Florida Insurance Law Changes 2026: Enacted Reforms

Last checked against the Florida Statutes and official sources on October 24, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

Florida insurance law changes in 2026 include enacted Citizens clearinghouse changes and updates to My Safe Florida Home and public-adjuster requirements. Several widely discussed proposals failed, including mandatory administrative resolution of property claims and expanded roof-age protections. The 2022-2023 reforms still matter when reporting a loss, renewing coverage or considering a lawsuit.

Which Florida insurance reforms actually became law in 2026?

The table separates enacted measures from proposals. The first two laws contain the main consumer property-insurance provisions discussed here; the other regular-session measures concern insurance-market regulation. A later special-session tax law also affects home hardening. These measures do not promise a particular renewal premium.

Enacted measure	Chapter law and effective date	Relevant change
CS/CS/SB 1028: Citizens	Chapter 2026-150; June 16, 2026	Changes commercial insurance clearinghouses and Citizens eligibility.
CS/CS/CS/SB 1452: Department of Financial Services	Chapter 2026-174; June 26, 2026	Updates My Safe Florida Home and public-adjuster communications.
SB 394: Reinsurance Intermediary Managers	Chapter 2026-146; July 1, 2026	Changes intermediary-manager definitions and treatment of certain underwriting managers.
CS/CS/HB 883: Protected Cell Captive Insurance Companies	Chapter 2026-72; July 1, 2026	Changes captive-insurer capital and protected-cell arrangements.
HB 7031-E: Taxation, Special Session E	Chapter 2026-239; generally July 1, 2026, with specified exceptions	Includes a home-hardening sales-tax refund provision.

The Senate bill histories identify these chapter laws and effective dates. For an individual policy, distinguish a law's effective date from a program implementation deadline or the date a renewal takes effect.

Citizens: commercial clearinghouses, not a universal homeowner transfer

SB 1028 requires separate commercial clearinghouses for authorized insurers and approved surplus lines insurers by January 1, 2027, subject to an exception where commercial support is insufficient. A commercial residential risk becomes ineligible for Citizens upon an authorized insurer's comparable offer no more than 20% above Citizens; commercial nonresidential risks become ineligible upon any authorized offer. A comparable approved surplus lines offer may make either commercial category ineligible if its total cost is no more than 15% above Citizens (sections 627.351 and 627.3518, as amended).

These are commercial coverage rules, including association coverage where applicable. Do not apply those thresholds indiscriminately to an individual homeowner's renewal. For related notices, see our discussion of Citizens depopulation.

My Safe Florida Home and public adjusters

SB 1452 revises inspection and grant eligibility, including qualifying attached residences of three stories or fewer. It extends the construction and final-inspection request deadline to 18 months after grant application approval. The former option to request an additional six months was deleted (section 215.5586(2)(j)). Program eligibility, approval and funding still must be checked before committing to work. It also requires a public adjuster, apprentice or adjusting firm to respond with specific information within 14 days after a claimant, insured or designated representative makes a written or electronic request for claim status, and to document the response (section 626.854(24)).

HB 7031-E separately provides home-hardening tax relief for qualifying purchases from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029. The provision limits the refund of previously paid tax to $500 per eligible residential property across the purchase period. The property must have a site-built dwelling, a homestead exemption and a just value of $700,000 or less; this is not an insurance-claim payment. Check the enacted provision before treating a door or window purchase as eligible.

Which notable 2026 insurance bills failed?

• HB 459, Property Insurance Claims: withdrawn before introduction on January 9, 2026. Its proposed mandatory Division of Administrative Hearings procedure did not become law.
• HB 815, Roofing Requirements for Property Insurance: died in the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee on March 13, 2026.
• SB 808, Roofing Requirements for Property Insurance: died in Senate Banking and Insurance on March 13, 2026. It did not enact expanded roof-age protections.
• CS/CS/HB 527, Mandatory Human Reviews of Insurance Claim Denials: died in Senate Rules on March 13, 2026. Its proposed human-review mandate is not enacted law.

A failed bill's page may still display a proposed July 1 effective date. That date does not activate a bill that never became law. Read its final history and chapter-law entry, rather than relying on the proposal's title.

What 2022-2023 reforms still control property claims?

SB 2-A: reporting deadlines, fees and assignments

December 2022 SB 2-A became chapter 2022-271, effective December 16, 2022, except where otherwise specified. It removed automatic one-way attorney-fee recovery in property-insurance litigation and prohibited post-loss benefit assignments under residential and commercial property policies issued on or after January 1, 2023, subject to section 627.7152(11) exceptions for subsequent purchasers with an insurable interest, specified powers of attorney and liability coverage. Older contracts require separate applicability analysis; SB 7052 expressly preserved existing contractual rights.

Current section 627.70132 requires notice of an initial or reopened property claim within one year after the loss and a supplemental claim within 18 months. These run from the loss, not the insurer's denial. The statute provides combat-deployment tolling and a separate condominium loss-assessment notice rule. Policy duties still matter; do not wait for the outer limit. Our Florida claim-deadline guide addresses that distinction.

For covered claims within section 627.70131, the ordinary pay-or-deny period is 60 days after notice. Statutory tolling applies during section 627.7015 mediation or contractual dispute resolution. It also applies when requested material information is not supplied within 10 days after receipt of a request sent at least 15 days before the pay-or-deny deadline, ending when the insurer receives it. Qualifying OIR orders may extend the pay-or-deny period by up to 30 days; policyholder fraud, lack of cooperation or intentional misrepresentation that reasonably prevents compliance may also affect timing. A missed deadline alone does not establish a private cause of action.

SB 7052 and HB 837: accountability and litigation

SB 7052 became chapter 2023-172, effective July 1, 2023. It strengthened regulatory oversight, claims-handling requirements and penalties, including documentation requirements for changes reducing an adjuster's estimate. It did not restore automatic one-way property-insurance attorney fees.

HB 837 became chapter 2023-15 on March 24, 2023. Among its insurance changes, negligence alone does not establish bad faith. Its limited declaratory-judgment fee provision expressly excludes residential and commercial property policies (section 86.121). For property-insurer extracontractual claims under section 624.155(1)(b), section 624.1551 requires an adverse court adjudication of breach and a final judgment or decree; paying an appraisal award does not satisfy that prerequisite.

What should homeowners check at a 2026 renewal?

Existing roof-age protections remain in section 627.7011: an insurer cannot refuse a qualifying homeowner's policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old. For an older roof, the homeowner must be allowed an authorized inspection at their expense; an inspection showing at least five years of useful life protects against refusal solely for age. Mobile-home policies are excluded, and other lawful underwriting grounds remain.

Compare the renewal declarations, endorsements, deductibles and roof valuation with the expiring policy. OIR's January 13, 2026 announcement reported an approved statewide average Citizens reduction of 8.7%, beginning at spring renewals. An average is not the reduction promised to every household.

Finally, read dispute provisions. Existing section 627.70154 permits mandatory binding arbitration only with specified safeguards, including a separate endorsement, actuarially sound premium credit or discount, signed election disclosing surrendered rights, compliance with section 627.7015 mediation before arbitration, and an offered policy without arbitration. This differs from the failed HB 459 proposal. Our insurance mediation guide addresses a related process.

Applying the changes to a specific claim

Keep the complete policy, renewal notices, loss date and claim correspondence together. A property-insurance lawyer can review which enactments and deadlines apply to a specific disputed claim.

Sources

• Section 624.155, Florida Statutes
• Senate: HB 837 bill history
• Section 215.5586, Florida Statutes
• Section 626.854, Florida Statutes
• Senate: SB 1028
• Senate: SB 1028 summary
• Senate: SB 1452
• Senate: SB 1452 enrolled text
• Senate: SB 394
• Senate: HB 883
• Senate: HB 7031-E
• Senate: HB 7031-E enrolled text
• Senate: HB 459 history
• Senate: HB 815 history
• Senate: SB 808
• Senate: HB 527
• Senate: SB 2-A
• Senate: SB 7052
• Senate: SB 7052 summary
• Senate: HB 837 summary
• Section 627.7152, Florida Statutes
• Section 627.70132, Florida Statutes
• Section 627.70131, Florida Statutes
• Section 86.121, Florida Statutes
• Section 624.1551, Florida Statutes
• Section 627.7011, Florida Statutes
• Section 627.70154, Florida Statutes
• DFS property-insurance reform chronology
• OIR January 2026 Citizens rate announcement