Florida Condo Insurance Claim Deadlines in 2026: The One-Year Rule and the 90-Day Assessment Clock
By Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors · October 17, 2026
Key Takeaways
- 1 year: Florida bars a new or reopened condo property claim unless it is reported to the insurer within one year of the date of loss; supplemental claims get 18 months (FS 627.70132) [1].
- 90 days: a unit owner's loss-assessment claim must be reported by the later of one year after the loss or 90 days after the association votes to levy the assessment — never later than 3 years after the loss (FS 627.70132(4)(a)) [1].
- Landfall starts the clock: for hurricane losses, the date of loss is the date the storm made landfall or was verified by NOAA, even if damage is found months later [1].
- Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin on October 9, 2026, so the one-year reporting window for Isaias claims closes October 9, 2027 [8].
- 7 and 60: the insurer must acknowledge a claim within 7 days and pay or deny it within 60 days of receiving a complete proof of loss (FS 627.70131) [2].
- $2,000 is the minimum loss-assessment coverage Florida requires on every HO-6 policy, and carriers may sell more (FS 627.714) [7].
- 5 years: a lawsuit over a denied or underpaid property claim generally must be filed within five years of the date of loss (FS 95.11), after a written pre-suit notice under FS 627.70152 [5][6].
Florida gives a condo association one year from the loss to report a master-policy claim and 18 months for a supplemental claim; a unit owner has until the later of one year after the loss or 90 days after the board votes a loss assessment to file an HO-6 claim, with a hard stop at three years [1]. These are reporting deadlines, and they run whether or not anyone has measured the damage yet. Miss the window and coverage can be barred before anyone argues about what the policy says.
Hurricane Isaias came ashore near Destin on October 9, 2026, as a Category 2 storm, as Fox Weather and CBS12 reported [8] — and for every condo building it touched, the clock in FS 627.70132 started that night, visible damage or not [1].
More Florida condo claims die on the calendar than on the coverage language. The damage can be plainly covered and the claim still worth nothing because notice went in thirteen months after a storm instead of twelve. Since late 2022, the reporting window for Florida property claims has been one year — half of what it was, and a third of what many board members remember from the last time their building filed [1].
The deadlines also interlock. The board's master-policy claim runs on one clock, each owner's loss-assessment claim runs on a second clock the board itself starts by voting the assessment, and the insurer runs on a third clock the statute points back at them. This post is the lookup table for all three, current to October 2026, with the statute numbers so your attorney and your agent can check my work.
Report first, measure later. That is the operating rule behind everything below.
The 2026 Florida Condo Claim Deadline Table
| What | Deadline | Clock starts | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| New claim (master policy or HO-6) | 1 year | Date of loss | FS 627.70132(2) [1] |
| Reopened claim (one the insurer closed) | 1 year | Date of loss | FS 627.70132(2) [1] |
| Supplemental claim (additional damage or repair cost on an adjusted claim) | 18 months | Date of loss | FS 627.70132(2) [1] |
| Unit owner's loss-assessment claim | Later of 1 year after the loss or 90 days after the board votes the assessment; absolute limit 3 years | Date of the covered loss event | FS 627.70132(4)(a) [1] |
| Insurer acknowledges your claim | 7 days | Receipt of the claim | FS 627.70131 [2] |
| Insurer pays or denies | 60 days | Complete proof of loss | FS 627.70131 [2] |
| Request state mediation | Before appraisal starts or suit is filed | — | FS 627.7015; Rule 69J-166.002 [3][4] |
| File suit over the claim | Generally 5 years | Date of loss | FS 95.11 [5] |
| Pre-suit notice of intent to litigate | Required before filing; serving it tolls the deadline briefly | Within the FS 95.11 window | FS 627.70152 [6] |
Two terms in that table need plain English. A supplemental claim asks for additional money on damage the insurer has already adjusted — the rot found when the contractor opens the wall. A reopened claim is a closed claim you are asking the insurer to revisit. The supplemental claim gets 18 months; the reopened claim only gets the original year [1]. Boards conflate the two constantly, and the six-month difference is the whole ballgame.
The Date of Loss Is the Storm's Date
For hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms and other weather events, FS 627.70132 defines the date of loss as the date of landfall or the date NOAA verifies the event [1]. The deadline runs from landfall, not from the day you find the damage.
That definition does most of the damage to late claims. A roof opened by a hurricane can leak invisibly for months; an association that discovers interior damage in month eleven has only weeks left to get notice in, and an owner who finds ruined drywall in month fourteen has a supplemental window only if the original claim went in on time.
This is why the first move after any storm is written notice on every policy that might respond, even when the visible damage looks minor. Notice costs nothing and preserves everything. Report first, measure later.
For buildings with Isaias damage, the arithmetic is already fixed: the date of loss is October 9, 2026, new and reopened claims must be reported by October 9, 2027, and supplemental claims by April 9, 2028 [1][8].
I am not saying a late claim is always dead on arrival — in April 2026, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal of a condo association's Hurricane Irma suit on exactly this kind of timing fight (case 4D2024-2250, as reported by Construction Defect Journal). But "my lawyer thinks we can distinguish the statute" is a position no board should volunteer for when a one-page letter in month two would have avoided it.
The Board's Clock: Master Policy Claims
The association's claim on the master policy — the policy the association buys to cover the building shell and shared spaces — follows the one-year rule like any other Florida property claim [1]. Three practical points for boards:
1. Notice means a letter. The statute requires only notice of the claim within the year; the completed scope of repairs can follow. Boards wait for the engineer's report before "filing properly," and the wait is how buildings miss the window. Send notice with what you know; the 18-month supplemental window exists for precisely that sequence [1].
2. The insurer's clocks start when yours does. Once the claim is in, the carrier must acknowledge it within 7 days and pay or deny within 60 days of receiving a complete proof of loss — the sworn statement itemizing what was lost [2]. Calendar those dates alongside your own.
3. Appraisal is a creature of the policy. Most master policies carry an appraisal clause — a dispute-resolution process where each side hires an appraiser and the two pick an umpire to set the loss amount. It settles how much the loss is worth; it cannot settle whether the loss is covered. Read the clause at renewal, when it costs nothing.
How the claim then turns into assessments, and who files what, is its own subject — the hurricane claims and special assessments playbook walks that sequence, and the water-damage claims playbook covers the pipe-burst version, which is far more common than the named storm.
The Owner's Clock: Loss Assessments and the 90-Day Rule
When a covered loss exceeds the master policy — a big hurricane deductible, an underinsured building — the association assesses the shortfall to owners, and the loss-assessment coverage on each owner's HO-6 (the unit-owner's policy covering everything inside the unit, plus personal liability) is what responds.
The deadline is the one genuinely owner-friendly provision in the statute: notice is due by the later of one year after the loss or 90 days after the board votes to levy the assessment, capped at three years after the date of loss [1]. The second prong matters because associations routinely vote assessments more than a year after a storm — under a plain one-year rule, an owner's coverage would often have expired before the assessment ever arrived.
Two cautions. First, the 90-day prong runs from the vote itself; the assessment letter may reach your mailbox weeks later. Boards: date-stamp the vote in the minutes and tell owners in writing, the same week, that their personal claim window is open. Second, Florida requires only $2,000 of loss-assessment coverage on an HO-6 — a statutory minimum, and most carriers sell more — but the portion of an assessment driven by the master policy's deductible is sub-limited on the standard form, and coverage beyond roughly $10,000 is generally not available in Florida [7]. The details are in the loss-assessment coverage reality check, and you can estimate your building's per-unit exposure with the special assessment calculator.
I keep a storm file for every association we place: the landfall date, the one-year date, the 18-month date, written down right after the weather clears. Boards have engineers, attorneys, managers — and nobody in that lineup owns the calendar unless someone is assigned to it. The file takes ten minutes. I have watched it save a supplemental claim that an engineer's backlog would otherwise have pushed past month eighteen.
— Ricardo Alonso, Founder, Atesa Risk Advisors
When You Disagree With the Number: Mediation, Appraisal, Suit
A denied or lowballed claim has three exits, in ascending order of cost.
State mediation. FS 627.7015 gives policyholders — including associations on commercial-residential policies, under Rule 69J-166.002 — a non-binding mediation program administered by the Florida Department of Financial Services, designed to run before appraisal begins or suit is filed; the insurer must tell you it exists when the claim is made [3][4]. For a dispute measured in tens of thousands rather than millions, it is the cheapest room in which the carrier's number can move.
Appraisal. The policy clause described above. Faster than litigation, binding on amount, silent on coverage — if the carrier's position is "not covered" rather than "worth less," appraisal is the wrong tool.
Litigation. A suit for breach of a property insurance contract generally must be filed within five years of the date of loss [5], after a written notice of intent to litigate that briefly tolls the deadline while the carrier gets a last chance to respond (FS 627.70152) [6]. Five years sounds roomy next to the one-year reporting rule — until the first four are spent on a slow adjustment, a failed appraisal, and a board election.
The Claims Calendar: Seven Steps
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1. Report in writing immediately | Notice to every potentially responding carrier — master policy, HO-6, flood — within days, before any engineer visits. |
| 2. Fix the date of loss | For storms, record the landfall date; put the one-year, 18-month and three-year dates in the file. |
| 3. Assign the calendar | One named person — manager, secretary, or your agent — owns the dates and confirms notice went out. |
| 4. Track the insurer's clock | Calendar the 7-day acknowledgment and the 60-day pay-or-deny date from your complete proof of loss. |
| 5. Minute the assessment vote | Record the vote date and tell owners in writing that their 90-day loss-assessment window has opened. |
| 6. Choose the dispute path early | Mediation before appraisal; appraisal for pricing disputes; counsel when coverage itself is denied. |
| 7. Protect the suit window | Diarize the five-year date and the pre-suit notice requirement, even if you never expect to use them. |
FAQ: Florida Condo Claim Deadlines
Q: How long do I have to file a condo insurance claim in Florida?
A: One year from the date of loss, for both association master-policy claims and unit-owner HO-6 claims (FS 627.70132). It is a reporting deadline — written notice within the year preserves the claim even if the full scope of damage is not yet known.
Q: How long does a condo association have to file a hurricane claim?
A: One year from the date the hurricane made landfall. The clock does not wait for damage to be discovered, which is why associations should report immediately even when damage looks minor.
Q: What is a supplemental claim and what is its deadline?
A: A claim for additional money on loss the insurer has already adjusted — hidden damage found during repairs, for example. It must be reported within 18 months of the date of loss.
Q: How long do I have to file a loss-assessment claim on my HO-6?
A: The later of one year after the date of loss or 90 days after the board votes to levy the assessment, and never more than three years after the loss (FS 627.70132(4)(a)).
Q: Does my insurer have deadlines too?
A: Yes. Florida requires the insurer to acknowledge your claim within 7 days and pay or deny it within 60 days of receiving a complete, sworn proof of loss (FS 627.70131).
Q: What is the deadline for Hurricane Isaias condo claims?
A: Isaias made landfall near Destin on October 9, 2026, which fixes the date of loss. New and reopened claims must be reported by October 9, 2027; supplemental claims by April 9, 2028.
Q: Can I still sue if the insurer underpays?
A: Generally yes, within five years of the date of loss, after serving a written notice of intent to litigate under FS 627.70152 — but only on a claim that was reported within the one-year window. An unreported claim is barred regardless of the five-year suit deadline.
Related Reading
- Florida Condo Association Hurricane Claims in 2026: Who Claims What, and When a Loss Becomes a Special Assessment — the claim-to-assessment sequence this post's deadlines run inside.
- Who Pays When a Pipe Bursts? The Florida Condo Board's Water-Damage Claims Playbook — the non-storm claim that triggers the same one-year rule.
- How Much Loss Assessment Coverage Can You Actually Buy in Florida? The $2,000 Reality — what the coverage behind the 90-day deadline actually pays.
How Atesa Risk Advisors Can Help
Deadline management is placement work done in advance. When we place a master program or an HO-6, the claims calendar comes with it: who reports, to whom, and the dates that control, written down before any storm has a name. For condo and HOA boards, we review the appraisal and notice provisions at renewal — the only time they can still be negotiated — and after a loss we sit on the policyholder's side of the table through notice, proof of loss, and mediation.
I can't tell you whether a storm hits Florida next season. I can tell you exactly which dates will govern your claim if one does, and every one of them is cheaper to manage in advance than to litigate afterward.
Want your association's claims calendar built before you need it? Get your free quote and consultation at atesariskadvisors.com/get-quote or call (904) 900-5063.
Sources
[1] Fla. Stat. § 627.70132 — Notice of property insurance claim (2026)
[4] Fla. Admin. Code R. 69J-166.002 — Mediation of Commercial Residential Property Insurance Claims
[5] Fla. Stat. § 95.11 — Limitations other than for the recovery of real property (2026)
[6] Fla. Stat. § 627.70152 — Suits arising under a property insurance policy (2026)
External Resources for Florida condo boards and owners:
- Florida Department of Financial Services — Division of Consumer Services
- Florida Legislature — Online Sunshine statutes
Ricardo Alonso is the Founder of Atesa Risk Advisors, a Florida independent insurance agency. Licensed 2-20 General Lines Agent and 2-15 Health & Life Agent, with a Master of Liberal Arts in Finance from Harvard University. He builds claims calendars into every condo association placement his agency handles.
Educational disclaimer: This article is general educational information about insurance and is not insurance advice, a quote, or an offer of coverage. Rates, discounts, deadlines, and requirements change and vary by property; confirm current figures with primary sources and a licensed agent before relying on them. Coverage is subject to the terms of your policy. For a personalized review, contact Atesa Risk Advisors, an independent, RamseyTrusted brokerage licensed in Florida (2-20 General Lines).