Whoever wrote your policy, we represent you
Ocean Point Claims is a licensed Florida public adjusting firm (FL DFS #W829547), and we work for you, the policyholder, on claims with every kind of Florida insurer. That includes Citizens Property Insurance, the state-created insurer of last resort; the private admitted carriers regulated by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and backed by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA); and the surplus-lines, or non-admitted, insurers that write the coverage the admitted market declines. The carrier's name changes the details of how a file is handled, but not the law that governs it or the way we build your claim.
The Florida carrier landscape
Florida's property market tightened sharply over the last several years. Coverage narrowed, wind and roof deductibles climbed, and Citizens grew as private carriers pulled back. Three broad categories matter for your claim:
- Citizens Property Insurance. The state-created insurer of last resort. Its claim handling follows the same statutory deadlines as private carriers, and its files most often turn on scope and causation rather than coverage.
- Private admitted carriers. Licensed and regulated by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. If an admitted carrier becomes insolvent, FIGA steps in for covered claims within statutory limits.
- Surplus-lines (non-admitted) insurers. These write higher-risk or specialty coverage the admitted market will not. They are not backed by FIGA, so complete documentation and timely filing matter even more.
We do not represent any insurer, and we are not affiliated with any carrier named here.
How we work a claim, whatever your carrier
The process is the same regardless of who insures you. We review your policy and the loss at no cost, inspect the property, and build an independent, line-item estimate in Xactimate, the same platform carriers use. We submit and negotiate the claim directly with your carrier and hold it to the response and payment deadlines the law imposes. When the carrier stalls or lowballs, we escalate through appraisal, mediation, or a Civil Remedy Notice.
Common tactics we counter
The underpayment patterns repeat across carriers, and each is answerable with documentation:
- Scope reduction. The estimate quietly drops line items, code upgrades, or full replacement.
- Wear-and-tear recharacterization. Sudden, covered damage is reclassified as gradual deterioration to fit an exclusion. Denying a covered loss without a reasonable investigation can violate the Unfair Claim Settlement Practices Act.
- Causation splitting. Wind, wind-driven rain, and flood are separated to push covered damage into an excluded peril.
- Delay as leverage. Missed statutory deadlines pressure you to accept a partial payment.
How often does a first outcome fall short? Florida's own catastrophe data is blunt: FLOIR reported that a large share of recent hurricane claims closed with no payment at all, roughly 35% of closed Hurricane Helene claims and about 38% of closed Hurricane Milton claims, most often on below-deductible or flood findings (floir.gov). We break the numbers down on our Florida claim denial statistics page. See our full guide to denied, lowballed, and underpaid claims and the carrier tactics we counter.
Your carrier's deadlines under Florida law
Since SB 2A took effect in 2022, Fla. Stat. 627.70131 sets hard clocks on every Florida carrier:
- Acknowledge the claim: within 7 days.
- Begin the investigation: within 7 business days of proof of loss.
- Conduct any physical inspection: within 30 days.
- Pay or deny the claim: within 60 days of notice, with statutory interest on late payment.
You have your own deadlines too: under Fla. Stat. 627.70132, a new or reopened claim must be reported within one year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months.