Florida property insurance claim lawyer

The policy is a contract. They wrote it.

This is where Jose A. Dapena started — first-party insurance litigation, before he represented a single injured person. Denied claims, underpaid claims, and the ones that simply go quiet. He has also sat on the other side of a claim file, which is a different thing from having read about it.

Have your claim reviewed Miami (305) 662-4323 Tampa (813) 930-5422

Hurricane notice: 1 yearNew or reopened windstorm claim. Fla. Stat. § 627.70132
Supplemental claim: 18 monthsFrom the same date of loss
Pay or deny within: 60 daysOf proof of loss. Fla. Stat. § 627.70131
Attorney fees: RepealedPolicyholders no longer recover one-way fees

01 What changed, and why the old advice is wrong

Florida rewrote property insurance law in 2022 and 2023, and it moved against policyholders in two ways that matter more than everything else combined.

The deadlines shortened. Notice of a new or reopened hurricane or windstorm claim is now one year from the date of loss, and a supplemental claim eighteen months. Those used to be measured in years.

One-way attorney’s fees were repealed. For decades, a policyholder who beat their insurer recovered their fees from it, and that is what made ordinary claims worth pursuing. It is gone. A dispute now has to stand on its own economics, which makes the early decisions — the independent estimate, appraisal, the free state mediation — far more consequential than they used to be.

Almost everything written about Florida property claims before 2023 describes a system that no longer exists.

02 Where claims go wrong

Have a denied Florida insurance claim reviewed

English or Spanish. The fee arrangement for an insurance dispute is explained when you call.

Miami (305) 662-4323 Homestead (786) 900-0184 Tampa (813) 930-5422