You’ve suffered a catastrophic loss at your home or business. Your insurance company has issued a payment for the damages but you disagree with the amount and have submitted competing estimates to your insurance company. Now your insurance company is invoking appraisal under your insurance policy and you have no idea what to do.  Appraisal is an alternative dispute resolution method that is available in many property Read More

We have previously discussed cases involving prompt notice here and here. As we’ve mentioned before, insurance policies typically contain post loss obligations that can include providing prompt notice of the loss. Prompt notice is not defined in insurance policies; thus, it has been up to Florida courts to interpret what constitutes “prompt.” In a recent case, Guzman v. Southern Fidelity, the appellate court was Read More

Slowly but surely, prime mortgage rates are creeping back up toward pre-pandemic levels. This is expected to cool off what has been a red-hot real estate market in Florida. With eviction and foreclosure moratoriums also expiring, many Floridians are feeling the financial crunch and wondering what they can do to keep their houses.  Depending on your long-term goals (and short-term motivations), you might want to Read More

The internet has plenty of articles that discuss when an insurance claim should be filed or not. Examples can be found here, here, and here. The truth is, at least in Florida, delaying the filing of an insurance claim either because you think your rates will go up or because you think it will not exceed the deductible can hurt you if you ultimately decide to file a claim. The most common example that we see in our Read More

We have previously discussed the importance of complying with post obligations here. We have also discussed why an insured MUST comply with a sworn proof of loss request in a prior post. In short, if you have an insurance claim for your home or business in Florida, you need to make sure you follow all post-loss conditions in the policy, including submitting a sworn proof of loss to the insurer, in a timely fashion. Read More

The enactment of Florida Statute 627.70152 has brought up many discussions regarding an Insurance Company’s good faith obligations to its Insureds. For more information on the enactment of Florida Statute 627.70152, read our previous blog post. A respected colleague, Jonathan C. Brown recently wrote how carriers can use the new statutory framework to leverage settlements and avoid lawsuits.  Mr. Brown is correct to a Read More

The Florida Legislature recently enacted changes to Florida Statute 627.428 which dealt with recovery of attorneys’ fees when an insured must sue their own insurance company. Senate Bill 76, which became effective on July 1, 2021, enacted various reforms to Florida’s property insurance market. One of the major changes was the enactment of Florida Statute 627.70152 dealing with the requirement to provide a pre-suit Read More

The power of attorney is an important part of many Floridians’ estate plans. Even if you haven’t gotten around to drafting your own estate plan, you’ve probably heard those words before. Far too often, unfortunately, you might hear those words on the news in connection with someone who has abused their power of attorney powers (the agent) and taken advantage of someone else (the principal).  The exact authorities Read More

After experiencing a covered loss, the most pressing question for many insurance policy holders is: How much will the insurance company pay for my claim?  In the context of property insurance, insurance companies pay out through one of two structures: actual cash value or replacement cost value. This blog will cover the key differences between these two compensation methods.  Replacement Cost Value: What is it? In Read More

When applying for insurance, you need to be careful to not give untruthful answers on the application. If you do, the insurance company can rescind the policy – they can return your premiums, cancel the policy, and not pay on any claims. The law governing rescission in Florida can be found in Florida Statutes 627.409.  Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeals applied this law in Nembhard v. Universal Property and Read More