Florida Insurance Laws and Regulations: Claims, Reforms, and Penalties

Florida insurance laws and regulations set minimum coverage for drivers, govern how homeowners, flood, and health policies are written and renewed, impose strict deadlines on how insurers handle claims, and carry civil and criminal penalties for violations and fraud. Two reform packages in 2022 and 2023 reshaped the landscape for property insurance disputes by banning assignment of benefits and repealing one-way attorney fees. The rules below are the ones most likely to affect you as a policyholder.

Auto Insurance You Must Carry

Every vehicle registered in Florida has to carry two coverages at a $10,000 minimum each. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) pays 80 percent of necessary medical expenses from a crash regardless of fault.¹ Property Damage Liability (PDL) covers damage you cause to someone else’s property.²

Florida does not require bodily injury (BI) liability for most drivers, which is unusual among large states. Drivers convicted of DUI or a felony traffic offense are the exception. They must carry $100,000 per person and $300,000 per crash for bodily injury, plus $50,000 in property damage liability, and that higher requirement stays in place until three years after driving privileges are reinstated.³ The $10,000 PIP minimum barely covers one emergency room visit, so most drivers benefit from carrying BI liability even when the state does not demand it.

Homeowners, Windstorm, and Flood Rules

Florida does not require homeowners insurance by statute, but any mortgage lender will. Windstorm damage is included in a standard homeowners policy by default. Dropping wind coverage is deliberately difficult: you must personally write or type a statement acknowledging that you are giving it up and sign it, and every named insured on the policy has to sign too.⁴

Roof age is handled by statute. Insurers cannot refuse to issue or renew a policy solely because a roof is more than 15 years old, as long as an inspection shows at least five years of useful life remaining. They can, however, offer actual cash value coverage rather than full replacement cost on older roofs, which directly affects what you collect after a storm.

Standard homeowners policies do not cover flood damage. If your property sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area — a zone with at least a 1 percent annual chance of flooding — and you have a federally backed mortgage, federal law requires flood insurance for the life of the loan.⁵ The rule applies whenever a regulated lender makes, extends, or renews a loan secured by improved property in a participating NFIP community.⁶ The National Flood Insurance Program is the dominant source of coverage, though Florida law also allows private flood insurers to compete, and private policies can sometimes be broader or cheaper, particularly for mitigated or elevated properties.

Health Coverage Mandates

Florida’s health insurance market follows the federal Affordable Care Act, so individual and small-group policies must cover essential health benefits including hospitalization, maternity care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs.⁷ Emergency services must be covered regardless of whether the provider is in-network.

On top of the federal baseline, Florida requires coverage for applied behavior analysis and related therapies for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Coverage applies to eligible individuals under 18, or those 18 and older still in high school who were diagnosed before age 9, with annual benefits capped at $36,000 and a lifetime cap of $200,000.⁸

Workers who lose employer-sponsored coverage because of job loss or reduced hours may continue it temporarily through COBRA, which runs 18 to 36 months depending on the qualifying event.⁹ You have 60 days from the date your employer benefits end to enroll. COBRA premiums are steep because you pay the full cost — including the share your employer previously covered — plus a 2 percent administrative fee.

How Insurers Must Handle Your Claim

Once an insurer receives any communication about a claim, it must acknowledge receipt within seven calendar days.¹⁰ After receiving proof-of-loss statements, it has another seven days to begin its investigation.

For property insurance claims, the insurer has 60 days from receiving notice of the claim to either pay or deny it, unless delays are caused by factors beyond its control.¹⁰ Payment made after the 60-day window accrues interest at the statutory rate. Denials must be in writing and cite the specific policy provisions or legal grounds. These deadlines apply to initial, reopened, and supplemental claims alike.

Residential property claimants must also receive a Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights outlining the insurer’s obligations. Missed deadlines, refusal to communicate, and unexplained denials can support a regulatory complaint or a bad faith action.

The 2022–2023 Reforms and What Changed for Disputes

Senate Bill 2-A, enacted in December 2022, prohibited policyholders from assigning post-loss benefits under residential or commercial property insurance policies issued on or after the law’s effective date.¹¹ Before this change, contractors and restoration companies routinely accepted assignment of benefits from homeowners and then filed inflated claims and lawsuits against insurers, a practice that drove up property premiums.

The same 2022 law eliminated one-way attorney fees for property insurance lawsuits. In 2023, the Legislature repealed one-way attorney fee statutes entirely for all insurance lines.¹² Previously, a policyholder who won even a slightly larger payout than the insurer’s pre-suit offer had their attorney fees paid by the insurer, with no corresponding risk on the policyholder side. Now, suing your insurer carries real financial risk because you can no longer count on the insurer covering your legal costs if you prevail. Litigation volumes have dropped, and insurers point to this shift as a reason premiums have begun to stabilize.

Bad Faith Claims and the Civil Remedy Notice

Florida’s civil remedy statute lets a policyholder sue an insurer that fails to settle a claim in good faith once the obligation to pay has become reasonably clear.¹³ A successful bad faith case can produce damages beyond the policy limits.

Before filing suit, you have to send a written civil remedy notice to both the insurer and the Florida Department of Financial Services and then give the insurer 60 days to cure the violation.¹³ This step cannot be skipped. Filing suit before the 60 days expire will get your case dismissed. If the insurer pays the claim or otherwise fixes the problem within the cure period, the bad faith action goes away. If not, you can proceed. You do not need to show that the insurer’s bad faith was a general business practice; a single instance of failing to settle fairly is enough. The civil remedy statute itself was not repealed in the recent reforms, but with one-way attorney fees gone, the economic incentive to bring these cases has narrowed.

Mediation and Arbitration Options

The Department of Financial Services administers mediation programs for automobile, residential property, commercial residential property, and sinkhole claims.¹⁴ A Florida Supreme Court–certified mediator helps the two sides negotiate informally. A policyholder, a third-party assignee, or the insurer may request mediation, though an insurer is not required to participate in mediation requested by a third-party assignee of benefits.¹⁵

Arbitration is a second option when both sides agree to submit the dispute to a neutral decision-maker. It is binding and typically faster than litigation. Florida courts require that any arbitration clause in an insurance policy be clearly stated and not unfairly one-sided. Litigation remains available for breach of contract and bad faith when mediation and arbitration fail.

Rate Oversight and Citizens Property Insurance

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) reviews rate filings to ensure premiums are not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.¹⁶ Insurers must submit actuarial support for any proposed change, including loss experience, catastrophe modeling, and trend projections.¹⁷ Residential property rate changes require prior approval before taking effect. Auto insurers set premiums based on factors like driving history, location, and vehicle type, but cannot discriminate based on race, national origin, or religion.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is the state-backed insurer of last resort. Citizens operates under a rate cap limiting annual increases to 15 percent for primary residences as of 2026, with non-primary residences subject to increases of up to 50 percent.¹⁸ The 15 percent cap was reached through a glide path that increased the cap by 1 percent each year.¹⁹ Citizens is designed as a temporary safety net, and its rate structure is intended to push policyholders back to private insurers when coverage becomes available.

Public Adjuster Fee Caps

Public adjusters work on behalf of policyholders to negotiate claims, and Florida caps their fees. For claims arising from a governor-declared state of emergency, the fee cannot exceed 10 percent of the insurance payout during the first year after the emergency declaration.²⁰ For all other claims, the maximum is 20 percent. When a public adjuster reopens a settled claim or files a supplemental claim, the fee applies only to the additional payout the adjuster secures, not to amounts the insurer had already paid. Get the percentage in writing before signing, and verify the adjuster’s license through the Department of Financial Services.

Licensing for Agents and Insurers

No one can sell, solicit, or adjust insurance in Florida without a license from the Department of Financial Services.²¹ Applicants must complete pre-licensing education, pass a state exam, and submit fingerprints for a background check. License types are specialized: the 2-15 license covers life, health, and variable annuities, and the 2-20 license covers property and casualty.

Continuing education runs on a two-year cycle. Agents licensed for fewer than six years need a four-hour update course plus 20 elective hours, for a total of 24. Those licensed six years or more need the update course plus 16 elective hours, totaling 20.²² Missing CE deadlines leads to suspension or revocation.

Insurance companies must obtain a Certificate of Authority from OIR before writing policies in Florida.¹⁶ The application requires proforma financial statements, compliance certificates from the applicant’s home state, and evidence of financial stability. Writing coverage without a Certificate of Authority exposes the company to enforcement action.

Lender-Placed Insurance Notices

If your homeowners or flood insurance lapses, your mortgage servicer can purchase a policy on your behalf and charge you for it. Force-placed insurance is almost always more expensive and less comprehensive than a policy you buy yourself. Federal rules require the servicer to send a written notice at least 45 days before charging you for force-placed coverage, followed by a reminder notice at least 15 days before the charge.²³ The reminder must disclose the annual premium cost or a reasonable estimate, and charges must be bona fide and reasonable in relation to the servicer’s actual cost. If you receive a lapse notice, secure your own replacement policy and send proof of coverage before the deadline. Once you provide evidence of active insurance, the servicer must cancel the force-placed policy and refund any overlapping charges.

Penalties for Violations and Fraud

Nonwillful unfair or deceptive insurance practices carry fines of up to $12,500 per occurrence, capped at $50,000 in aggregate for violations from the same set of actions. Willful violations jump to $100,000 per occurrence, capped at $500,000 in aggregate.²⁴

Insurance fraud is criminal. Knowingly filing a false claim or inflating damages is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.²⁵ Federal penalties can stack on top: making false material statements to an insurer in interstate commerce can bring up to 10 years in prison, or up to 15 years if the fraud jeopardizes the insurer’s solvency.²⁶ Agents and adjusters who collect premiums without forwarding them to the insurer can face theft charges in addition to license revocation. The Department of Financial Services and OIR jointly investigate misconduct and can impose sanctions ranging from fines to permanent license revocation.²¹

1
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Florida Insurance Requirements
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 627.736 – Required Personal Injury Protection Benefits
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 324.023 – Financial Responsibility
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 627.712 – Residential Windstorm Coverage
5
FEMA.gov. Real Estate, Lending and Insurance Professionals
6
FDIC.gov. V-6 Flood Disaster Protection Act
7
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Federal Health Insurance
8
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 627.6686 – Coverage for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder Required
9
U.S. Department of Labor. COBRA Continuation Coverage
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 627.70131 – Insurer Duty to Acknowledge Communications Regarding Claims
11
Florida Senate. Senate Bill 2A (2022A) – Property Insurance
12
Florida Senate. Attorney Fee Awards in Insurance Actions
13
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 624.155 – Civil Remedy
14
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES. Request Mediation and Neutral Evaluation
15
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 627.7015 – Alternative Dispute Resolution; Mediation
16
Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Organization and Operation
17
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 627.062 – Rate Standards
18
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. 2026 Recommended Rate Filing Executive Summary
19
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. 2024 Personal Lines Rate Cap Change
20
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 626.854 – Public Adjuster Fees and Contracts
21
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES. Insurance Agent and Agency Services
22
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 626.2815 – Continuing Education Requirements
23
eCFR. 12 CFR 1024.37 – Force-Placed Insurance
24
Justia Law. Florida Code 626.9521 – Unfair Methods of Competition or Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices
25
Florida Senate. Florida Code 817.234 – Fraudulent Insurance Claims
26
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1033 – Crimes by or Affecting Persons Engaged in the Business of Insurance