- Florida law generally requires a residential property insurer to send the policyholder a copy of any detailed estimate its adjuster generates. A summary letter generally isn't that document; the line-item estimate behind it is the one to ask for.
- Florida law generally requires a preliminary or partial estimate to carry a bold notice that it may be revised, and a payment that isn't final to carry a notice that more payments may follow.
- Where a payment comes in below the amount in the carrier's detailed estimate, Florida law generally calls for a reasonable written explanation of the difference.
- On the roof, the money sits in squares measured on the slope, the steep and high-roof lines, the linear feet at the edges and ridges, and the decking.
- If your Florida hurricane check doesn't match the estimate behind it, send us both with the letter that came with the payment, and we can walk the lines against the check in a free review. Our FL residential and commercial property work is generally on contingency — we only get paid from the recovery, not your pocket.
On a Florida hurricane claim, the check is generally set line by line in the carrier's own detailed estimate: how many squares of roof were measured, at what pitch and height, which edges and ridges were counted, and which rooms below were priced to the drywall rather than the paint. Florida law generally puts that estimate in the policyholder's hands, which makes its lines the first place a short check can be traced.
If you're in the Panhandle with a roof estimate from Hurricane Isaias, which came ashore near Destin on October 9, 2026, or on the Gulf Coast still working a 2024 Helene or Milton file, and the check is smaller than the estimate or well short of your roofer's number, the question isn't only whether the carrier lowballed you. It's which lines made the difference, and whether the record behind each one is complete.
This article walks through the estimate Florida law puts in the policyholder's hands, the roof section, the rooms and summary page, six lines to check, and where a file goes when the numbers still disagree. Property People Law works Florida property claims out of Miami, on the policyholder's side only. Every policy is different, every claim turns on its own facts.
The Hurricane Insurance Claim Estimate Florida Law Sends the Policyholder
Florida's claim-handling law sends the detailed estimate to the policyholder, not only to the carrier's file. When an adjuster for a residential property insurer generates a detailed estimate of the loss, the insurer must send the policyholder a copy. The law doesn't require a detailed estimate where one isn't reasonably necessary to the investigation, but a check figured from line items usually has a line-item estimate behind it. Ask in writing for the complete estimate, with the roof diagram and the photographs it was built on.
The provisional versions carry labels. A preliminary or partial estimate must state, in bold capitals, that it "represents our current evaluation of the covered damages to your insured property and may be revised as we continue to evaluate your claim." A payment that isn't full and final carries a companion notice that the carrier may issue additional payments, and both notices invite the policyholder to send additional information. That makes the stretch between the first estimate and the finished roof the time the record gets built: photographs of what the tear-off exposes, the roofer's measurements in writing, the invoice for the tarp. Keep each version; a revision read without the one before it can hide what moved.
Two more rules put names and reasons in the file. When the investigation includes a physical inspection, the assigned adjuster must give the policyholder a document with the adjuster's name and state license number, and later communications about the claim must carry the name and license number of the adjuster communicating. And where the payment is less than the carrier's detailed estimate specifies, the law generally calls for a reasonable written explanation of the difference, the letter meant to connect what was priced with what was paid.
How the Roof Section Is Measured: Squares, Pitch, and Height
A roof estimate counts area in squares of 100 square feet, measured on the roof's surface, not the footprint. A roof with a 6/12 pitch, rising six inches for each 12 inches of run, has about 12 percent more area than the ground it covers, and a steeper roof more. The diagram attached to the estimate, hand-drawn or from an aerial measurement report, gives each face's area and pitch and the lengths of the ridges, hips, valleys, eaves and rakes. Each roof quantity traces back to it, so a short quantity on yours can be checked face by face against the diagram's own figures.
Pitch and height change the price through labor lines, not the shingle line. Price lists commonly carry an additional charge for a steep roof, set in bands of pitch, and another for a roof two or more stories up, each applied to the squares that qualify. If your house is two stories with a steep main roof and neither line is on your estimate, that page deserves a second look.
The tear-off and install lines count different things. Tear-off counts the roof that comes off; the install line generally runs larger because it carries a waste allowance for shingles cut away at hips, valleys and edges, and a hip roof wastes more than a simple gable. Where the install quantity is no larger than the tear-off quantity, ask in writing where the waste allowance went.
The Rooms Under the Roof Opening and the Summary Page
Under a roof that opened, the estimate moves room by room, each line saying what is done to one surface: paint the ceiling or replace the drywall, the insulation, the walls, the floor, the contents moved out and back. A stained ceiling priced as paint and the same ceiling priced as drywall, insulation and paint are very different lines, and the description shows which your estimate chose. Photograph the attic above each stained ceiling before anything is removed; those photographs are the evidence a revised line would rest on.
The summary page lists the subtractions between the estimate's total and the check: replacement cost by coverage — dwelling, other structures, contents — less any recoverable depreciation, which on a replacement cost policy is generally held back for release as the work proceeds; less the deductible, applied as the policy's own hurricane deductible wording directs; and less any earlier payment. Find each of those figures on your summary page before setting your check against them. When they account for the check, the disagreement usually sits in the lines above.
Six Lines to Check on a Florida Hurricane Estimate
The first five come off the roof and its diagram; the last is paperwork Florida law puts in the file. Each takes a minute to find, or to find missing.
- The edges, ridges and valleys are counted in linear feet. Drip edge runs along the eaves and rakes, a starter course along the edges, ridge cap over the ridges and hips, and metal or membrane in the valleys. The diagram's lengths say how many feet each line needs; a line far shorter than its length, or missing, is the one to raise in writing, with the diagram's figure beside it.
- Pipe jacks, vents and flashing each have a line. Each plumbing-vent boot, each roof vent, the step flashing where a roof meets a wall, and the flashing around a chimney is priced by the each or by the linear foot. Your photographs of the roof before tear-off are the count to check against.
- Underlayment has its own line, by the square. The layer under the shingles is priced apart from them; if no line carries it, ask in writing which line does.
- Decking has a line, or a reason it doesn't. The sheathing under the roof can rarely be judged in full until the old roof is off, and roofing contracts commonly price replacement per sheet as found. Photograph each damaged sheet as it comes off, keep the count, and send both with your roofer's invoice.
- Soffit has a line where the wind reached it. The panels under the eaves are measured by area, apart from the roof covering. Photographs of open or missing soffit, taken before repairs, are the evidence for that line.
- The adjuster who wrote it is named. The name and license number belong on the inspection document and on later letters. When the estimate is revised, the name and license number on the letter sending the revision show which adjuster is communicating about it, and who a written question about the change goes to.
Florida's Estimate Rules and the Paths When a Gap Stays Open
What Florida's estimate rules create is a record: an estimate in the policyholder's hands, labels saying whether a number is final, a named adjuster, and an explanation letter for a shortfall. Under the statute, a failure to follow its claim-payment rules, the explanation requirement included, violates the insurance code but is not, by itself, the basis for a private lawsuit. On a claim, their practical weight is generally the paper they put in the file.
What remains after the summary page generally sorts into four kinds of gap: lines that are missing, quantities measured differently, prices that differ, and work the policy may not reach. The first two are what a supplement is built for — the diagram, the photographs and the invoice, sent back to the carrier against the line each one corrects. A disagreement over quantities and prices that survives a supplement is the ground many policies' appraisal clauses cover; whether appraisal can also settle what caused the damage generally depends on the policy wording and Florida case law.
The fourth pile is a different kind of question. Work the policy may not reach — a ceiling stain the carrier attributes to an older leak, for example — raises a coverage question, which generally turns on the policy wording, the inspection and any engineering rather than on the price of a line. Which pile a disputed dollar belongs in is itself a legal judgment, and it shapes each route above.
How Property People Law Approaches a Florida Hurricane Estimate
We start with each version of the carrier's estimate, read for its date and label, version against version. Then the roof: the diagram's squares and pitch against the roofer's measurement, the steep and high-roof lines, the linear feet at the edges, the decking and the soffit. Inside, we read each room under the opening for where the scope stopped.
Then we set the summary page against the check and the letter that came with it, and sort what is left into those four piles, because each calls for different evidence and a different route. A free review can sort your gap the same way, dollar by dollar.
Our FL residential and commercial property work is generally on contingency — we only get paid from the recovery, not your pocket. Past results in other cases don't guarantee outcomes in any new matter, and every claim turns on its own facts.
