Florida insurance law changes 2023: what the reforms mean for your home

The four bills, in order

1. Shorter deadlines to report a claim

Before 2021, Florida’s statutory notice deadline applied only to hurricane and windstorm claims, which had to be reported within 3 years of landfall. SB 76 extended a deadline to every peril and set it at 2 years for new and reopened claims and 3 years for supplemental claims.

SB 2-A shortened those windows again. Under the current section 627.70132, notice of a new or reopened claim must be given within 1 year after the date of loss, and notice of a supplemental claim within 18 months. For weather events, the date of loss is the landfall date or the date NOAA verifies the event. Most commentators read the shorter windows as applying to losses after SB 2-A took effect on December 16, 2022; older losses may fall under the earlier versions. The deadlines are paused for service members deployed to a combat zone.

2. Faster deadlines for insurers

SB 2-A and related 2022–2023 amendments also tightened the insurer’s side of the clock in section 627.70131. Under the current statute, an insurer must generally:

• Acknowledge a claim communication within 7 days (previously 14).
• Complete any physical inspection within 30 days after receiving proof-of-loss statements, with the adjuster identified by name and license number.
• Provide the policyholder a copy of any detailed estimate within 7 days after it is generated.
• Pay or deny a residential claim within 60 days (previously 90), with statutory interest on late payments.

These are summarized in the Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights your insurer sends after you report a claim.

3. Attorney fees: the biggest practical change

For decades, Florida’s “one-way” attorney fee statutes (section 627.428 for admitted insurers and section 626.9373 for surplus lines insurers) generally required an insurer that lost a coverage lawsuit to pay the policyholder’s reasonable attorney fees. SB 2-A removed that right for suits under residential and commercial property policies, and HB 837 repealed section 627.428 outright in March 2023.

What that means now:

• For newer policies, each side generally pays its own lawyer, even if the homeowner wins.
• Most property insurance lawyers who represent homeowners now work on contingency fee agreements paid from the recovery, so the fee comes out of what you collect rather than from the insurer on top of it.
• Which fee rule applies to an older claim can depend on when the policy was issued, and Florida courts have addressed that question in recent cases. A lawyer can tell you which regime your policy falls under.
• Florida’s general offer-of-judgment statute (s. 768.79) can still shift fees in some cases, in either direction.

4. Assignment of benefits ended for new policies

Contractors used to ask homeowners to sign an “assignment of benefits” (AOB), letting the contractor deal with — and sue — the insurer directly. After a 2019 law limited AOBs, SB 2-A went further: under section 627.7152(13), a policyholder may not assign post-loss benefits under any residential or commercial property policy issued on or after January 1, 2023, and any attempt is void. Narrow exceptions remain, such as a later purchaser of the property and certain powers of attorney.

5. Pre-suit notice before any lawsuit

SB 76 created section 627.70152. Before suing a property insurer, the policyholder must give written notice on a Department of Financial Services form at least 10 business days before filing, and only after the insurer has made its coverage decision. The notice includes an estimate of damages or a presuit demand. The insurer then has 10 business days to respond: it can pay, offer to settle, reinspect, or require appraisal or another dispute resolution method. A lawsuit filed without proper notice must be dismissed without prejudice.

6. New rules for bad-faith claims

A “bad faith” claim seeks damages beyond the policy benefits when an insurer does not try in good faith to settle. Two changes matter for homeowners:

• Breach first. Under section 624.1551, created in 2022, a bad-faith claim against a property insurer cannot proceed until a court has found that the insurer breached the policy and entered final judgment. Paying an appraisal award or accepting an offer of judgment does not count.
• Higher bar. HB 837 added to section 624.155 that mere negligence alone is not bad faith, and the trier of fact may consider whether the claimant acted in good faith too. A civil remedy notice to DFS still must be filed at least 60 days before a statutory bad-faith suit, and for residential property claims it cannot be filed within 60 days after appraisal is invoked.

7. Roof rules from the May 2022 session

• Insurers may not refuse to write or renew a home policy solely because the roof is under 15 years old; older roofs can qualify with an inspection showing 5 or more years of useful life (s. 627.7011(5)), for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2022.
• Insurers may offer a separate roof deductible of up to the lesser of 2% of Coverage A or 50% of the roof replacement cost, with a premium credit and a right to opt out (s. 627.701(10)). It does not apply to hurricane losses or total losses.
• For roofs built to the 2007 Florida Building Code or later, repairing 25% or more of the roof no longer automatically requires replacing the whole roof (s. 553.844(5)).

Details are in our guide to Florida roof and hurricane insurance rules.

8. Citizens changes

SB 2-A also made Citizens Property Insurance Corporation harder to stay in: policyholders become ineligible if a private insurer offers comparable coverage at a premium no more than 20% higher, and Citizens policies with wind coverage must carry flood insurance on a schedule that reaches all such policies on January 1, 2027. See our Citizens Property Insurance claim guide.

9. Optional binding arbitration endorsements

SB 2-A allows insurers to offer a binding arbitration endorsement (s. 627.70154). It must be a separate endorsement you elect in writing, the insurer must also offer a policy without it, and the premium must reflect a credit. If you signed one, disputes may go to arbitration instead of court, after state mediation procedures. Check your declarations page and endorsements.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides