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Home insurance providers in Florida have denied more than 37,000 claims following Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
According to data compiled by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLIOR), as of October 23, 84.2 percent of claims relating to Milton and 68.2 percent of Helene claims are not yet complete, which will either result in a payment or the claim being denied.
Residential claims make up a considerable portion of compensation applications. Others include commercial property, private flood, business interruption, and commercial and private car insurance.
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Across a total of 359,391 claims made so far for both incidents, 37,796, or 10.5 percent, have resulted in no payment being made.
Hurricane Milton hit Florida at the beginning of October, killing at least 16 people and leaving millions without power. Two weeks earlier, Hurricane Helene had carved a path of destruction through several U.S. states, killing more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to homes and infrastructure.
How many claims haven't been paid?
Hurricane Milton
As of October 23, there have been 237,231 claims made with Florida insurers. So far, 20,144 (8.5 percent) of all claims have been closed without payment, 16,946 of them were residential claims.
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Hurricane Helene
For Hurricane Helene claims, 122,160 claims have been made across all policy types, In total, 17,652 (14.4 percent) have been closed with no payment made, and 13,895 of them were for homes.
Why are insurance claims denied?
Insurance claims can be denied for a number of reasons, including but not limited to insufficient information, missed premium payments, fraudulent claims, or missed filing deadlines. A closed claim without payment is a claim deemed not currently payable by the reporting insurer, FLOIR stipulates.
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"There are a variety of reasons why a property insurance claim may be closed without payment," Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications at the Insurance Information Institute, previously told Newsweek. "Most likely, these are primarily flood claims that are not covered by a standard property insurance, condo insurance or flood insurance policy. You need flood insurance to cover a flood claim."
Previous hurricanes
Previous major hurricanes Idalia and Ian both have a higher rate of claim denials than Milton and Helene. However, given that these took place in August 2023 and September 2022 respectively, the data offers a more complete picture of overall claims that were accepted and denied.
Of all 727,897 Hurricane Ian claims that have been closed, 198,028 were closed without payment (25 percent). For Idalia, of 18,926 closed claims, 7,383 (39 percent) have been denied so far.
Florida residents pay some of the highest home insurance rates in the U.S. According to Bankrate, the average insurance cost for a home valued at $300,000 in October 2024 is $5,527 per year—way higher than the rate for a home of the same value in neighboring Georgia ($2,071) and Alabama ($2,745). The average home insurance premium in Florida is $3,242 more expensive than the national average of $2,285.
Do you live in Florida and have had an insurance payment rejected by your insurer? Get in touch with a.higham@newsweek.com.
About the writer
Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on Social Security, other government benefits ... Read more