Short answer: According to Florida's 2021-2023 property-insurance reforms (SB 76, SB 2D, SB 2A, and HB 837), you now have 1 year from the date of loss to report a new or reopened claim and 18 months for a supplemental claim, cannot assign post-loss benefits on policies issued on or after January 1, 2023, must serve a presuit notice at least 10 business days before suing your insurer, and can no longer recover one-way attorney fees, which HB 837 repealed.
What did Florida's 2021-2023 property-insurance reforms change?
Between 2021 and 2023 the Florida Legislature passed four separate laws that rewrote large parts of the property-insurance statutes in Chapter 627. Together they shortened the time you have to report a claim, barred most post-loss assignments of benefits, added a presuit notice you must serve before you can sue your carrier, and repealed the one-way attorney-fee statutes that once let a winning policyholder collect fees from the insurer. If your date of loss falls in this window or later, these rules govern your claim, not the older ones you may remember.
Here are the changes that most often affect a homeowner claim:
| Change | What the reform did | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of a new or reopened claim | Must be given within 1 year after the date of loss | Fla. Stat. 627.70132 (SB 76, ch. 2021-77; SB 2A, ch. 2022-271) |
| Notice of a supplemental claim | Must be given within 18 months after the date of loss | Fla. Stat. 627.70132 (SB 76; SB 2A) |
| Assignment of benefits (AOB) | No assignment of post-loss benefits on a residential or commercial property policy issued on or after January 1, 2023; any attempt is void, invalid, and unenforceable | Fla. Stat. 627.7152(13) (SB 2D, ch. 2022-268; SB 2A, ch. 2022-271) |
| Presuit notice of intent to litigate | Must be served on the Department of Financial Services at least 10 business days before filing suit, and not before the insurer has made a coverage determination | Fla. Stat. 627.70152 (SB 76; SB 2D; SB 2A) |
| One-way attorney fees | Repealed: Fla. Stat. 627.428 and 626.9373 no longer appear in the Florida Statutes | HB 837, ch. 2023-15 (effective March 24, 2023) |
Which bills made these changes, and why does the difference matter?
Four distinct chapter laws did this work, and treating them as one blurred "reform" leads to mistakes about which rule applied when. The History lines of the amended statutes and the bill records confirm the mapping:
- SB 76 (2021), ch. 2021-77: first shortened the claim windows and added the presuit-notice statute.
- SB 2D (May 2022), ch. 2022-268: amended the AOB and presuit-notice rules.
- SB 2A (December 2022), ch. 2022-271: cut the claim windows to their current 1-year and 18-month limits and finished the AOB restriction.
- HB 837 (2023), ch. 2023-15, effective March 24, 2023: repealed the one-way attorney-fee statutes.
Each has its own standalone page: SB 76 (2021), SB 2D (2022), SB 2A (2022), and HB 837 (2023).
How much time do you now have to file a claim?
Under Fla. Stat. 627.70132, notice of a new or reopened property claim must be given to the insurer within 1 year after the date of loss, and notice of a supplemental claim within 18 months after the date of loss. These are the current limits after SB 76 (ch. 2021-77) and SB 2A (ch. 2022-271). Miss the window and the carrier can deny on timeliness alone, so the single most important practical takeaway from the reforms is to report early. See Fla. Stat. 627.70132 for the full detail, and Fla. Stat. 627.70131 for the carrier's answering deadlines.
Can you still assign your claim benefits to a contractor?
For most policies, no. Fla. Stat. 627.7152(13) provides that a policyholder may not assign, in whole or in part, any post-loss insurance benefit under a residential or commercial property insurance policy issued on or after January 1, 2023, and that any attempt to do so is "void, invalid, and unenforceable." This restriction came in through SB 2D (ch. 2022-268) and SB 2A (ch. 2022-271). It ended the AOB model that had driven much of Florida's claims litigation. See Fla. Stat. 627.7152 for how the prohibition works and the narrow situations around it.
What is the presuit notice requirement?
Before you can sue your property insurer, Fla. Stat. 627.70152 requires you to serve the Department of Financial Services a written notice of intent to initiate litigation. That notice must be given at least 10 business days before filing suit, and it may not be given before the insurer has made a determination of coverage. The statute was added by SB 76 (ch. 2021-77) and amended by SB 2D (ch. 2022-268) and SB 2A (ch. 2022-271). In practice this adds a mandatory step and a documented demand before litigation begins.
Did the reforms really eliminate one-way attorney fees?
Yes. HB 837 (2023), ch. 2023-15, effective March 24, 2023, repealed the one-way attorney-fee statutes for insurance suits. Both Fla. Stat. 627.428 and Fla. Stat. 626.9373 now return "The statute you have selected cannot be found" on the official Florida Statutes site. HB 837's official title states that it "limits applicability of provisions relating to attorney fees in certain actions against insurers." HB 837 is broad tort-reform legislation titled "Civil Remedies," so it does more than this, but for property-insurance claims the headline is that a winning policyholder can no longer automatically recover attorney fees from the carrier. Read the HB 837 (2023) page for the wider tort provisions.
How does Ocean Point handle claims under the new rules?
We built our process around these deadlines because they now decide claims. Ocean Point Claims is a licensed Florida public-adjusting firm (FL DFS license W829547) with 21 years of experience and more than 500 mediations. Our primary public adjuster, Eli Goins (license P159790), leads files from first notice through settlement, and we are members of FAPIA. Practically, that means we docket your 1-year and 18-month windows the day we take a file, document the loss before the carrier's clock runs, and, when an insurer stalls or lowballs, we prepare the presuit and Civil Remedy Notice record that current law requires. Because one-way attorney fees are gone, getting the claim documented right the first time matters more than ever.
Who this is for, and what should you do now?
This hub is for any Florida homeowner or business whose loss occurred in 2021 or later, or who is deciding whether to reopen an older claim. If that is you, three moves follow directly from the reforms: report a new or reopened loss well inside the 1-year window, file any supplemental claim inside the 18-month window, and get professional documentation early because the fee-shifting safety net is gone. If your claim was already denied, underpaid, or delayed, the shortened windows make fast action essential. Bottom line: the old rules no longer apply, the clock is shorter, and the cost of a weak file is now yours, so document early and verify current law before you make any claim decision.