, Laws of Florida), and s. 627.7011(5), F.S. protects roofs in two tiers. An insurer may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew a homeowner's policy on a structure with a roof less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof. For a roof 15 years old or older, the insurer must allow the homeowner to obtain a roof inspection by an authorized inspector, at the homeowner's own expense, before requiring replacement as a condition of coverage — and if that inspection indicates the roof has 5 years or more of useful life remaining, the insurer may not refuse to issue or renew solely because of roof age. The protection is against refusal solely for age. Genuine condition problems and other underwriting reasons stay available.

Finally, matching. Section 626.9744, F.S. provides that unless otherwise provided by the policy, when a loss requires replacement of items and the replaced items do not match in quality, color or size, the insurer shall make reasonable repairs or replacement of items in adjoining areas. The insurer may weigh the cost of repairing or replacing undamaged portions, the degree of uniformity achievable without that cost, the remaining useful life of the undamaged portion, and other relevant factors. Florida writes adjoining areas and reasonableness — not the line-of-sight test used elsewhere — and the section does not make the insurer a warrantor of its repairs.

Citizens Property Insurance and the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund

Two state entities backstop the Florida property market, and the exam rewards knowing that they do opposite jobs. Citizens insures consumers. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund reinsures insurers.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is created by s. 627.351(6), F.S. as a government entity and a residual market of last resort. It writes personal residential, commercial residential and commercial nonresidential coverage, and in designated wind-eligible areas it writes wind-only policies. Eligibility is tested continuously, not fixed at issuance, and it turns on the private market.

• The offer test. A risk is not eligible for Citizens if an authorized insurer offers comparable coverage at a premium that is not more than 20 percent greater than the Citizens premium. Read the direction carefully: the private offer must be more than 20 percent higher than Citizens for the applicant to stay eligible. A private quote 17 percent higher makes her ineligible. That threshold was 15 percent before the December 2022 special session, and older manuals still print 15.
• The clearinghouse. Section 627.3518, F.S. applies the same eligibility test to offers made through the Citizens policyholder eligibility clearinghouse at renewal, not just to new applications.
• The value cap. Under s. 627.351(6)(a)3., F.S. a personal lines residential structure with a dwelling replacement cost of $700,000 or more is ineligible. In counties where the Office of Insurance Regulation has determined that a reasonable degree of competition does not exist, a structure with a dwelling replacement cost of less than $1 million remains eligible.
• Opening protection. A personal lines residential structure in the wind-borne debris region with an insured value on the structure of $750,000 or more is ineligible unless it has opening protections required under the Florida Building Code.
• Flood. SB 2-A added a flood insurance condition for Citizens personal lines residential policyholders with wind coverage. A structure in a special flood hazard area must carry flood coverage regardless of what it is worth. Outside those areas the requirement phases in by dwelling replacement cost: January 1, 2024 at $600,000 or more, January 1, 2025 at $500,000 or more, January 1, 2026 at $400,000 or more, and January 1, 2027 for all others required to obtain it. Condominium unit owner policies, tenant contents policies and policies that exclude windstorm or hail are outside the requirement.
• Rates. Citizens rates must be actuarially sound and noncompetitive, and an individual policyholder's annual rate increase is capped by the statutory glide path. The cap rose one point a year — 11 percent in 2022, 12 in 2023, 13 in 2024, 14 in 2025 — reaching 15 percent for 2026, which is where it now sits.

If Citizens runs a deficit it levies Citizens policyholder surcharges first, then regular assessments on other insurers, and then emergency assessments collected from policyholders across most property and casualty lines.

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, s. 215.555, F.S., is a tax-exempt trust fund administered by the State Board of Administration. It is not a guaranty fund and it never pays a policyholder. It reimburses insurers, functioning as mandatory state reinsurance sold below private market cost.

• Participation is compulsory. As a condition of doing business in Florida, every insurer writing covered residential policies must enter into a reimbursement contract with the board. Buying private reinsurance does not excuse the contract.
• A covered event is any one storm declared to be a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center that causes insured losses in Florida. Tornado, hail and ordinary windstorm losses outside a declared hurricane are not covered events.
• Each insurer selects a reimbursement percentage of 45, 75 or 90 percent of its losses above its retention, plus a loss adjustment expense factor.
• When fund obligations exceed its resources the board may direct emergency assessments on most property and casualty premium. Workers' compensation, medical malpractice and federal flood premium are excluded.

FIGA: what happens when the carrier fails

The Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, ch. 631, part II, F.S., is the property and casualty safety net. Every authorized insurer writing the covered lines must be a member as a condition of its certificate of authority. FIGA is not insurance the consumer buys and its existence may not be advertised to sell a policy.

FIGA pays covered claims. Section 631.57(1)(a), F.S. defines the obligation, and the numbers are the tested part.

• The general obligation is the amount of each covered claim which is less than $300,000.
• For a homeowner's insurance claim there is an ADDITIONAL $200,000 for the portion of the covered claim relating only to damage to the structure and contents. That produces a $500,000 ceiling for a homeowner's structure-and-contents loss.
• For a condominium association or homeowners association whose policy insures residential units, the obligation reaches each covered claim less than $200,000 multiplied by the number of condominium units or other residential units.
• FIGA is never obligated for more than the insolvent insurer owed under the policy. The caps are ceilings, not entitlements, and FIGA is not liable for penalties or interest.

A $100 deductible on covered claims is the single most persistent stale number in Florida study material. It was real law once, it is gone, and the current text of s. 631.57, F.S. contains no $100 figure at all. If an option offers a claim amount minus $100, it is quoting a repealed provision.

FIGA becomes the insurer to the extent of its obligation and takes the insolvent insurer's rights, duties and defenses. Claim filing runs through the receivership process, and a claim must be filed before the bar date fixed in the delinquency proceeding.

Funding is by assessment on member insurers, which is why the exam pairs FIGA with the phrase post-insolvency assessment. Under s. 631.57(3), F.S. a regular assessment on a member insurer may not exceed 2 percent of that insurer's direct written premium in Florida for the kinds of insurance in the account. For hurricane-related insolvencies the association may levy an emergency assessment of up to 4 percent per calendar year. Assessments are recouped from policyholders through a surcharge on premium, which is why a policyholder can see a FIGA line item on a renewal for an insolvency at a company she never insured with.

Keep the three state mechanisms straight, because a single stem often mentions two of them:

• FIGA pays the policyholder of an insolvent property and casualty insurer, subject to the caps above.
• The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund reimburses a solvent insurer for hurricane losses above its retention and never contacts a policyholder.
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation issues the policy in the first place when the private market will not.

No-fault: PIP, UM, and the Florida auto statutes

Florida is still a no-fault state. Repeal bills have been filed session after session and none has become law, so personal injury protection under s. 627.736, F.S. remains the core of the Florida auto exam.

To register a private passenger vehicle in Florida the owner needs $10,000 of PIP and $10,000 of property damage liability. Bodily injury liability is not required to register. It becomes compulsory only when the financial responsibility law of ch. 324, F.S. is triggered — after an at-fault crash causing injury or certain convictions — and then s. 324.021(7), F.S. sets the familiar 10/20/10: $10,000 per person and $20,000 per crash for bodily injury, and $10,000 for property damage. Section 324.022(1), F.S. allows a $30,000 combined single limit alternative.

PIP benefits break down as follows:

• 80 percent of reasonable and medically necessary medical, surgical, X-ray, dental and rehabilitative expenses.
• 60 percent of loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity.
• All reasonable expenses for replacement services.
• A $5,000 death benefit per individual, which sits outside the $10,000 and is not eroded by it.
• Medical and disability benefits share a single $10,000 aggregate limit. Every dollar of wage loss paid reduces what remains for medical bills.

Two conditions gate the medical benefit and both are heavily tested. First, the 14-day rule in s. 627.736(1)(a), F.S.: initial services and care must be lawfully provided, supervised, ordered or prescribed within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident. Care first sought on day 19 forfeits the medical benefit no matter how reasonable the expense. Qualifying providers include physicians under chs. 458 and 459, dentists under ch. 466, chiropractic physicians under ch. 460, advanced practice registered nurses, hospitals and facilities, and licensed emergency transportation and treatment providers. Second, the emergency medical condition rule: the full $10,000 is available only where a physician, dentist, physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse determines the injured person had an emergency medical condition. If a qualified provider determines there was none, medical reimbursement is capped at $2,500. Massage therapy and acupuncture are excluded regardless of who provides or prescribes them.

Timing rules follow. PIP benefits are overdue if not paid within 30 days after the insurer is furnished written notice of the fact of a covered loss and the amount, and overdue benefits bear simple interest at the s. 55.03, F.S. rate. But overdue does not mean immediately suable: s. 627.736(10), F.S. requires a written presuit demand letter as a condition precedent, and the insurer then has 30 days to pay the overdue amount plus interest and a 10 percent penalty capped at $250, which ends the matter. On the provider side, s. 627.736(5)(c), F.S. bars a statement of charges from reaching back more than 35 days before its postmark date, extended to 75 days if the provider gave notice of initiation of treatment within 21 days after the first examination.

Uninsured motorist coverage is s. 627.727, F.S. and it attaches automatically. No motor vehicle liability policy providing bodily injury liability coverage may be delivered in Florida unless UM is included at limits not less than the bodily injury liability limits the named insured purchased. It is inapplicable only when the named insured rejects it or selects lower limits in writing on a form approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation. A signed form is conclusively presumed to be an informed, knowing rejection on behalf of all insureds, and it carries forward to renewals, extensions and replacements unless the insured requests coverage or higher limits in writing. An oral instruction to an agent is not a rejection, and that is the single most litigated agent error in Florida auto. Section 627.727(6)(a), F.S. adds the consent-to-settle rule: when the insured proposes to settle with the liability insurer for less than full compensation, written notice by certified or registered mail goes to each underinsured motorist insurer, which then has 30 days to refuse permission and pay the injured party the amount of the liability insurer's offer, preserving its subrogation rights.

Several smaller auto statutes generate their own questions:

• Section 627.7288, F.S. — the comprehensive or combined additional coverage deductible does not apply to windshield damage. Side glass, rear glass and sunroofs are not protected.
• Section 627.4132, F.S. — antistacking. An insured is protected only to the extent of the coverage on the vehicle involved in the accident. The section expressly does not apply to uninsured motorist coverage.
• Section 627.7263, F.S. — the lessor's liability and PIP coverage on a rented or leased vehicle is primary unless the rental or lease agreement states otherwise in at least 10-point type on its face.
• Section 324.0221(1), F.S. — an insurer must report cancellation or nonrenewal of PIP or property damage liability coverage to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles within 10 days after the processing date or effective date. Not to DFS.
• Section 627.7295(5), F.S. — a licensed general lines agent may charge a per-policy fee of up to $10, which is not part of the premium and is fully earned, but only where the policy covers PIP and property damage liability and no other insurance is sold with it.
• Section 627.744, F.S. — a preinsurance inspection is required before physical damage coverage is written on a private passenger vehicle in the designated counties, with exceptions including a new unused vehicle bought from a licensed dealer, a vehicle 10 or more years old, renewals, and an applicant with verified continuous coverage.

Cancellation, nonrenewal, and changing policy terms

Ending or altering a Florida policy is a notice problem, and the notice period depends entirely on the line of business. Candidates who memorize one number and apply it everywhere lose these questions.

Section 627.4133(1), F.S. is the general rule and covers everything except personal lines and commercial lines residential property — a commercial general liability policy, a commercial auto policy, a general property and casualty policy. It requires at least 45 days' advance written notice of nonrenewal or of the renewal premium to the first-named insured, and a nonrenewal notice must state the reasons.

Section 627.4133(2)(b), F.S. is the residential exception, and it tiers the notice by ground:

• 10 days for cancellation for nonpayment of premium.
• 20 days for cancellation where the policy has been in effect 60 days or less and is not a renewal, absent a material misstatement or misrepresentation.
• 45 days for grounds such as a material misstatement, fraud relating to the claim, the insured's unreasonable delay in repairing the dwelling, or exhaustion of policy limits.
• 120 days for a general notice of nonrenewal, cancellation or termination.

The 120-day figure is the one everybody memorizes and the one most often misapplied. It belongs only to personal lines and commercial lines residential property. Private passenger automobile has its own statute entirely: s. 627.728, F.S. requires at least 45 days' advance notice of intention not to renew with the reasons accompanying it, and 10 days for nonpayment. Watch how differently the 60-day mark works in the two statutes. Under s. 627.4133 it triggers the shortened 20-day cancellation notice on a new residential policy. Under s. 627.728 there is no 20-day notice at all; there the 60-day mark instead determines which grounds for cancellation are available, because the enumerated-grounds restriction does not reach a policy in effect less than 60 days unless it is a renewal.

After a storm the clock stops. Section 627.4133(2)(e), F.S. bars an authorized insurer from canceling or nonrenewing a personal residential or commercial residential property policy for 90 days after the dwelling or residential property has been repaired, where the property was damaged as a result of a hurricane or wind loss that is the subject of a declaration of emergency under s. 252.36, F.S. and the filing of an order by the Commissioner of Insurance Regulation. The 90 days runs from completion of repairs, not from landfall, so a long repair period extends the protection. Where a covered peril caused the damage but that emergency predicate is missing — including a hurricane that produced no emergency declaration — the bar instead runs until the earlier of the date the property is repaired or 1 year after the insurer issues its final claim payment.

Neither moratorium is absolute. The insurer may still cancel on 10 days' notice for nonpayment of premium, or on 45 days' notice for a material misstatement or fraud relating to the claim, for the insured's unreasonable delay in making repairs, or where the policy limits have been paid. Once the moratorium runs out, the insurer may nonrenew for any reason it otherwise could have used, on the ordinary 120 days' notice.

Changing the deal mid-stream is its own notice event. Section 627.43141, F.S. defines a change in policy terms as the modification, addition or deletion of any term, coverage, duty or condition from the previous policy, and requires the insurer to give the named insured a Notice of Change in Policy Terms within the same timeframe the Insurance Code requires for a notice of nonrenewal on that line — 120 days for personal lines residential property. A sample must go to the agent before or at the same time. If the insurer fails to give proper notice, the original policy terms remain in effect until the next renewal and proper service of the notice, or until the effective date of replacement coverage the insured obtains, whichever comes first. Ordinary contract acceptance principles do not save the insurer here: the insured's silence does not cure the missing notice.

Getting to court: presuit notice, AOB, fees, bad faith, comparative fault

A property dispute in Florida now runs through a statutory gate, and four related reforms changed the economics of the suit that follows. Each one replaced a rule that candidates still study from, so learn the pair.

The gate is s. 627.70152, F.S. It applies exclusively to suits arising under a residential or commercial property insurance policy, including policies from eligible surplus lines insurers, and it makes a written notice of intent to initiate litigation a condition precedent to filing. The notice is filed with the Department of Financial Services on the department's form, and it must identify itself as a notice under that section, state the alleged acts or omissions, and set out the presuit settlement demand with an estimate of damages where coverage was denied. It may not be filed before the insurer has made a coverage determination under s. 627.70131, F.S., and it must be served at least 10 business days before suit. The insurer must respond in writing within 10 business days; where the notice concerns a denial it may accept coverage, continue to deny, or assert its right to reinspect the property, and asserting reinspection gives it 14 more business days to reinspect and then accept or continue denying. Appraisal is a policy provision, not a statutory prerequisite, and mediation is an alternative rather than a gate.

Assignment of benefits is over for new policies. Section 627.7152(13), F.S. provides that a policyholder may not assign, in whole or in part, any post-loss insurance benefit under any residential or commercial property insurance policy issued on or after January 1, 2023, and that any such assignment is void, invalid and unenforceable. The old machinery still exists in the statute and still governs assignments under policies issued before that date: a written agreement, a 14-day rescission right, an itemized estimate, delivery of the executed agreement to the insurer within 3 business days, and the bold-type consumer warning. For a 2024 or 2026 policy none of that matters, because the assignment is void no matter how carefully it was drafted.

Attorney fees moved the other way. HB 837 (ch. 2023-15, Laws of Florida, effective March 24, 2023) repealed s. 627.428 and s. 626.9373, F.S., ending the one-way fee award that for decades let a prevailing insured collect fees from the insurer in essentially any coverage suit. The narrow replacement is s. 86.121, F.S., which permits a fee award to a named insured, omnibus insured or named beneficiary who obtains a declaratory judgment on coverage after a total coverage denial — and which states expressly that it does not apply to any action arising under a residential or commercial property insurance policy. A property insured is therefore left with general law: the offer of judgment statute, s. 768.79, F.S., and the s. 57.105, F.S. sanction. Note also that a defense under a reservation of rights is not a total coverage denial. Separately, SB 2-A repealed the fee formula in former s. 627.70152(8), F.S. while leaving the presuit notice machinery of that section standing.

Bad faith has two clocks and the exam mixes them. Section 624.155(3), F.S. still requires a civil remedy notice, filed with DFS on the department's form and served on the insurer, specifying the statutory provision allegedly violated, the facts and circumstances, and the relevant policy language. It gives the insurer 60 days to cure, and no action lies if within that window the damages are paid or the circumstances giving rise to the violation are corrected. HB 837 then added s. 624.155(4), F.S., a safe harbor: no bad faith action on a liability claim, statutory or common law, lies where the insurer tenders the lesser of the policy limits or the amount demanded within 90 days after receiving actual notice of a claim accompanied by evidence sufficient to support the amount claimed. Failing to tender within 90 days does not create liability by itself; it merely extends any applicable statute of limitations by 90 days. Section 624.155(5), F.S. adds that mere negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith and lets the trier of fact reduce an award to reflect the insured's or claimant's own failure to act in good faith. Sixty days is the cure period; ninety days is the tender window.

Comparative negligence flipped in the same act. Section 768.81(6), F.S. now provides that any party found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm may not recover any damages. Under the pure comparative rule Florida applied before, a plaintiff 55 percent at fault still collected 45 percent of her damages, and that remains the answer most older practice banks key. Two limits matter: the bar does not apply to a personal injury or wrongful death action arising out of medical negligence under ch. 766, F.S., and the applicability clause of ch. 2023-15 reaches causes of action filed after the effective date rather than turning on when the claim accrued or when the case is tried.

Two consensual alternatives survive alongside all of this. Mediation under s. 627.7015, F.S. is nonadversarial and nonbinding, the insurer bears the cost, it covers first-party residential and commercial residential property claims, and a written settlement becomes binding only after 3 business days pass without rescission — the policyholder losing that right once she cashes or deposits a settlement check. The insurer must notify the policyholder of the right to mediate at issuance, at renewal, and when a first-party claim is filed, and claims are ineligible where fraud is suspected, there is no coverage, material misrepresentation is alleged, or the disputed amount is under $500 unless the parties agree otherwise. And s. 627.70154, F.S., created by SB 2-A, permits a mandatory binding arbitration requirement only where all five conditions are met: the requirement sits in a separate endorsement attached to the policy; the premium includes an actuarially sound credit or discount for that endorsement; the policyholder signs a form electing arbitration that discloses the rights being given up, including the right to a trial by jury; the endorsement establishes that the insurer will comply with s. 627.7015 mediation before arbitration is initiated; and the insurer also offers that policyholder a policy that does not require arbitration.