Once more, Florida's Legislature changed the rules governing property insurance claims. The regular session followed sweeping changes from a December 2022 special session. The 2023 session produced three laws that do most of the work covered here. House Bill 1185 tightened rules for public adjusters and generally took effect July 1, 2023. Senate Bill 7052 expanded insurance-company oversight and also took effect July 1, 2023. House Bill 837 changed civil remedies and attorney-fee rules and took effect March 24, 2023.
Two other 2023 laws sit near this story but do different jobs. House Bill 799 changed specified Citizens Property Insurance Corporation flood, rate, eligibility, and optional administrative-hearing form rules. It became Chapter 2023-175, with specified provisions taking effect May 31 and October 1, 2023, and the remainder taking effect July 1, 2023. House Bill 881 changed My Safe Florida Home inspection, grant-eligibility, and program mechanics and took effect July 1, 2023.
The focus here is what those changes mean in practice for public adjusting, insurer accountability, bad-faith law, and fee recovery. Which rule applies can turn on the type of policy, the date of loss, the date a lawsuit was filed, and the provision at issue. For the broader claim process, start with our Florida Guide to Property Insurance Claims.
The quickest way through the article is by law. Public adjusters — HB 1185 covers contracts, compensation, and operational requirements. Insurer oversight — SB 7052 covers examinations, penalties, and reporting. Bad faith and attorney fees — HB 837 covers the liability-claim safe harbor, the negligence standard, and changes to fee rules.
More Regulation of Public Adjusters
Public adjusters represent policyholders, not insurance companies. A good public adjuster can document damage, prepare an estimate, explain the policyholder's position, and negotiate a claim with the insurer. Our public adjuster explainer covers that role in more detail.
House Bill 1185 added restrictions to section 626.854, Florida Statutes, and related public-adjuster laws. Read the scope carefully: subsection 626.854(19) says that subsections (5) through (18) apply only to residential property insurance policies and condominium unit-owner policies. It does not make every requirement in the separate public-adjuster contract statute, section 626.8796, residential-only.
For working public adjusters, the sections below are a map of the 2023 changes. For policyholders, they explain the contract they're being asked to sign. Our longer guide to Florida public-adjusting laws provides the surrounding licensing and practice rules.
New Contract Restrictions for Public Adjusters
Signed contracts are a precondition to payment for residential/condo claims.
For the residential and condominium claims covered by section 626.854(6)(a), a public adjuster may not collect a fee for services on payments made to a named insured unless the public adjuster has a written contract with the named insured or the named insured's legal representative. A separate rule discussed below determines when compensation is zero for a coverage part based on an insurer's payment or written agreement to pay before contract execution.
Section 626.8796 separately requires the insured to receive an unaltered copy of the executed contract at the time it is signed. The public adjuster must also give an unaltered copy to the insurer or its authorized representative within seven days after execution. Proof of the insured's receipt and proof of submission to the insurer must be retained for at least five years.
Some legislative summaries described a 10-day delivery period. The enacted and current statute says seven days.
Since a 2024 amendment, the contract must also include the public adjusting firm's license number. A form built only to the 2023 requirements is no longer complete.
If an insurer pays or agrees in writing to pay a residential/condo claim before the client signs the public adjuster's contract, the public adjuster cannot charge a commission on the payment.
The fee becomes zero for the coverage part the insurer paid, or agreed in writing to pay, before execution of the public-adjuster contract. That rule does not automatically make the public adjuster's fee zero for every other coverage part of the claim.
The insured must sign or initial every page of the contract.
More precisely, the insured must initial each page of the contract that does not contain the insured's signature. The statute does not require a separate signature space on every page.
More contractual disclosures required.
The contract must include the statutory cancellation language and other information required by section 626.8796. Separately, before entering the contract, the public adjuster must give the insured the Department of Financial Services' disclosure form and obtain the insured's signature acknowledging receipt. The pre-contract disclosure is not interchangeable with the cancellation language inside the contract. Our guide to Florida public-adjusting laws collects the broader contract requirements.
It's easier for public adjuster clients to cancel contracts on residential/condo claims.
House Bill 1185 preserved the general 10-day cancellation right and added more time in two situations:
When the loss arises from an event that is the subject of a state-of-emergency declaration by the Governor, the insured or claimant may cancel without penalty or obligation within 30 days after the date of loss or 10 days after the contract is executed, whichever is later.
Estimate-production duty. Under section 626.854(12), the public adjuster must provide the claimant or insured an itemized written estimate within 60 days after execution, unless factors beyond the public adjuster's control prevent completion.
Contract cancellation language. The contract gives the insured a right to cancel if the public adjuster does not provide a copy to both the insured and insurer within 60 days.
Independent rescission. Section 626.8796(4) separately permits rescission until the estimate is submitted to the insurer.
Stopping and retention. The cancellation or rescission right ends when the required delivery or submission occurs, and the public adjuster must retain the estimate for at least five years.
For a public adjuster, this paperwork is part of the professional work. You should be able to show when the insured received the contract and disclosure, when the insurer received the contract, and when the estimate was delivered.
New Compensation Rules for Public Adjusters
Florida already capped public-adjuster compensation in several circumstances. House Bill 1185 added a 1% ceiling tied to prompt payment of a policy limit for a particular coverage part. The current statute says a public adjuster may not accept compensation in excess of:
One percent of the amount of insurance claim payments or settlements, paid to the insured by the insurer for any coverage part of the policy where the claim payment or written agreement by the insurer to pay is equal to or greater than the policy limit for that part of the policy, if the payment or written commitment to pay is provided within 14 days after the date of loss or within 10 days after the date on which the public adjusting contract is executed, whichever is later.
The rule follows the coverage part. It is not necessarily a 1% cap on the entire claim simply because one coverage limit was promptly paid. The practical logic is that a policy-limit payment made on that timetable may have required comparatively little adjusting work. That is an interpretation of how the rule operates—not a statement of legislative purpose.
The law also addresses contracts made by someone other than the named insured. When a public adjuster represents a person other than the named insured, the public adjuster's fee must be paid by that person and may not be charged back to the named insured.
New Operational Requirements for Public Adjusters
Appointed independent adjusters and licensed public adjusters must conspicuously display their licenses at their principal place of business. When conducting business away from that office, each must have the license in their actual possession.
A public adjuster who wants to retain an engineer, appraiser, contractor, or other third-party service provider at the insured's expense must obtain the named insured's subsequent written agreement to that cost. Without that agreement, the public adjuster must pay the cost and may not charge it back to the named insured.
Florida added another operational duty in 2026. Under Chapter 2026-174, a public adjuster, public-adjuster apprentice, or public adjusting firm must respond within 14 days to a written or electronic request for specified claim-status information and document the response. This is a current-law addition, not part of House Bill 1185's original 2023 package.
More Regulation and Oversight of Insurance Companies
Senate Bill 7052 gave the Office of Insurance Regulation, or OIR, more tools to examine insurers and identify patterns in claim handling. It also assigned complaint-related duties to the Department of Financial Services, or DFS. Those agencies have related but distinct roles: OIR regulates and examines insurers, while DFS Consumer Services receives consumer complaints and administers services such as eligible nonbinding property-insurance mediation.
Neither agency became a court with universal power to adjudicate private coverage disputes or order payment on every claim. The law did increase the information regulators can demand and the consequences for failing to provide it.
Examinations
Senate Bill 7052 expanded and prioritized OIR's examination work in several ways:
If OIR has reason during an investigation or examination to believe that a Florida crime has or may have occurred, it must refer the relevant records and information to the DFS Division of Criminal Investigations, law enforcement, or prosecutors, as applicable, and assist as required. That is a conditional criminal-referral duty, not a general command to make a referral after every examination.
More than 90 days after a hurricane ends, the examination triggers divide into two branches.
OIR may examine: an insurer in the top 20% for the ratio of hurricane claims filed to policies in force.
OIR must examine: an insurer in the top 20% for its ratio of complaints to hurricane claims or its ratio of hurricane claims closed without payment. An examination is also mandatory for significant managing-general-agent payments or when OIR otherwise identifies a need.
OIR must use a risk-based approach to prioritize examinations, considering complaint volume, outlier claim metrics, evidence of unfair insurance trade practices, and other risk signals. That directs examination resources toward insurers whose available data raises the greatest concern.
OIR may use its existing financial-stability authority under section 624.805 when an insurer's condition warrants intervention. United Property & Casualty's 2023 liquidation remains a useful historical example of the financial instability surrounding this period, documented in the DFS receiver record, but it should not be described as the direct result of Senate Bill 7052.
Penalties
Senate Bill 7052 also strengthened or clarified enforcement consequences:
A licensed or certificated person must respond within 14 days after receiving a written request from DFS Consumer Services for information concerning a consumer complaint. DFS may impose up to $5,000 per violation on an entity and up to $1,000 per violation on an individual for failing to comply.
Under section 624.4211, ordinary examination violations can carry up to $12,500 per nonwillful violation, capped at $50,000 in the aggregate, or $100,000 per willful violation, capped at $500,000 in the aggregate.
When a violation relates to an emergency loss or claim, the maximums rise to $25,000 per nonwillful violation and $100,000 in the aggregate, or $200,000 per willful violation and $1 million in the aggregate.
Section 626.9541 prohibits a director or officer of an impaired insurer from receiving a defined bonus from the insurer or from a holding company or affiliate under common ownership or control. A conviction under that paragraph is a third-degree felony.
Reporting and Transparency
The law also added reporting and documentation requirements:
Altering an adjuster's report becomes an unfair claim-settlement practice when done with enough frequency to indicate a general business practice. A reduction requires a detailed explanation and one of two documentation paths.
Change-list path: include a detailed list of the changes and the person who ordered each one.
Version-retention path: retain all report versions, identifying within each version the person who made or ordered each change.
That rule addresses the kind of alleged estimate changes described in 2023 reporting by The Washington Post, without treating that reporting as proof in every claim.
Section 624.315 requires OIR to publish an annual website report and to create and submit quarterly reports concerning market-conduct examinations, findings, resolutions, and penalties to specified state recipients, subject to applicable confidentiality restrictions.
Ordinary notice rule: an authorized insurer generally must notify OIR the earlier of 20 business days before temporarily suspending the writing of new residential property policies or five business days before notifying its agents. The notice must give the reasons, effective dates, and proposed communication to agents.
Qualifying hurricane exemption: a hurricane-related suspension is exempt from that advance-notice requirement if the statutory conditions are met, including that the suspension cease within 72 hours after the hurricane conditions end.
Residential property insurers must maintain website information describing available hurricane-mitigation discounts. Policyholders can use that information to ask better questions, although the value of any discount still depends on the policy, property, inspection, and underwriting facts.
More Curbs on Insurance Bad-Faith Claims and Plaintiff Attorney's Fees
The litigation changes did not begin with House Bill 837. Florida's December 2022 special session had already passed Senate Bill 2-A as Chapter 2022-271, which changed remedies and fee rules for residential and commercial property claims. Our December 2022 analysis of bad-faith claims and plaintiff attorney fees explains that earlier step. House Bill 837 then made broader civil-remedy changes in March 2023.
Statutory Safe Harbor for Bad-Faith Claims
House Bill 837 created a 90-day tender safe harbor in section 624.155(4), but the scope is narrow: it applies to statutory or common-law bad-faith claims arising from a liability insurance claim. After an insurer receives actual notice of a claim accompanied by sufficient evidence to support the amount demanded, it can avoid bad-faith liability by tendering the lesser of the policy limits or the amount demanded within 90 days.
This is not the ordinary rule for a policyholder's first-party property claim. Florida's bad-faith framework contains different provisions and prerequisites, and the particular policy and claim posture matter.
Negligence Alone is not Bad Faith
Section 624.155 now says negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith. That does not add a requirement that an insurer's conduct be malicious; malice appears elsewhere in the statute's punitive-damages provisions. The law also requires the insured, claimant, and their representatives to act in good faith in furnishing information, making demands, setting deadlines, and attempting to settle. If the trier of fact finds a participant did not act in good faith, it may consider that conduct in assessing damages and may reasonably reduce the damages awarded.
Changes to Plaintiff Attorney-Fee Rules
House Bill 837 repealed sections 627.428 and 626.9373, the former one-way fee statutes for admitted and surplus-lines insurers. It also created section 57.104, which establishes a strong presumption that the lodestar fee is sufficient and permits a multiplier only in rare and exceptional circumstances.
The Legislature created a narrower fee route in section 86.121 for specified declaratory actions after a total coverage denial, but that provision excludes residential and commercial property insurance policies. Saying that policyholders can never recover attorney fees would still be too broad: sanctions, offers of judgment, bad-faith remedies, contracts, and other statutes may apply depending on the case.
House Bill 837 generally applies to causes of action filed after March 24, 2023, while preserving rights under insurance contracts already in effect on that date. Whether those boundaries govern a particular lawsuit requires case-specific advice about retroactivity and the individual action.
Florida's 2023 laws tightened public-adjuster practice, gave regulators stronger examination and enforcement tools, and narrowed some routes through court. They did not simplify every claim, erase every remedy, or place all disputes in the hands of a regulator.
For policyholders, the practical lesson is to preserve the policy, correspondence, estimates, reports, payment letters, and a clean timeline. For public adjusters, it is to treat contract delivery, disclosures, estimates, outside-service costs, and status responses as documented compliance obligations. For insurers, it is to expect report changes, complaint responses, market conduct, and financial condition to receive closer scrutiny.
The statutes have also changed since 2023, including the 2024 public-adjusting firm license-number requirement and the 2026 claim-status response rule. Anyone relying on this history for a current claim should confirm the current statute and the provision's effective date before acting.
