Fla. Stat. 95.11: five years to sue

One paragraph, three moving parts

Chapter 95 is Florida's limitations chapter. Section 95.11 sorts civil actions by how long you get, under headings like WITHIN FIVE YEARS. Property insurance sits at 95.11(2)(e): an action for breach of a property insurance contract, with the period running from the date of loss.

Three parts do the work. Five years, from the (2) heading. Breach of a property insurance contract, which is the ordinary suit to make the carrier pay what the policy owes. And from the date of loss, which is the trigger. The paragraph opens with Notwithstanding paragraph (b), and paragraph (b) is the general five-year rule for actions on a written contract. That word is what swaps the usual accrual point for a fixed calendar date.

For contrast, negligence actions in Florida now run on a two-year period under 95.11(5)(a). Property insurance keeps the longer window, but loses the flexible start date. On a storm claim the fixed start is usually the harder half.

The date of loss, not the date of the denial

This is the sentence that costs people their claims. The five years does not start when the carrier denied you, or when negotiations broke down, or when you finally hired someone. It started the day of the loss, and on a hurricane claim that is landfall.

Play out the arithmetic on a typical file. Storm hits. Claim reported inside the year. Six months of inspections, then a partial payment, then a denial of the rest. A year of supplements, a re-inspection, an engineer report, a complaint, an appraisal demand. That sequence eats three years without anyone behaving outrageously, and it leaves two. Which is why the date of loss belongs at the top of your file, in ink, from day one. The deadline countdown does the counting for you.

Suit deadlines, storm by storm

Five years from each landfall date. Landfall dates below are the ones in the National Hurricane Center tropical cyclone reports for each storm.

Dates are five-year anniversary arithmetic from published landfall dates, shown for orientation only. Tolling under Fla. Stat. 624.155(3)(e), the terms of your own policy, and which version of the statute governed your loss can all move the real date. Confirm yours with counsel before relying on it.

What five years is not

It is not permission to wait. Three shorter clocks close first, and every one of them can end a claim while the five years is still running.

Fla. Stat. 627.70132 barred a claim or reopened claim not reported within 1 year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim not reported within 18 months. Your policy carries its own conditions, including prompt notice and duties after loss. And a 624.155 bad-faith action has its own architecture: a Civil Remedy Notice, a 60-day cure window, and a ripeness requirement that coverage liability and the extent of damages be determined first.

In the other direction, 627.70132(5) makes clear that the notice section does not affect limitations set by another statute. Reporting on time keeps the claim alive. It buys no extra time to sue.

What actually stops the clock

Two named events, both in 624.155(3)(e): the limitations period is tolled for 60 days after the insurer receives a Civil Remedy Notice, and for 60 days after appraisal is invoked. That is what the statute provides.

What does not stop it: an open claim, an active negotiation, a pending re-inspection, a promised callback, a regulator complaint, or a carrier that keeps asking for one more document. Carrier delay is evidence for a bad-faith record; it is not an extension. If the five-year date is close and the claim is unresolved, that is the moment to get the file in front of a lawyer rather than send another letter.

95.11 questions, answered