What laws protect me when my insurance company denies my claim?
Two bodies of law. Claim-handling statutes set the deadlines and the written explanation your carrier owes you. Bad-faith statutes supply the remedy when it ignores them. In Florida the core sections are 627.70131, 626.9541, and 624.155. In South Carolina, 38-59-20 and 38-59-40. Each has its own page here.
| Florida claim clock | 60 days to pay or deny, basis in writing, 627.70131(7)(a) |
|---|---|
| Florida notice clock | 1 year to report, 18 months supplemental, 627.70132(2) |
| Florida suit clock | 5 years from the date of loss, 95.11(2)(e) |
| Florida bad faith | Civil Remedy Notice plus a 60-day cure, 624.155(3) |
| South Carolina | Improper practices 38-59-20, attorney fees 38-59-40 |
- • Florida runs your claim on a clock: 7 days to acknowledge, 30 to inspect, 60 to pay or deny with the basis in writing. Fla. Stat. 627.70131.
- • Florida runs a clock against you too: 1 year to report the loss, 18 months for a supplemental claim, 5 years to sue. Fla. Stat. 627.70132 and 95.11(2)(e).
- • Bad faith in Florida is statutory. File a Civil Remedy Notice, give the carrier 60 days to cure, then sue. Fla. Stat. 624.155.
- • South Carolina writes no day-counts. It writes a reasonableness standard, S.C. Code 38-59-20, and a fee shift, 38-59-40.
- • Statutes do not pay claims. They set deadlines the carrier can miss, duties it can breach, and a record you can build.
Florida statutes
Florida writes almost everything down: what the carrier owes you, by when, and what happens when it misses. The cost of that specificity is that the deadlines run both ways, and yours are shorter than the carrier's.
Civil remedy
The statutory bad-faith action. Two doors in, a Civil Remedy Notice filed with DFS, and a 60-day cure window that ends the case if the carrier pays.
Read the decode →Unfair claim settlement practices
The prohibited-conduct list: denying without a reasonable investigation, hiding the basis, sitting on undisputed amounts. It is the predicate for 624.155.
Read the decode →Duty to acknowledge communications; investigation
7 days to acknowledge, 30 days to inspect, 7 days to send you any estimate, 60 days to pay or deny with a written explanation of the policy basis.
Read the decode →Notice of property insurance claim
1 year to report a claim or reopened claim, 18 months for a supplemental claim, measured from the date the hurricane made landfall.
Read the decode →Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights
The rights summary the carrier must hand you within 14 days of your first claim communication, listing the 7, 30, and 60-day duties in plain language.
Read the decode →Claim settlement practices relating to property insurance
The matching statute. When replacements do not match in quality, color, or size, the insurer must make reasonable repairs in adjoining areas.
Read the decode →Representations in applications; warranties
The section carriers cite when they accuse you of lying. Application misstatements and post-loss statements are judged by different standards.
Read the decode →Limitations other than for the recovery of real property
Five years to sue on a property insurance contract, running from the date of loss. Per-storm deadlines from Ian through Milton in one table.
Read the decode →South Carolina statutes
South Carolina takes the opposite approach. No day-counts, a reasonableness standard, and a fee-shifting provision with real teeth. That puts the weight on your own dated record: reasonableness is measured against what the file shows.
Improper claim practices
Eight prohibited practices, judged without just cause and by frequency indicating a general business practice. No day-counts, a reasonableness standard.
Read the decode →Attorney fees on an unreasonable refusal to pay
Refuse payment for 90 days after demand without reasonable cause or in bad faith and the carrier owes your attorney fees, capped at a third of the judgment.
Read the decode →Three-year limitation
Three years to bring an action on a contract, express or implied. That is the outer wall on a South Carolina property policy suit.
Read the decode →Every clock in one table
Same claim, two states. The Florida column is a statute; the South Carolina column is usually a standard.
Florida's 1-year and 18-month reporting deadlines came in with SB 2-A on December 16, 2022 and apply according to the policy in force; older losses may run on the prior 2-year and 3-year windows. Check the date on your policy, then run the deadline countdown.
Which statute do you need?
Find the sentence that sounds like your claim. The statute on the right is the one that governs it.
What a statute is actually worth in a claim
Almost none of these sections pay you money by themselves. Fla. Stat. 627.70131(7)(a) says outright that failing to comply with it does not form the sole basis for a private cause of action, and 626.9541(1)(i)3 conditions most of its list on conduct committed with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice. What violations do is stack: they arm a written rebuttal, they give a regulator complaint something concrete to bite on, and they populate the Civil Remedy Notice that opens the door to 624.155.
The practical order is boring and it works. Get the letter tested against the statutes on the legality checklist. Request the entire claim file in writing, including every dated estimate. Write down each failure with its date. Then read what other policyholders filed against the same carrier in the public DFS Civil Remedy database ↗, because the same carrier usually runs the same play.
Statute questions, answered
Which Florida statute makes an insurance company pay my claim on time? +
Fla. Stat. 627.70131. It gives the carrier 7 calendar days to acknowledge a claim communication, 30 days after proof-of-loss statements to conduct a physical inspection, 7 days to send you any detailed estimate it generates, and 60 days after notice of the claim to pay or deny with a reasonable written explanation of the policy basis. Payment made after that 60-day mark bears interest at the rate in Fla. Stat. 55.03, accruing from the date the insurer received notice.
Can I sue my insurance company for bad faith in Florida? +
Yes, under Fla. Stat. 624.155, but not straight away. You first file a Civil Remedy Notice with the Department of Financial Services and serve it on the insurer, and the carrier gets 60 days to pay the damages owed or otherwise correct the violation. If it pays inside that window, the Florida Supreme Court held in Talat Enterprises v. Aetna that the statutory action never comes into existence.
How long do I have to sue my insurer in Florida and South Carolina? +
Florida gives five years to bring an action for breach of a property insurance contract, running from the date of loss, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(2)(e). South Carolina gives three years for an action on a contract under S.C. Code 15-3-530. Those are the outer walls. Florida also runs a separate, much shorter claim-reporting deadline: 1 year to report the loss and 18 months for a supplemental claim.
Does South Carolina have a 60-day rule like Florida? +
No. S.C. Code 38-59-20 sets a reasonableness standard rather than day-counts: acknowledge communications with reasonable promptness, adopt reasonable standards for prompt investigation, attempt a good-faith prompt settlement once liability is reasonably clear, and promptly explain the basis for a denial. The enforcement lever is 38-59-40, which shifts attorney fees when a carrier refuses to pay for 90 days after demand without reasonable cause.
Does breaking one of these statutes automatically mean I win? +
No. Most of these sections regulate insurer conduct rather than create a private right of action on their own. Fla. Stat. 627.70131(7)(a) says in terms that failing to comply does not form the sole basis for a private cause of action. What a violation does is supply the predicate for a 624.155 civil remedy, a regulator complaint, and a documented record that changes what your claim is worth.
- Fla. Stat. 624.155, civil remedy · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 626.9541, unfair claim settlement practices · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 626.9744, claim settlement practices relating to property insurance · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 627.409, representations in applications · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 627.70131, duty to acknowledge; investigation · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 627.70132, notice of property insurance claim · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 627.7142, Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights · flsenate.gov ↗
- Fla. Stat. 95.11, limitations · flsenate.gov ↗
- S.C. Code Title 38, Chapter 59, claims practices · scstatehouse.gov ↗
- S.C. Code 15-3-530, three-year limitation · scstatehouse.gov ↗
- Florida DFS Civil Remedy Notice system · apps.fldfs.com/civilremedy ↗
Statute summaries drafted August 2026 and simplified for education; verify against current statute. Not legal advice; consult an attorney about your specific claim.
Which statute is your carrier standing on?
Send the letter and the policy pages. You will get a straight answer on which sections are in play, which deadlines have run, and what the strongest next move is.
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▸ SEE THE FULL SITE MAP →Coverage summaries, policy-language quotations, dollar figures, deadlines, and chart examples throughout this site are general information based on typical or standard policy forms and are illustrative only: they are not a quote, a guarantee of coverage, or a promise of any outcome. Every insurance policy is different: your own policy, endorsements, and state law control, so read your policy and confirm current statutes. Weather imagery courtesy of NOAA, the National Hurricane Center, and the National Weather Service. Legal services are provided by Halversen Law. Nothing on this site is legal advice; consult an attorney about your specific claim.
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