Renting in Florida: hurricanes, flood and your renters policy

A Florida renters policy usually covers your belongings when hurricane winds damage them, subject to your deductible. It usually doesn’t cover flood or storm surge. For that, you need flood coverage, and it has to be in place well before a storm.

It’s easy to assume “hurricane coverage” covers everything a hurricane does. Here’s how it actually splits.

Wind is usually covered

Windstorm is one of the standard named perils on renters policies. If a storm breaks your windows and rain blows in and soaks your couch, that’s typically a wind claim on your renters policy.

Two things to check on your declarations page:

• Whether wind is excluded. In what Florida’s consumer guide calls the Wind-Pool Area, generally beachfront and coastal properties, some insurers exclude wind, and you’d need a separate wind policy.
• Your hurricane deductible, if your policy has a separate one. Under Florida law, a hurricane deductible on a personal residential policy applies once per calendar year with the same insurer, not once per storm (Fla. Stat. 627.701(5)). After that, other storms that year use the remaining hurricane deductible or your regular deductible, whichever is greater.

Flood usually isn’t

Water rising from outside, whether it’s storm surge or rain that floods the street and comes in under the door, is flood. Standard renters policies typically don’t cover it. Florida’s consumer guide notes that flood can sometimes be added by endorsement, or bought as a separate policy.

Your landlord’s flood policy won’t help either. FEMA is direct about it: the landlord’s flood insurance covers the building, not your belongings.

Florida law now puts this in writing for you. If you sign a lease of a year or longer, your landlord has to give you a separate flood disclosure at or before signing: whether they know of past flooding in the unit, and whether they’ve filed flood claims or received flood assistance for it. The state’s form says it plainly: “Renters’ insurance policies do not include coverage for damage resulting from floods.” If the landlord didn’t give it and a flood then badly damages your belongings (the law’s test is repairs or replacement costing at least half their market value), you can end the lease by giving written notice and moving out within 30 days of the flood (Fla. Stat. 83.512).

Flood insurance for renters

Renters can buy a contents-only flood policy through the National Flood Insurance Program if their community takes part in it. It covers things like clothing, furniture, electronics and kitchen items. Private flood policies are another option.

A few things to know before you buy:

• There’s a 30-day wait. A new NFIP policy usually starts 30 days after you apply and pay. Why to buy before hurricane season.
• Location in the building matters. In a basement, or below the lowest elevated floor of an elevated building, NFIP contents coverage is limited to a short list, like a washer, dryer and freezer.
• No hotel coverage. The standard NFIP policy doesn’t pay additional living expenses.

If the storm makes your home unlivable

Your renters policy’s loss of use coverage pays reasonable extra living costs when a covered loss forces you out. That’s the key word: covered. If wind made the unit unlivable, it usually applies. If flood did, and your renters policy doesn’t cover flood, it usually won’t.

Florida law also gives tenants an option. If casualty damage you didn’t cause substantially impairs your use of the unit, you can end the lease and move out right away, or move out of just the unusable part and pay reduced rent (Fla. Stat. 83.63). You must also be given the chance to collect your belongings when it’s safe, or a date within a reasonable time when you can. That’s about your lease, not your insurance, so read the statute and your lease, and get legal advice if it’s disputed.

If you’re with Citizens

Florida law is phasing in a flood insurance requirement for Citizens Property Insurance personal residential policies, reaching all non-exempt policies effective on or after January 1, 2027 (Fla. Stat. 627.351(6)(aa)). The statute itself names only no-wind policies and condo unit-owner policies as exempt, but Citizens’ own flood page says tenant content policies are exempt too. If you rent and have a Citizens policy, ask me to confirm how it applies to yours. Exempt isn’t the same as protected, though. Without flood coverage, your belongings aren’t covered for flood.

Good to know

1. Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30. The National Hurricane Center says most activity falls between mid-August and mid-October. Sort out flood coverage by early May.
2. Make an inventory before the season. A walk-through video of every room, saved somewhere off your phone.
3. Keep your policy handy. Save your declarations pages and claim phone numbers where you can reach them if you have to leave.
4. Moving units? Tell your insurer your new address before you move, so coverage follows you.

Want me to check yours before the next storm?

Upload your renters declarations page at /quote/, or send it to me. I’ll tell you whether wind is covered, what your hurricane deductible is, whether you have any flood coverage, and how to fill the gaps before the season starts.

Talk to Elona