Updated · Written by Five Star Claims Adjusting’s licensed public adjusters
A home is a total loss when it is destroyed, or damaged so badly that repairing it would cost as much as, or more than, rebuilding it. Fires and hurricanes cause most total losses in Florida. They are also the claims where the most money is at stake and where the most is left behind, because a total loss touches every part of the policy at once.
Actual total loss vs. constructive total loss
- Actual total loss: the structure is gone or cannot be repaired at all.
- Constructive total loss: the structure is still standing but the cost to repair it, including bringing it up to current building code, equals or exceeds its value or the policy limit.
Whether a home is a constructive total loss is often the first dispute. An insurer's estimate that repairs the damage room by room can come in well below the true cost once demolition, code upgrades and hidden damage are counted.
Florida's valued policy law
Florida has a valued policy law (section 627.702 of the Florida Statutes). When a building is a total loss from a peril the policy covers, the insurer is liable for the full amount of insurance on the building as stated in the policy — your dwelling limit — rather than its own estimate of what the building was worth. The law has limits: it applies to the building, not your contents; it applies to covered perils; and when a loss is caused partly by a covered peril such as wind and partly by an excluded one such as flood, the insurer is responsible only for the part caused by the covered peril. That split is one of the most contested questions after a hurricane.
Every coverage a total loss claim should include
- Dwelling (Coverage A): the structure itself, up to the dwelling limit.
- Other structures (Coverage B): detached garages, fences, sheds, pool enclosures.
- Personal property (Coverage C): everything you owned inside, documented on a contents inventory. Check whether contents are covered at actual cash value or replacement cost.
- Loss of use / additional living expenses (Coverage D): the extra cost of living elsewhere while you rebuild — rent, hotel, extra mileage, increased food costs. Keep every receipt.
- Debris removal: clearing the site, often available on top of the dwelling limit up to a stated amount.
- Ordinance or law: the extra cost of rebuilding to current code. Florida homeowners policies commonly include this as a percentage of the dwelling limit; check your declarations for the amount.
Mistakes that shrink total loss settlements
- Accepting the first estimate without checking that demolition, code upgrades and permits are included.
- Throwing away damaged contents before they are documented. Photograph everything first.
- Writing a contents list from memory in one sitting. Total loss inventories routinely run to hundreds or thousands of items; see our guide to building one.
- Not claiming additional living expenses from day one.
- Missing deadlines. In Florida, notice of a new or reopened property claim generally must be given within one year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months.
- Signing a sworn proof of loss before the full scope of the loss is known.
Your mortgage company is part of the claim
If you have a mortgage, the lender is usually named on dwelling payments, and checks will be made out to you and the lender together. The lender typically holds the money and releases it in stages as the rebuild progresses. Contact your lender's loss draft department early so the paperwork does not hold up the rebuild.
Five Star Claims Adjusting's licensed public adjusters review claims at no upfront cost, and we are paid a percentage of the settlement only if we recover money for you. If your claim has been underpaid, delayed or denied, ask us for a free claim review.