Hurricane Season in Florida: Insurance Realities Most Homeowners Learn Too Late
Every June, Florida homeowners prepare for hurricane season. They make sure their pantries are stocked, their generators are in working order, and handle all the other to-dos to protect their homes as best as possible.
One thing we wish more people did was review their policies to make sure their coverage is actually what they need.
Most policies do exactly what they’re written to do. The problem is that what they’re written to do isn’t always what homeowners expect.
Those gaps show up the morning after a storm hits, and when the roof has a leak from the ripped-off shingles.
If you’re reading this, you’re already a step ahead. Take this as a sign to review your policy, identify common gaps, and outline what to do in the first few days after a loss to protect both your home and your claim.
Flood vs. Wind: Two Different Policies, Two Different Claims
The single most common misunderstanding in Florida homeowners’ insurance is the difference between wind damage and flood damage.
Most homeowners policies in Florida cover wind, but not all of them. In some coastal areas, or under certain carriers, wind is excluded and written separately as a standalone policy.
Assuming wind is covered under your homeowners policy, here’s a common scenario. If a hurricane tears shingles off your roof, drives rain through the opening, and soaks your living room, that’s a wind claim.
Your homeowners’ policy, on the other hand, doesn’t cover flood.
If a storm surge pushes three feet of water into that same living room from the outside, it’s a flood claim.
After a major storm, this distinction becomes a high-stakes question. Adjusters look closely at whether the damage resulted from wind-driven water (covered by homeowners’) or from rising water from the outside (covered by flood). The line isn’t always obvious, especially in homes where both happened.
Two things to know:
If you don’t have a flood insurance policy in Florida, you don’t have coverage for a storm surge, rising water, or any water that’s made its way into your home from ground level.
Flood policies have a 30-day waiting period before coverage takes effect. So, even if you buy a flood policy the week a storm forms in the Gulf, you’re not covered for that storm.
The Hurricane Deductible: Why It’s Different and Why It Matters
Most homeowners’ policies have an “All Other Perils” (AOP) deductible, which is a flat dollar amount, such as $1,000 or $2,500, that applies to most claims.
In Florida, the hurricane deductible is calculated as a percentage of your home’s insured value, not a flat dollar amount, and it applies only when damage is caused by a named hurricane.
Florida insurers must offer hurricane deductible options of 2%, 5%, or 10% of your dwelling coverage. The exact percentage on your policy is listed on your declarations page.
On a home with $400,000 in dwelling coverage and a 2% hurricane deductible, you’re responsible for the first $8,000 of hurricane damage before the policy starts to pay.
On the same home with a 5% deductible, that number jumps to $20,000.
On a $500,000 home with a 5% deductible, you’re on the hook for the first $25,000.
Two things that often surprise homeowners:
The deductible is triggered by a named hurricane, not a tropical storm. Florida’s hurricane deductible applies during the window that starts when a hurricane watch or warning is issued for any part of the state and ends 72 hours after the last warning is lifted. Damage from a tropical storm, even a severe one, falls under your regular AOP deductible.
You only pay the full hurricane deductible once per calendar year. If two named hurricanes hit your home in the same year, you pay the hurricane deductible on the first one. For the second, you only owe your standard AOP deductible.
Pull your declarations page now and look at your hurricane deductible. It’s listed both as a percentage and as a dollar figure. That’s the amount you’d write the check for before coverage kicks in.
Ordinance or Law Coverage: The Gap Between What You Had and What Code Now Requires
When a hurricane damages your home, your policy pays to restore it to its prior condition. What it doesn’t pay for, by default, is the cost of bringing the rebuild up to the current building code.
In Florida, newer code may require impact-rated glass, updated roof attachments, or reinforced openings that weren’t part of your home when it was built. Ordinance or Law coverage is what fills that gap.
Most policies include some Ordinance or Law coverage by default, usually a percentage of your dwelling limit. For newer homes in stable code environments, that default may be enough. For older homes, it’s usually not.
Read our blog for a full run-down of Ordinance or Law coverage.
Additional Living Expenses: Where You Sleep When You Can’t Sleep at Home
If a hurricane makes your home uninhabitable, your homeowners’ policy covers the increased cost of living elsewhere while it’s being repaired. Hotel stays, short-term rentals, meals beyond your normal grocery bill, laundry, pet boarding, and the cost of driving farther to get to work.
That coverage is called Additional Living Expenses, or ALE. Most policies cap it two ways: a dollar amount tied to your dwelling coverage, and a time limit of 12 to 24 months.
Read our blog about the particulars of ALE coverage and how it’s calculated.
Document Your Home Now, Not After
The single most useful thing you can do before a storm is document what you own.
After a loss, the burden is on the homeowner to prove what was in the house. Adjusters work from your inventory, and the more specific your documentation, the smoother the claim.
A walk-through video on your phone, opening drawers, closets, and the garage, narrating brand names and approximate purchase dates as you go, is enough to start.
Save it to cloud storage and update it once a year, and any time you make a significant purchase.
For higher-value items like jewelry, art, firearms, or collectibles, keep receipts, appraisals, and serial numbers in the same cloud folder.
NOTE: Some of these may need to be scheduled separately on your policy to be fully covered. That’s a conversation worth having with your account manager.
The First 48 Hours After a Loss
The first 48 hours after a storm are the ones that most often shape the outcome of a claim. Here are four things to consider:
- Once it’s safe to be in or around the home, take photos and video of everything before any cleanup begins, including your roof, interior, exterior, and contents.
- Your policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent additional damage, like tarping a roof, boarding broken windows, and shutting off water. Make sure you save receipts for anything you spend doing this. Those costs are typically reimbursable.
- Florida law sets a one-year window to report a hurricane claim from the date the storm makes landfall, but that’s a maximum. Reporting promptly puts you in the queue earlier, which matters when thousands of claims are coming in at once.
- Don’t sign anything you don’t understand. This is where the Assignment of Benefits (AOB) conversation starts.
Assignment of Benefits Scams: What’s Still Happening and What to Watch For
Few things in Florida property insurance have caused more damage over the last decade than a single document called an Assignment of Benefits, or AOB. It looks and seems harmless enough. But, it’s far from it.
Typically, after a storm, a contractor would show up at your house and ask the homeowner to sign what’s described as routine paperwork to get repairs moving.
Buried in the fine print is the AOB, and once it’s signed, the homeowner turns their rights under their own insurance policy over to the contractor.
From that point on, the contractor is your mouthpiece. They file the claim, negotiate with the insurer, and decide whether to sue. The list goes on. Homeowners who thought they were just getting their roof tarped found themselves cut out of the conversation entirely, sometimes for months.
These scams lead to inflated claims well beyond the actual cost of repairs. By the time the legislature finally stepped in, the AOB problem was a leading driver of carriers leaving the state and premiums climbing for everyone who stayed.
That changed on January 1, 2023. Under the property insurance reforms passed in late 2022, post-loss Assignment of Benefits agreements became unenforceable on any policy issued or renewed after that date.
The one-way attorney fee rule that had fueled most of the litigation was eliminated at the same time, and both changes were aimed at third-party lawsuits that increased premiums across the state.
For homeowners, the practical effect is that you handle your own claim now. You’re the one communicating with the adjuster, the one approving the scope of repairs, and the one paying your contractor out of the funds the insurance company sends.
What to watch for
The AOB ban hasn’t stopped contractors from knocking on doors after a storm or presenting homeowners with documents they don’t fully understand. If a contractor hands you paperwork, take time to read it before signing. You never want to transfer your insurance rights.
When in doubt, call your account manager first.
One note for older policies: if your homeowners policy was issued before January 1, 2023, the older AOB rules may still apply to a claim under that policy. AOBs were heavily regulated even before the ban, but the same advice holds in either case. Read everything before you sign, and ask questions when something doesn’t make sense.
As an independent agency, we work with multiple carriers, which gives us the flexibility to find better coverage at a better rate without having to start over with a new carrier. That flexibility matters in Florida, where the insurance market shifts noticeably from one renewal cycle to the next.
If you haven’t reviewed your homeowners or flood policy in the last year, don’t waste another moment.
Image by Rendery from Getty Images Signature on Canva
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my homeowners’ policy cover flooding from a hurricane?
No, your homeowners’ policy doesn’t cover flooding from a hurricane. Damage from rising water, including storm surge, is covered only by a separate flood insurance policy. Damage from wind-driven rain that enters through openings created by the storm is typically covered by your homeowners’ policy.
What’s the difference between my regular deductible and my hurricane deductible?
Your standard “All Other Perils” deductible is usually a flat dollar amount and applies to most claims. Your hurricane deductible is a percentage of your dwelling coverage and applies only when damage is caused by a named hurricane during Florida’s defined hurricane season.
If two hurricanes hit my home in the same year, do I pay the hurricane deductible twice?
No. Florida law requires you to pay the full hurricane deductible only once per calendar year. For any additional named hurricane that hits your home in the same year, you’d pay only your standard AOP deductible.
Are Assignment of Benefits agreements still legal in Florida?
For property insurance policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023, post-loss Assignment of Benefits agreements are not enforceable. Policies issued before that date may still be subject to older AOB rules, though those are also heavily regulated.
How long do I have to file a hurricane claim in Florida?
Florida law sets a one-year deadline to report a hurricane claim from the date of landfall, but earlier is always better. Reporting promptly gets your claim into the queue and starts the clock on coverage, such as ALE.
