Florida roof damage insurance claim lawyer

They will say it is old. Age is not a cause of loss.

Roof claims are the most contested category of property insurance in this state, and the carrier’s argument is nearly always the same: the roof was old, so whatever happened to it was not a covered event.

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

The usual denial: WearWear and tear and deterioration are excluded causes
Hurricane notice: 1 yearWhere the damage came from a named storm. § 627.70132
Roof deductible: PossibleA separate percentage deductible may apply by endorsement
Matching: In disputeWhether undamaged slopes must be replaced to match

01 Age versus cause

Can an insurer deny a Florida roof claim because the roof is old

Wear and tear is excluded by every policy. But age is a condition, not a cause of loss. The question is whether a covered event — wind, hail, impact — damaged the roof, and an older roof is not thereby uninsurable for the remaining life the carrier was charging premium on.

What answers it is evidence of mechanism: creased or lifted shingles consistent with uplift, fractured tiles, impact marks, displaced fasteners, and the correlation between that damage and recorded weather at the address on the date of loss.

The carrier’s engineer will often describe general deterioration without addressing the date of loss at all. That omission is itself the point.

02 Two things in the policy worth finding

Roof deductibles and matching in Florida property policies

Many Florida policies now carry a separate roof deductible by endorsement, set as a percentage. It can leave a policyholder funding most of a replacement even on a claim the carrier accepts, and most people do not know it is there until the estimate arrives.

Matching is the second. Where a repair cannot be made uniform — a discontinued tile, a color no longer produced — whether the insurer must replace beyond the damaged area to achieve a reasonably uniform appearance is a recurring fight, and it frequently decides whether the outcome is a repair or a replacement.

03 Situations this covers

These are examples of circumstances people find themselves in, not accounts of particular cases. Every claim is decided on its own policy and its own facts.

A tile roof loses tiles in a named storm and the denial describes the roof’s age without mentioning the storm date.
An accepted claim pays for one slope, and the tile has been discontinued so the repair will never match.
The estimate arrives and a percentage roof deductible leaves almost nothing payable.
A leak appears months later and the carrier argues the damage was pre-existing.

04 What damages a claim

Letting a roofer tarp, strip or replace before anyone independent documents the damage.
Losing the photographs taken from the ground on the day.
Not locating the roof deductible endorsement before assuming what the claim is worth.
Assuming a denial based on age closes it.

Frequently asked questions about Florida roof damage

My roof was fifteen years old. Does that end the claim?

Not by itself. The policy excludes wear and tear as a cause, and the insurer charged premium on a roof of that age.

The question is whether a covered event damaged it, which is answered by the pattern of damage and the weather record rather than by the roof’s birthday.

Do they have to replace the whole roof if the tile is discontinued?

That is the matching question, and it is genuinely contested in Florida.

It turns on the policy language and on whether a reasonably uniform appearance can be achieved any other way — which is why identifying the exact product and its availability early is worth doing.

05 Related

All of it starts on the property insurance page.

Have a denied Florida insurance claim reviewed

English or Spanish. Jose A. Dapena handled first-party insurance litigation before he handled anything else. The fee arrangement for an insurance dispute is explained when you call.

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