When Irma Tore Through the Middle Keys
Marathon is the largest city in the Middle Keys, spread across Vaca Key and several adjacent islands in Monroe County, a community of waterfront homes, vacation rentals, mobile-home and condo inventory, and a working sport-fishing industry. In 2017 Hurricane Irma came ashore in the Lower Keys, a short distance down the chain, and drove catastrophic wind and storm surge across the entire archipelago, including Marathon. Roofs failed, surge pushed through ground floors, and docks and seawalls were undermined across the islands. Years later the storm is far from settled here. Many Marathon claims have moved through multiple supplemental cycles, and a payment that fell short the first time is not necessarily the last word. If your Marathon property took wind, surge, or water damage in Irma or any storm since, Ocean Point Claims can review where the claim actually stands. Call (888) 824-1306.
Why Marathon Losses Complicate a Claim
A loss on Vaca Key rarely fits a desk adjuster's template, because barrier-island geography stacks several perils into a single event. A storm here can deliver wind, wind-driven rain, and storm surge at once, and Florida policies treat each one differently. Surge is usually excluded from a standard homeowners policy and routed to separate flood or NFIP coverage, so carriers have an incentive to call wind damage flood and shift the cost. Layered coverage forms make that fight worse, since a single Marathon property may carry a homeowner policy, a separate windstorm policy, and an NFIP flood policy, each with its own deductible and exclusions. The building stock adds more. Marine-grade construction, salt-air corrosion that quietly weakens fasteners and metal roofing, elevated waterfront homes, and the mobile-home and condo inventory lining the islands all behave differently under load. Pricing a low waterfront cottage like a mainland tract house misses most of what the property is owed. This coastal exposure runs down the chain through Key West and up to mainland Homestead.
Claims We Handle in Marathon
Ocean Point Claims represents Marathon policyholders across the full range of property losses. That includes hurricane and storm damage, roof damage on tile, metal, and shingle systems, water damage from surge and wind-driven rain, and the mold damage that follows untreated intrusion. We work single-family waterfront homes, vacation-rental properties, mobile homes, condo and association buildings, and the small commercial and sport-fishing structures along the working waterfront. We also take on denied or underpaid claims and supplemental claims, including older Irma files still inside their window. Whether the loss is fresh or years old, the question is the same: does the payment match the policy and the real cost to repair.
Where Marathon Settlements Fall Short
Underpayment in Marathon tends to follow a pattern. Scope reduction is common, where the carrier acknowledges damage but writes an estimate that leaves out tear-off, code upgrades, or the interior work that follows a soaking. Causation disputes are frequent after a surge event, with the insurer assigning the loss to excluded flood rather than covered wind, and on a layered homeowner, windstorm, and NFIP stack that split can quietly erase a large share of the claim. Matching becomes a fight on weathered and marine-grade materials, because partial repairs to roofing, siding, or interior surfaces rarely blend with what salt air has aged. Florida law speaks to this. Under Fla. Stat. 626.9744, when a repair does not reasonably match the undamaged portion, the line-item allowance must account for that. Knowing where a Marathon estimate has been quietly trimmed is the difference between a token check and a real recovery.
How Ocean Point Builds the Claim
Our work starts with a free review of your policy and your loss. A licensed Florida public adjuster inspects the property on-site, documents the damage across the roof, envelope, interior, docks, and outbuildings, and reads your full policy, including the windstorm and flood forms, so no coverage is left on the table. From there we prepare a line-item estimate in Xactimate, the same software carriers use, and negotiate directly with the insurer under the prompt-payment timelines of Fla. Stat. 627.70131. When a carrier will not pay fairly, we escalate: appraisal over the amount of loss, state-sponsored mediation, and where bad faith appears, a Civil Remedy Notice under Fla. Stat. 624.155. Older Marathon losses are not abandoned either, because supplemental and reopened claims are pursued under Fla. Stat. 627.70132, which still matters for the many Irma files that have cycled more than once here. Throughout, Ocean Point Claims represents you, the policyholder, never the insurance company.
Fees, Your Rights, and the Next Step
Ocean Point Claims works on a contingency basis under Fla. Stat. 626.854, so our fee is a percentage of what we recover for you and nothing is owed up front. If there is no recovery, there is no fee. Florida law also gives you a 10-day right to cancel the agreement after signing, and you keep that right with us. There is no cost to find out whether your claim was shorted, and the carrier already has adjusters working its side of every file. You deserve the same on yours. Ocean Point Claims is licensed in Florida, DFS license number W829547, and serves Marathon, Monroe County, and the wider Florida statewide public adjuster market. Call (888) 824-1306 or reach us through our contact page for a free, no-obligation review of your Marathon claim.