Orlando storm & claim resource

Orlando is inland, but Central Florida is where crossing hurricanes converge. The 2004 season put three storms over the metro in six weeks, Charley cut through in August, then Frances and Jeanne. Irma raked the region in 2017, and Ian dumped more than a foot of rain over Orange County in 2022, flooding neighborhoods like Orlo Vista far from any coast. The resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Orlando claims turn on

Wind is covered, behind a hurricane deductible that is a percentage of the home’s insured value, not the loss. Away from the coast the fights are about roofs, screen enclosures, and rainwater: insurers routinely discount roof claims to repair rather than replace, treat pool cages and screen rooms under low sub-limits, and argue that interior water was wind-driven rain intrusion (often limited) rather than a covered opening. Where creeks and lakes overtop, that rising water is excluded flood needing NFIP coverage, a separate claim from the wind loss on the same house.

The law here

Florida gives you one year from the date of loss to give notice of a hurricane claim and 18 months for a supplemental claim (§ 627.70132, as amended by SB 2-A in 2023), and the carrier must pay or deny within 60 days of a complete proof of loss (§ 627.70131). For storms that are already years past, those notice windows have generally closed, but a claim you already filed that was denied or underpaid can still have options, and the deadline to sue on a filed claim is longer. These are general figures; confirm the current statutes and your own dates with counsel before relying on them.