Who Pays for Code Upgrades After a Florida Storm
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What to do right now
- 1Find the declarations page of your policy and look for law and ordinance coverage.
- 2If nobody got your written refusal, Florida law treats the policy as including it at 25% of the dwelling limit.
- 3Ask your contractor to itemise every code-driven cost separately, with the provision that requires it.
- 4Send those items to your adjuster as their own request, not buried in a revised total.
- 5Check whether the damage is confined to one portion of the structure - that changes what the coverage reaches.
The rest of this page explains how to compare the written estimates once the immediate danger is handled.
7 min read
There is a gap that shows up on storm claims and surprises almost everyone who meets it. Your insurer scopes what was damaged. The building department requires what today's code demands. When those two numbers differ, somebody has to pay the difference - and in Florida there is a specific coverage for exactly that, which most policies carry whether or not the homeowner knows it.
The gap this covers
Insurance pays to put back what the storm took. Building codes govern what you are allowed to build now. On an older house those are rarely the same thing, and the difference is not a contractor padding an estimate - it is the cost of legal compliance.
A roof is where it shows up most often, because roofing code has moved a long way in hurricane states. Fastening schedules, underlayment, secondary water barriers, drip edge, deck attachment: a roof put on twenty years ago may need work that was never part of the damaged assembly before an inspector will sign it off.
Law and ordinance coverage is the part of a homeowners policy that pays for that increased cost of construction. Without it, the homeowner covers the difference personally.
In Florida, you probably already have it
Section 627.7011 of the Florida Statutes requires insurers to offer law and ordinance coverage, and lets the policyholder choose a limit of 25% or 50% of the dwelling limit.
The part worth knowing is what happens when nobody chooses. The statute says that unless the insurer obtains the policyholder's written refusal, any policy covering the dwelling is deemed to include law and ordinance coverage limited to 25% of the dwelling limit. A refusal has to be a written one, on a form approved by the state.
So the practical question is not usually whether you bought it. It is whether anyone applied it to your claim. Start with your declarations page, and if the coverage is not shown, ask your insurer for the signed refusal form.
The limit that catches people out
The same statute puts a boundary on the coverage: it applies only to repairs of the damaged portion of the structure, unless the total damage to the structure exceeds 50% of its replacement cost.
That sentence decides a lot of roof claims. If a storm damaged one slope, the coverage is aimed at bringing that repair up to code - not at rebuilding the rest of the roof to today's standard because the code would prefer it. Once the damage passes half the replacement cost of the structure, the picture changes.
It is also why the damaged percentage is worth establishing early and in writing. It drives the code question and the coverage question at the same time.
How it interacts with the 25% roof rule
Florida has a separate building-code rule about roofs, often quoted as the 25% rule, and the two get confused constantly. They answer different questions. The roof rule decides what the building department will require. Law and ordinance coverage decides who pays for it.
Since 2022 a roof built to the 2007 Florida Building Code or later has been able to cross the 25% threshold without the whole system being brought up to current code. Where that applies, the code-driven cost is smaller - and so is the claim for it. Where it does not, the upgrade cost is real and the coverage is what meets it. Our guide to the 25% rule at /learn/florida-25-percent-roof-rule covers which side of that line a roof sits on.
Getting these the wrong way round produces the two classic errors: paying out of pocket for an upgrade the policy would have covered, or claiming a full-system upgrade the code never required.
What to put in writing
Ask the contractor to list code-required items as their own line items, each with the provision that requires it, rather than folding them into a larger number. An adjuster can approve a documented code item; they cannot approve an unexplained increase.
Keep the permit paperwork with the claim file. The building department's requirements are the evidence that the cost was not optional.
If the adjuster's scope leaves code items out entirely, that is a supplement rather than an argument - a documented request for something the policy already covers. Our supplement guide walks through how to put one together.
This is a plain-English explanation, not legal advice or a coverage opinion on your policy. Your policy language and your adjuster govern; a licensed public adjuster or attorney is who to ask about a specific dispute.
Before you accept a scope that leaves out code costs
- ✓You have checked the declarations page for law and ordinance coverage
- ✓If it is not shown, you have asked the insurer for the written refusal form
- ✓The damaged percentage of the structure is documented
- ✓Every code-required item is a separate line with the provision that requires it
- ✓The permit record is in the claim file
- ✓You know whether the roof predates the 2007 Florida Building Code
- ✓Code items that were left out have been submitted as a supplement, in writing
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Plain-English answers
Frequently asked questions
Do I have law and ordinance coverage in Florida?
Most likely. Section 627.7011 deems a policy to include it at 25% of the dwelling limit unless the insurer obtained your written refusal on a state-approved form. Check your declarations page first, and ask for the refusal form if the coverage is not listed.
Is 25% of the dwelling limit enough?
It depends on how far your house is from current code. The statute lets a policyholder select 50% instead, which is worth considering at renewal for an older home in a hurricane zone where code upgrade costs run higher.
My insurer says the coverage only applies to the damaged part. Is that right?
That matches the statute, which limits the coverage to repairs of the damaged portion unless total damage to the structure exceeds 50% of its replacement cost. Which is why documenting the extent of the damage matters as much as documenting the code requirement.
Is this the same as the 25% roof rule?
No, and the shared number is a coincidence worth ignoring. The roof rule is building code and decides what work is required. Law and ordinance coverage is insurance and decides who pays for it.