- Your claim-reporting deadline
- 1 year
- From the date of loss, for new or reopened claims (FS 627.70132). Supplemental claims: 18 months. No grace period.
- Insurer's pay-or-deny clock
- 60 days
- From notice of claim (FS 627.70131) — with a 7-day acknowledgment and 30-day inspection deadline along the way.
- Post-storm contract cancellation right
- 10 days
- After a declared emergency, cancel a roofing contract within 10 days of signing or before work starts — whichever comes first (FS 489.147(6)).
- The evidence window
- 72 hours
- Not a legal deadline — the practical window before cleanup, weather, and tarps erase what the storm actually did.
Hours 0–2: what comes before the first photo?
Many carriers now fly their own drones anyway — your phone's zoom from the ground is enough to start the record. If you worked through our hurricane roof prep checklist before landfall, your pre-storm baseline photos are already saved. Every "after" shot you take in the next 72 hours pairs with a "before" — the cleanest possible answer to a pre-existing-damage argument.
This page is general information for Florida homeowners, current as of August 2026 — not legal or insurance advice, and not an encouragement to file an insurance claim. Whether to file is your decision, made with your policy and your agent. Verify specifics with your own policy, your agent, or the Florida Department of Financial Services.
Hours 2–24: what photos and video does the adjuster actually want?
| What to capture (hours 2–24) | Why the adjuster needs it |
|---|---|
| Wide shots of every roof slope and all four exterior elevations | Establishes overall condition and locates each damage point on the structure. |
| Close-ups of each damage point — missing or creased shingles, exposed underlayment, dented vents and flashing | Documents scope; creased shingles and dented metal are wind signatures that separate storm damage from wear. |
| Interior of every affected room — ceiling stains, wet drywall, wet flooring | Ties interior water damage to the roof opening; hurricane coverage includes ensuing interior rain damage when wind first creates an opening (FS 627.4025). |
| A video walkthrough narrating the date, storm name, and address | Adds a timestamped narrative record on top of your photo metadata. |
| Fallen debris, tree limbs, and displaced items — before anything is moved | Preserves causation evidence; don't discard damaged items until the adjuster has seen them. |
| Material samples — shingle fragments, a square of wet carpet | Physical proof of installed materials and damage if disposal can't wait. |
This shot list is adjuster-practice consensus, not a statutory requirement — no Florida law dictates your photo count, but a thin record is the most common opening for a scope dispute.
Two practical notes. Your smartphone already timestamps every photo in its metadata, so keep the originals — screenshots and edited copies strip that data. And if you own a drone, you may fly it over your own property for personal documentation under the FAA's recreational exception (registration required over 250 grams) — but any businessuse, including a roofer's "free drone inspection," requires an FAA Part 107 certificate. Ask the door-knocker to show one. After a major storm, temporary flight restrictions can also ground drones in disaster-response areas — check the FAA's B4UFLY app before flying.
Hours 24–72: do you have to tarp the roof — and who pays for it?
Florida carriers — especially Citizens and surplus lines — use proprietary forms, so read your own policy's Duties After Losssection. But the principle is near-universal: temporary repairs yes, permanent repairs before the adjuster's inspection no. Skip the tarp and the insurer can deny the ensuinginterior water damage — the original wind damage stays covered, but the ceiling that fails a week later may not. If you can't do it safely yourself, same-day emergency tarping exists for exactly this window. After a presidential disaster declaration, FEMA's Operation Blue Roof can install free temporary sheeting on qualifying shingle roofs — but it only activates for major declared disasters, so private tarping is usually the realistic first-72-hour option.
Days two and three are for records. Florida's DFS tells storm victims to build an itemized inventory — each damaged item with its cost, purchase date, and serial number — attach receipts for high-value items, and log every repair expense. Organize it into folders — photos, inventory, receipts, estimates, correspondence — with a cloud backup.
“The claims that settle cleanly are the ones where the homeowner can hand over a folder: dated photos from before the tarp, the tarping receipt, and a room-by-room list. The claims that drag on for months are the ones that start with ‘we cleaned it all up before we thought to take pictures.’”
What deadlines does Florida law set — for you and for your insurer?
For hurricanes, the date of loss is the date of landfall; for tornadoes, other windstorms, and severe rain, it's the date NOAA verifies the event. The full mechanics of the deadline and supplemental-window rules live on our coverage guide.
| Insurer obligation | Deadline under FS 627.70131 |
|---|---|
| Acknowledge your claim communication | 7 calendar days |
| Begin its investigation | 7 days after receiving proof-of-loss statements |
| Conduct any physical inspection | 30 days after receiving proof of loss |
| Send you a copy of any detailed loss estimate | 7 days after the estimate is generated |
| Pay or deny the claim, in full or in part | 60 days after receiving notice of the claim |
These clocks pause during DFS mediation or while you sit on a request for information for more than 10 days, and the Office of Insurance Regulation can add up to 30 days after major hurricane events — but late payment accrues statutory interest either way. Once your evidence package is complete and the claim is reported, everything that follows — the adjuster meeting, the estimate review, the common denial reasons — is covered in our step-by-step Florida roof insurance claim guide.
How does your hurricane deductible work — and why do receipts matter twice?
Here's where the receipt folder earns its keep twice. The hurricane deductible applies per calendar year, not per storm: if a second hurricane hits in the same year, the insurer may apply only the greater of the unmet remainder of your hurricane deductible or your AOP deductible (FS 627.701(5)(a)). The only proof you already satisfied part of the deductible in storm one is the dated record of what you spent. For the bigger picture — including how RCV versus ACV settlement changes your check — see whether homeowners insurance covers roof replacement in Florida.
Which post-storm offers are illegal in Florida?
- A "free inspection" in exchange for filing a claim. Contractors may not offer anything of value to induce a claim, and ads that encourage claims must carry 12-point fraud notices (FS 489.147).
- Any offer to waive, absorb, or "handle" your deductible. That is felony insurance fraud under FS 489.147, with fines up to $10,000 per violation — and you are responsible for your deductible.
- A contractor "negotiating with your insurer for you." Interpreting policies or adjusting claims requires a public adjuster license.
- Pressure to sign an assignment of benefits.AOBs are prohibited on policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023 — nobody needs to "take over" your claim.
- An out-of-state license number.Florida doesn't honor them. Look for a CCC-prefix Florida certificate and verify it at myfloridalicense.com. A contract with an unlicensed contractor is unenforceable by the contractor (FS 489.128), and DBPR notes that unlicensed contracting during a declared emergency is elevated to a third-degree felony. Report suspected unlicensed activity to DBPR at 1-866-532-1440.
- Demands for large payment before materials arrive.
One more reason the 72-hour record matters: when scope is disputed, the insurer's default argument is pre-existing wear, not storm damage — a fight that gets harder as your roof ages. Your dated before-and-after record is the counterevidence; for how age changes the underwriting math, see whether an old roof can get you dropped in Florida.
What protections do you have after you've signed — or if the claim stalls?
The 10-day cancellation right. If the governor declared a state of emergency, your property sits inside the declared area, and you signed a roof repair or replacement contract within 180 days of the event, FS 489.147(6) lets you cancel without penalty within 10 days of signing or before work officially starts — whichever comes first. Contractors must disclose this right in the contract in bold type of at least 14 points; a contract that hides it is its own red flag.
Public adjuster fee caps. Hiring a public adjuster is a legitimate choice — but Florida caps the fee at 10% of claim payments for claims arising from a governor-declared emergency, for one year after the declaration, and 20% otherwise (FS 626.854). On reopened or supplemental claims the cap is 20% of the new money obtained, and if the insurer pays policy limits within 14 days of the loss, the fee drops to 1%. Public adjusters may also solicit only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday — a 9 p.m. knock tells you something.
Free, insurer-paid mediation.If the numbers don't add up, the DFS mediation program (FS 627.7015) lets you demand a nonbinding mediation that your insurer pays for — and even a signed settlement can be rescinded within 3 business days if you haven't cashed the check. Before signing anything you don't understand, call the DFS Insurance Consumer Helpline at 1-877-693-5236 (1-877-MY-FL-CFO). Pensacola-area homeowners will find local resources on our Pensacola roof insurance claims page — and the rest of our guides live in the complete Florida roof insurance hub.