Everyone already knows flood is excluded. That is not where Florida claims die.
Flood gets all the attention, and it should — it is excluded from every homeowners policy, it requires a separate placement, and storm surge is flood rather than wind no matter how the storm arrived. If you own property on the Treasure Coast without flood coverage, start there.
But flood is the exclusion people know about. The claims that go badly in Florida usually involve something the owner had never heard of and never looked for: a screen enclosure with almost no wind coverage, a water sublimit buried in an endorsement, a sinkhole provision that turns out not to mean what the word suggests, or a detached structure limit set as a percentage of something else.
Those are the ones worth your afternoon.
The screen enclosure is probably barely insured
Almost every Florida home with a pool has a screen enclosure, and almost no owner knows how it is covered.
Screen enclosures, pool cages, and screened lanais are among the most commonly restricted items on a Florida homeowners policy. Some forms exclude wind damage to them entirely. Others apply a small sublimit that bears no relation to what the structure costs to rebuild, and rebuilding to current code after a storm is considerably more expensive than the original installation was.
This matters because screen enclosures are the first thing to go in a wind event. They are large, light, and designed to catch air. An owner who assumes the cage is part of the dwelling limit is usually wrong, and finds out in the week after a hurricane when every aluminum contractor in the county is booked.
Ask specifically: is the screen enclosure covered for wind, and at what limit. It is a two-minute question with a large number behind it.
Non-weather water is the most common claim and the most restricted
Water damage from inside the house — a supply line, a water heater, a failed valve, an air handler — is the most frequent homeowners claim there is, and Florida carriers have responded by restricting it.
Many policies now apply a sublimit to non-weather water damage that is a fraction of the dwelling limit. Some require the plumbing to be of a particular age or material. Nearly all draw a hard line between sudden and accidental discharge, which is covered, and gradual seepage over weeks or months, which is not.
That second distinction decides more claims than anything else on this page. A pipe that burst is a claim. A pipe that had been weeping behind a wall since spring is maintenance, and the fact that you did not know about it does not change the answer. It is also why the mold that follows is usually capped at a modest amount even when the water itself is covered.
Sewer and drain backup is separate again, and is generally not included unless it was added by endorsement.
Sinkhole does not mean what you think it means
This is a genuinely Florida problem and the terminology does the opposite of clarifying.
Florida homeowners policies include coverage for catastrophic ground cover collapse, which sounds comprehensive and is not. It requires a set of specific conditions to be met — the ground actually collapsing, visible damage to the structure, and the building being condemned or ordered vacated. A house with cracked walls and a settling foundation over a slowly dissolving limestone void frequently meets none of them.
Sinkhole loss coverage is the broader protection, it is optional, it costs extra, and many owners do not have it because nobody explained the difference. Carriers have also become selective about offering it, particularly in the parts of the state with the most active geology.
If your home is in an area with known sinkhole activity, find out which of the two you actually carry. They are not variations on a theme; they are different products.
Your roof may be insured differently than your house
Even where the roof is covered, it is frequently covered on different terms than everything beneath it.
Actual cash value settlement on the roof means depreciation comes off the payment, and on a covering that is a decade or more old that can consume most of a claim. Cosmetic damage exclusions allow a carrier to decline dents, marring, and granule loss that do not affect the roof’s function, which is a large share of what hail and wind actually do.
Neither appears on the front page of a quote. Both are endorsements, and both are increasingly common. The broader picture on roof age and placeability is in our homeowners insurance guide.
Other structures is a percentage you never chose
Detached garages, sheds, fences, gates, and freestanding structures fall under other structures coverage, which is typically set as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than as a number anyone selected.
On a property with a detached garage, a long run of fencing, and an outbuilding, that percentage is frequently short. Fences in particular are heavily restricted for wind on many Florida forms, and they are exactly what a storm takes down.
Docks, boat lifts, and seawalls are the sharper version of the same problem, because structures in or over water are commonly excluded outright rather than merely sublimited. Waterfront owners should read Boat Insurance for Waterfront Homeowners in Florida, because the dock usually falls between the homeowners policy and the flood policy and ends up covered by neither.
Tree removal is capped too, usually at a modest amount per tree and per occurrence, which does not go far when a mature oak comes down.
Your contents may be actual cash value
Many Florida policies now write personal property on an actual cash value basis by default rather than replacement cost.
The difference is substantial and it applies to everything: furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing. A ten-year-old television settles at what a ten-year-old television is worth, not what a new one costs. Replacement cost on contents is usually available as an endorsement and is worth asking about by name.
Separately, jewelry, watches, firearms, silverware, art, and collectibles are capped inside the policy regardless of your total coverage, and the theft sublimit is often lower still. Scheduling those items removes the cap and generally broadens the covered perils to include mysterious disappearance, which an unscheduled policy does not cover at all.
The clock is an exclusion too
Florida has tightened the deadlines for reporting property claims, and a claim reported outside the window can be barred regardless of whether the damage was covered.
This catches people after hurricanes more than at any other time, because damage that seemed minor at the time turns out to be structural a year later. The practical rule is to report anything you are unsure about promptly rather than waiting to see whether it matters. A reported claim that turns out to be nothing costs you very little. An unreported one that turns out to be serious can cost you everything.
Photographing the property before hurricane season, and again immediately after any storm, is what makes that conversation go well.
Vacancy changes the policy
A home left unoccupied for an extended period may fall outside coverage for vandalism, theft, and water damage under the vacancy provisions in most policies, and the period is shorter than people expect.
This catches snowbirds, owners between tenants, homes on the market after an estate, and properties under renovation. If a house is going to sit empty for a stretch, say so beforehand. A vacant or unoccupied endorsement, or a dwelling policy written for the purpose, solves it. Silence does not.
Worth checking on your own policy
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Whether your screen enclosure or pool cage is covered for wind, and at what limit
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Your non-weather water damage sublimit, and whether sewer and drain backup is included
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Whether you carry sinkhole loss coverage or only catastrophic ground cover collapse
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Whether the roof is settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, and whether a cosmetic damage exclusion applies
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Your other structures limit, measured against your fences, sheds, and detached garage
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Whether docks, lifts, and seawalls are covered at all
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Whether contents are written at replacement cost or actual cash value
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Which valuables are scheduled, and which are sitting under a sublimit
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Whether anyone would notice if the house sat empty for a season
We will read the policy, not the summary
Atlantis Insurance works with homeowners across the Treasure Coast — Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, and Vero Beach — along with Jupiter and Palm Beach County, and on Florida’s west coast in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, and New Port Richey.
Most of what is on this page does not appear on a declarations page. It lives in the endorsements, and finding it takes reading the actual form. Send us what you have and we will tell you what is in it.
Atlantis Insurance Inc 850 NW Federal Highway, Suite 129 Stuart, FL 34994 561-983-4333
General information only, not legal advice. Policy forms, endorsements, and Florida statutory provisions vary by carrier and change over time; refer to your own policy and confirm current requirements before relying on any of the above.
