Short answer: According to Fla. Stat. 627.70152, before you can sue a Florida residential or commercial property insurer you must first serve a written notice of intent to initiate litigation on the Department of Financial Services, which forwards it to the carrier. You must give this notice at least 10 business days before filing suit, and it must include an itemized presuit settlement demand. A court must dismiss any suit filed without it.
What does Fla. Stat. 627.70152 require before you can sue?
Fla. Stat. 627.70152, titled "Suits arising under a property insurance policy," adds a mandatory step before litigation. As a condition precedent to filing a property-insurance suit, you must give the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) a written notice of intent to initiate litigation on a form the department provides. You do not serve the insurer yourself: the department forwards the notice to the carrier at the email address the insurer designates under s. 624.422. The notice must be given at least 10 business days before you file suit, and it must include a presuit settlement demand.
Key takeaway: the notice is not optional paperwork. Skip it and the court must dismiss your case.
Who does the presuit notice requirement apply to?
The section states that it "applies exclusively to all suits arising under a residential or commercial property insurance policy." That is broad on the property side and narrow off it. If your dispute is with a homeowners, dwelling, condominium, or commercial property carrier over a first-party claim, the presuit notice applies. It is a procedural gate on the courthouse door for property-insurance litigation, not a change to what your policy covers.
How do you serve the notice of intent to initiate litigation?
You file the notice with DFS, not with the insurer. The department then forwards it to the carrier's designated email under s. 624.422. This routing matters: the trigger for the insurer's response clock is the department's delivery, so keep the DFS confirmation and the date it went out.
What must the presuit settlement demand include?
The notice must contain a presuit settlement demand that itemizes the damages, attorney fees, and costs. The attorney-fee figure is calculated by multiplying the number of hours actually worked on the claim by your attorney as of the date of the notice by a reasonable hourly rate. In other words, the fee line is a documented estimate of work already done, not a projection of the whole case.
What is the "disputed amount" under this statute?
The statute defines the "disputed amount" as the difference between your presuit settlement demand, not including the attorney fees and costs listed in the demand, and the insurer's presuit settlement offer, not including attorney fees and costs. It isolates the coverage gap, the money actually in dispute, from the fees-and-costs figures on either side. Getting your itemized demand right therefore does double duty: it satisfies the statute and it fixes one side of the disputed-amount calculation.
What are the presuit deadlines and timeline?
Every deadline in this section runs in business days except the appraisal cutoff and the tolling window, which run in calendar days. The clock the insurer must answer starts when the department delivers your notice.
| Step | What happens | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Serve notice of intent | You file the written notice with DFS; DFS forwards it to the insurer's designated email under s. 624.422 | At least 10 business days before filing suit |
| Insurer written response | Insurer must respond in writing (see options below) | Within 10 business days of receiving the notice |
| Reinspection, if asserted | Insurer reinspects the damaged property | 14 business days after the response asserting that right |
| Appraisal or ADR cutoff | If not concluded, you may file suit without giving the insurer additional notice | 90 days after the 10-day notice period expires |
| Limitations tolling | If the s. 95.11 deadline would expire within 30 days of the process concluding, it is tolled | 30 days |
Key takeaway: the 10-business-day minimum is a floor, not a ceiling. Reinspection and the 90-day appraisal or ADR track can extend the real timeline well past two weeks.
How must the insurer respond to the notice?
The insurer must respond in writing within 10 business days of receiving the notice, and its options depend on what you alleged:
- If the notice alleges a coverage denial, the insurer may accept coverage, continue to deny coverage, or assert the right to reinspect the damaged property. If it asserts reinspection, it then has 14 business days after that response to reinspect.
- For any other dispute (for example, an underpayment), the insurer must make a settlement offer or require appraisal or another method of alternative dispute resolution.
If the insurer routes you into appraisal or ADR and that process is not concluded within 90 days after the 10-day notice period expires, you or your attorney may immediately file suit without providing the insurer additional notice. Appraisal is one common path here; if the carrier invokes it, understand the Florida appraisal process before you agree to terms.
What happens if you skip the notice?
The consequence is blunt. The court "must dismiss without prejudice" any claimant's suit relating to a claim for which the required notice of intent to initiate litigation was not given. "Without prejudice" means you are not permanently barred, but you have to go back, serve the notice, wait out the timeline, and start over, all while your filing deadline keeps running. That is why the notice is best treated as the first step of litigation strategy, not an afterthought.
Does 627.70152 affect my deadline to file suit?
Yes, at the tail end. If your claim is not resolved during the presuit process and the s. 95.11 limitations period would expire in the 30 days following the conclusion of that process, the statute tolls that time limit for 30 days. In plain terms, the presuit process cannot run out your clock in the final month. That said, the tolling is narrow, only 30 days and only when the limitation is that close, so do not rely on it as breathing room. File early.
Does 627.70152 guarantee my attorney fees?
No, and this is where a lot of outdated advice circulates. The current section only requires the presuit demand to itemize and estimate attorney fees and costs (hours actually worked as of the notice date times a reasonable rate). When this section was first created in 2021, an earlier version tied fee recovery to the ratio between what the claimant recovered and the disputed amount. That formula is not in the current text and should not be treated as current law. Fee entitlement in Florida property suits is now governed by the broader 2022 reforms, not by this section. If someone quotes you a fixed fee-recovery percentage "from 627.70152," check the current statute.
Which reforms created and changed this statute?
The official History line shows a short but busy legislative trail. The section was created by ch. 2021-77 (SB 76), then amended by ch. 2022-268 (SB 2D) and ch. 2022-271 (SB 2A). It was not amended by the 2023 tort-reform package (HB 837). Those bills are distinct, and their attorney-fee and litigation changes should not be blurred together; SB 2D and SB 2A are what shaped the presuit process as it now reads.
How does Ocean Point handle a 627.70152 presuit notice?
We treat the presuit notice as the moment to put the strongest documented number on the table, because the itemized demand frames the disputed amount that follows. Our team documents the loss, builds the line-item damages, and prepares the demand so the DFS filing is complete and the insurer's 10-business-day clock starts clean. When a carrier routes a dispute into appraisal or ADR, that is familiar ground for us: Ocean Point is a licensed Florida public-adjusting firm (DFS license W829547) with 21 years in the field and more than 500 mediations behind it, led by primary public adjuster Eli Goins (license P159790). We are members of FAPIA. We do not practice law; on the litigation side we coordinate with policyholder counsel so the notice and demand line up with the suit that may follow.
Who this is for, and should you send the notice yourself?
If your carrier has paid the claim in full, you do not need this process at all. If the dispute is small and a documented follow-up moves the file, handle it directly and keep the notice in reserve.
Consider professional help when the carrier has denied coverage, lowballed a real loss, or forced you toward suit, because the presuit notice and its itemized demand are the record everything downstream is measured against. A weak or incomplete demand can undercut the disputed amount and hand the carrier an easy reinspection or ADR delay. A precise one starts the clock, frames the gap, and preserves your right to file. Public adjuster fees in Florida are capped by law (Fla. Stat. 626.854).
Bottom line: 627.70152 turns "file the notice with DFS at least 10 business days before suit, with an itemized demand" into the price of the courthouse door, so get the demand right the first time and keep every date.