68% of Residential Insurance Claims Closed Without Payment in Florida’s 2024 Hurricane Season

You buy homeowners insurance to protect against unexpected damages – like the devastation of a hurricane.

Unfortunately, many homeowners never actually receive payment from their insurance company after making a claim.

According to a new report from Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), 68% of residential insurance claims closed without payment after Hurricane Debby, which struck the state in August 2024:

• 3,503 residential insurance claims (32% of all claims) closed with payment.
• 7,397 residential insurance claims (68% of all claims) closed without payment.

10,900 homeowners filed claims after Hurricane Debby. Most of them didn’t receive payment.

Some insurers were worse than others. Florida’s state insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, for example, paid just 23% of claims, leaving 77% of claims unpaid.

Hurricane Debby is estimated to have caused around $131 million of insured losses across Florida.

73% of Commercial Claims Closed Without Payment

Numbers are even worse in the commercial insurance space, where 73% of commercial claims went unpaid after Hurricane Debby.

Out of 266 commercial insurance claims made after Hurricane Debby, most did not result in payment:

• Florida businesses made 266 commercial insurance claims in the wake of Hurricane Debby.
• Of those 266 claims, insurers closed 194 (73%) without payment.
• Only 72 claims (27% of all claims) closed with payment.

Most Hurricane Helene Claims Were Also Closed Without Payment

According to Florida’s OIR, insurers also closed most claims without payment after Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $2.4 billion in insured losses across the state. In the wake of the storm, insurers closed more claims than they paid:

• As of February 2025, insurers have closed 24,557 residential insurance claims linked to Hurricane Helene with payment.
• Insurers have closed far more residential insurance claims, 36,316 claims, without payment.
• 90.3% of Hurricane Helene claims have been closed.
• In other words, out of all the Hurricane Helene claims closed to date (60,873), only 40% have been closed with payment, while 60% were closed without payment, leaving most homeowners with empty pockets.

Although numbers are better than they were with Hurricane Debby, they still show insurers denying more claims than they’re paying.

Why Most Hurricane Claims Go Unpaid

How can insurers avoid paying for hurricane-related claims? Are homeowners and business owners doing something wrong?

Fortunately for us, Florida’s OIR tracks this data, identifying exactly why insurers did not cover unpaid claims:

1. Damage Was Below the Deductible (30% of Denials): 10,951 of 36,316 claims were closed without payment after Hurricane Helene because the damage was below the deductible. Remember: many coastal homeowners pay a named storm deductible. Instead of paying your normal homeowners insurance deductible of $2,500 per claim, for example, you could pay a fixed amount – like 2.5% of the value of your home. For many homeowners, the damage to their property after Hurricane Helene was less than their deductible. If a hurricane causes $12,000 worth of damage to your home and your named storm deductible is $10,000, it’s not worth making a claim.
2. Lack of Flood Coverage (21% of Denials): Many Florida homeowners also faced denied claims because of a lack of flood coverage. A standard homeowners insurance policy never covers flood damage. If your home was damaged because of rising floodwaters – say, a storm surge during Hurricane Helene – then your insurer could rightfully deny your claim because of the terms of your insurance contract. 7,487 of Hurricane Helene claims closed without payment (out of 36,316 total claims closed without payment) were linked to lack of flood coverage.
3. Lack of Other Coverages (16% of Denials): Homeowners insurance doesn’t cover everything. If you have an old roof that gets destroyed in a hurricane, for example, then homeowners insurance doesn’t cover the cost of a brand new roof. 16% of Hurricane Helene denials were “closed without payment due to denial of coverage (all other than flood),” according to Florida’s OIR. 5,783 claims fell into this category. Some homeowners lacked windstorm insurance, for example, which is required in many coastal areas.
4. Claim Withdrawn by Insured (8% of Denials): Some homeowners choose to withdraw their claim after filing it. They might decide it’s not worth paying higher premiums in the future, for example. Or, they may realize they don’t have supporting evidence to justify their claim. 2,961 claims out of 36,316 closed without payment were closed for this reason after Hurricane Helene, making it the 4th most common reason after the items above.
5. Claim System Not Capturing Specific Data Points (5% of Denials): Out of all the unpaid claims after Hurricane Helene, 5% were not paid because of the “claim system not capturing specific data points,” accounting for 1,916 out of 36,316 unpaid claims.
6. Other Reasons (20% of Denials): The remaining 20% of denials were caused by a variety of things, including no damage (0.4% of denials), inquiry only (0.6% of denials), and duplicate claims (0.5% of denials). One single homeowner failed to receive payment for their residential claim because of “incorrect date of loss.” Other reasons included “no policy in force,” “no coverage,” “partial denial,” “no policy in force,” and “no contact by insured,” among other reasons.
7. Fraud (0% of Denials): Interestingly, the Florida OIR reports 0 claims closed due to fraud after Hurricane Helene. In other words, insurers didn’t accuse a single homeowner of fraud when making a hurricane damage claim (or, it’s possible homeowners simply withdrew their claim before being accused of fraud).

Overall, the data shows insurers fail to pay more claims than the amount of claims they do pay.

If 100 homeowners in Florida make a claim after a hurricane, only 20% to 35% of those homeowners will receive payment, according to the stats above.

Remember: insurers can and will find a reason to deny your claim if they’re able to – and the latest report from Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation proves it.