An information hub for South Florida homeowners

Your water damage claim, kept like a file — because that is what it becomes

The morning after a pipe bursts in a Hollywood home, two separate jobs begin. One is physical: stop the water, pull it out, dry the structure. The other is paperwork, and it starts whether you are ready or not. From the first phone call, your insurer opens a file with a number, a timeline, and a running record of everything said and sent. Homeowners who come out of a claim whole are usually not the ones who argued best. They are the ones whose own file was as complete as the carrier's.

This hub exists to help you keep that file. It explains how a Florida water damage claim actually moves — notice of loss, documentation, the adjuster visit, the scope of work, settlement, and the routes available when a claim stalls or comes back short. It is written for Hollywood and South Broward homeowners, where the housing stock runs from 1920s Hollywood Lakes cottages to Hollywood Beach condo towers, and where a claim can involve anything from a supply line that let go at 3 a.m. to water pushed in by a king tide.

Everything here is general information drawn from Florida statutes, state regulator guidance, and the way claims are ordinarily handled — not legal advice, and never a substitute for reading your own policy, which is the document that governs your claim. Where a page turns on a specific Florida rule, the statute is named so you can check it yourself or hand it to a professional.

General information — not legal advice

The claim journey, in five steps

Notice of loss. You report the damage to your insurer and receive a claim number. In Florida, when you report it can matter as much as what you report — the deadlines page explains the statutory clock.
Mitigation and documentation. You stop the damage from getting worse and record its full extent: dated photographs, moisture readings, an inventory of what was ruined. This record, built in the first days, is what the rest of the claim stands on.
The adjuster visit. The carrier sends an adjuster to inspect and write a scope — a room-by-room list of repairs with priced line items. What you show, ask, and get in writing at this visit shapes the first offer.
Scope, estimate, settlement. The insurer issues its estimate and payment, usually minus depreciation and your deductible. If the contractor's findings differ from the scope, a supplemental claim with documentation is the normal way to close the gap.
Rebuild and close-out. Repairs proceed against the agreed scope. The file closes when the work is done, the depreciation holdback is recovered where your policy allows it, and every invoice and photo is in one place.

What is in the file

The Florida claim guide

The pillar walkthrough: the whole process from first notice of loss to settlement, what the insurer does at each stage, what the homeowner does, and where restoration documentation fits into the file.

Documenting the damage

Dated photos and video, moisture readings and daily logs, item inventories, receipts and mitigation records — how each piece is made, and why documentation, more than argument, decides outcomes.

The adjuster visit

What happens when the adjuster comes, how a scope of work is written, what estimating line items mean in plain words, and what to get in writing before the visit ends.

Denied or underpaid claims

The reasons Florida carriers actually give — late notice, gradual-leak exclusions, no mitigation, thin documentation — and the ordinary next steps: supplements, the appraisal clause, outside help.

Florida claim deadlines

The statutory clocks: one year to report a claim, eighteen months for a supplemental, and what changed in Florida law in December 2022, including the end of assignment of benefits on newer policies.

Flood vs homeowners cover

Why a burst pipe and a flooded street are two different insurance events, what a flood policy covers that a homeowners policy does not, and the gray areas in between.

The working tool: the claim file checklist

A printable checklist of everything a complete claim file contains — declarations page, claim number, dated photos, moisture logs, inventories, receipts, the adjuster's scope, and a correspondence log — grouped in the order you will need them, with a live counter as you tick items off.

Who keeps this hub

This guide is published as a homeowner resource by the team behind Water Damage Hollywood Florida, a locally owned restoration company based at 1950 Grant St in Hollywood. The company's crews handle extraction, drying and rebuild as one team, and their working habit — thermal imaging and moisture mapping on every job, dated photographs and daily moisture logs kept for insurers — is the same habit this hub teaches homeowners to keep for themselves. The about and sources page explains the hub's method and lists the Florida sources it relies on.