Short answer: According to Fla. Stat. 627.712, a Florida residential property insurer must provide windstorm coverage, with narrow exceptions. Windstorm coverage can be excluded only if the policyholder personally writes and signs a statement declining it, every named insured signs, and any mortgageholder or lienholder approves in writing. Absent that signed rejection, windstorm damage is covered.
What does Florida Statute 627.712 do?
Fla. Stat. 627.712, "Residential windstorm coverage required; availability of exclusions for windstorm or contents," makes windstorm coverage the default on Florida residential property policies. In a state defined by hurricanes, the statute keeps insurers from quietly writing wind out of the policy.
Is windstorm coverage required?
Yes. An authorized insurer issuing a residential property policy must provide windstorm coverage, subject to limited exceptions (for example, certain risks eligible for Citizens Property Insurance Corporation). The coverage is included unless it is affirmatively and formally rejected.
How can windstorm coverage be excluded?
Only through a deliberate, documented rejection. The statute requires the policyholder to personally write, type, and sign a specific statement. For a natural person, the required statement reads in substance:
"I do not want the insurance on my (home/mobile home/condominium unit) to pay for damage from windstorms. I will pay those costs. My insurance will not."
The statute also requires:
- Every named insured to sign and date the statement.
- Written approval from any mortgageholder or lienholder, because wind exclusion affects their collateral.
- The insurer to retain the original statement and give the policyholder a copy.
- The exclusion to apply for the policy term and subsequent renewals unless the policyholder requests reinstatement.
Key takeaway: if you did not personally write and sign that statement, windstorm coverage is almost certainly still on your policy, no matter what an adjuster asserts after a storm.
Why this matters after a hurricane
Carriers sometimes treat wind damage as excluded, or steer a claim toward a separate windstorm carrier or endorsement that does not exist. Under 627.712, the burden is on the insurer to produce a valid, signed rejection. No signed statement, no valid exclusion.
How does Ocean Point apply this statute?
When a carrier asserts that windstorm is excluded, we ask for the signed 627.712 rejection in the underwriting file. If the carrier cannot produce a statement the policyholder personally wrote and signed, with the other named insureds and the mortgageholder, the exclusion does not hold and the wind loss is covered. We build the claim on that record.