Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal just lately affirmed a abstract judgment entered in favor of a property insurer, holding that there isn’t any battle between the coverage’s three yr limitation for reporting hurricane claims and the requirement that the insured give immediate discover. In Navarro v. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, No. 3D22-0032, 2023 WL 219032, — So.3d —- (Fla. 3d DCA Jan. 18, 2023), the insured sought protection for Hurricane Irma injury almost three years after the storm. The court docket discovered that the coverage unambiguously required immediate discover, and that the insured didn’t rebut the presumption of prejudice in opposition to the insurer.
Background Information and Litigation History
Citizens issued a house owner’s insurance coverage coverage to Pedro Navarro that was in impact when Hurricane Irma allegedly struck Navarro’s dwelling on September 10, 2017. The coverage offered that the insured should report any declare for windstorm or hurricane injury inside three years after the date of the windstorm, mirroring the then-requirements below the since-amended Section 627.70132, Florida Statutes. However, the coverage individually imposed an obligation for the insured to offer “prompt notice” of the loss to the provider.
Navarro testified that he seen leaks all through his dwelling the day after Hurricane Irma and tried to restore his roof on a minimum of two events. However, he didn’t retain any paperwork associated to the repairs. Navarro reported the declare to Citizens 31 months after Hurricane Irma. Citizen’s area adjuster inspected the property in May 2020, and as a result of passage of time between Hurricane Irma and the inspection, the adjuster couldn’t decide if the injury at Navarro’s dwelling was a results of a single prevalence or if any of the injury was a results of Hurricane Irma. Citizens denied the declare based mostly on late discover.
The Policyholder Failed to Rebut the Presumption of Prejudice
The trial court docket granted abstract judgment for Citizens. The Third DCA affirmed, holding that Navarro’s declare reporting was not well timed and that the coverage was unambiguous. The court docket famous that Florida courts apply a two-step evaluation for figuring out whether or not a provider could deny a declare based mostly on late discover.
First, the insured should present well timed discover of the declare. The Court discovered that Navarro didn’t present immediate discover of the declare. He seen leaks and made repairs instantly after the hurricane, however didn’t report the declare to Citizens till greater than 31 months after the hurricane. The court docket held that below such circumstances, a “reasonable and prudent” particular person would consider that they’d have a declare for damages and will subsequently have reported the injury to their provider.
Second, if discover was not immediate, the insurer is entitled to a rebuttable presumption of prejudice, which the insured should rebut with proof. The court docket concluded that Navarro didn’t present proof adequate to rebut the presumption of prejudice. Navarro didn’t retain any data associated to post-Hurricane repairs and solely submitted conclusory affidavits from his public adjuster and contractors in opposition to Citizen’s movement. Because Navarro didn’t rebut the presumption of prejudice, the court docket held that Citizens was property entitled to abstract judgment based mostly on late discover.
Further, the Court held that the insurance coverage coverage was not ambiguous, because the “prompt notice” requirement and the three-year bar on reporting windstorm claims didn’t contradict one another. The court docket defined that “[r]ead together, the clauses require the insured to file any hurricane-related claim within three years of the storm, and, for viable claims, act swiftly upon discovering damages.”
Key Holdings
The deadline to report claims is neither a benchmark for nor nullification of the obligation to offer immediate discover. Once the insured has data of a loss, it’s incumbent upon the insured to report the declare.
Over the previous yr, the Florida Legislature has twice amended Florida Statutes Section 627.70132, which units deadlines for discover of property insurance coverage claims. Prior to July 2021, Section 627.70132 utilized solely to windstorm claims reported below insurance policies issued by admitted carriers. In July 2021, it was amended to use to each admitted and surplus strains insurers, and to extra broadly set deadlines for reporting claims, reopened claims, and supplemental claims arising from any peril. The Florida Legislature just lately amended Section 627.70132 once more to additional cut back the time for reporting claims, down to at least one yr for reporting a declare or reopened declare and 18 months for reporting a supplemental declare.
With these new statutory declare reporting deadlines in place, which can seemingly be mirrored in lots of insurance coverage insurance policies, we anticipate that some policyholders will argue that reporting a declare inside the statutory deadline is adequate. However, Navarro makes clear that reporting a declare inside the deadline is critical, however not adequate. While statutory reporting limitations set up the final date for an insured to report a declare, an insured should nonetheless act diligently and report claims with affordable dispatch after studying that their property has been broken. Failure to take action could end in a declare denial.
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