Selling a house during hurricane season in Florida: insurance pauses, flood rules and storms before closing

The season and why it matters for a sale

The National Hurricane Center says "the official hurricane season for the Atlantic basin is from June 1 to November 30," and "the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is September 10." That is half of every year.

A storm does not need to hit your house to affect your sale. One effect comes through insurance. A buyer who borrows needs a homeowner's policy before the lender will fund the loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says lenders "generally require proof that you have homeowner's insurance." When insurers stop writing new policies during a storm watch, the buyer's closing can wait.

This guide explains the rules that come up when you sell during the season. It gives no legal or insurance advice. Ask a Florida lawyer about your contract and a licensed insurance agent about coverage.

Binding suspensions: when new policies stop

Insurers call the moment a policy takes effect "binding." During a storm watch, insurers can suspend binding, which means they stop starting new policies or raising coverage until the storm passes.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation publishes its rule in each binding alert. In its alert of July 19, 2026: "Agents may not bind applications for new coverage or policy changes for increased coverage, regardless of effective date, when a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for any part of the State of Florida."

That suspension started at 11 a.m. ET on July 19, 2026, and Citizens lifted it at 2 p.m. ET on July 22, 2026, after Tropical Storm Bertha. Citizens issued another statewide suspension on October 7, 2026. Private insurers set their own rules, so ask the buyer's agent which insurer the buyer is using and what its rule is.

Plan the closing around a possible pause

Under this rule, a watch for any part of Florida is enough, even if the storm never reaches your county. So the safest plan is to get the buyer's policy bound well before closing, while no watch is in effect.

• Ask the buyer to get insurance quotes in the first days of the contract.
• Ask that the policy be bound as soon as the buyer chooses it, with a start date on the closing day.
• Put a clause in the contract that extends the closing date by a set number of days if binding is suspended.
• Share roof age, wind mitigation reports and permits early, because insurers ask for them.
• Keep your own policy in force until the day of closing.

Old roof in Florida: can the buyer get insurance? →

What the buyer's insurer will ask about the roof

In Florida, the roof's age can decide whether a buyer gets a policy at all, and during a watch no new Citizens policy can start, so roof questions need answers early. Florida Statutes section 627.7011(5) says an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a homeowner's policy solely because of the roof's age when the roof is less than 15 years old. For a roof 15 years or older, the insurer must let the owner get an inspection first, and may not refuse solely because of age if the inspection shows 5 or more years of useful life left.

The roof's age is counted from the last date 100 percent of its surface was built or replaced. Find the roofing permit and invoice before you list, and give copies to the buyer in the first days of the contract, so the buyer's insurer has them before any watch is issued.

Flood: the disclosure and the insurance

Florida Statutes section 689.302 requires a seller of residential property to give the buyer a written flood disclosure "at or before the time the sales contract is executed." The form asks three questions, each answered by checking a box:

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program brochure (September 2024) says many owners do not find out "that their homeowners insurance policy doesn't cover flooding until it's too late." Flood coverage is a separate policy. It also says "there is usually a 30-day waiting period before the policy goes into effect," with an exception: "If you initially purchased flood insurance while securing, adjusting or renewing a loan for your property, there is no waiting period. Coverage goes into effect when the loan is closed."

The same brochure says the federal government requires flood insurance on homes in a special flood hazard area when they secure a loan from a federally regulated lender, and that lenders must tell borrowers before closing. For a single-family home, the program's building coverage goes up to $250,000.

• Whether the seller knows of any flooding that damaged the property during the seller's ownership
• Whether the seller filed an insurance claim for flood damage to the property
• Whether the seller received assistance for flood damage, including from the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Your hurricane deductible while you own the house

Until closing, the house is yours and so is the risk. Florida Statutes section 627.701(3)(a) requires insurers to offer hurricane deductibles "equal to $500, 2 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent of the policy dwelling limits." A percentage deductible is a share of the dwelling limit: 2% of a $300,000 dwelling limit is $6,000 that you pay before the policy pays.

Section 627.701(5)(a) says the hurricane deductible "shall apply on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses that occur during the calendar year" for policies from the same insurer or insurer group. If a second hurricane hits later in the same year, you do not pay a second full hurricane deductible to that insurer.

Florida Statutes section 627.4133(2)(f) protects you from a gap: if a cancellation or nonrenewal would take effect during a hurricane, the effective date is "extended until the end of the duration of such hurricane."

If a storm damages the house before closing

Read the contract first. A purchase contract can have a paragraph on damage or casualty that says what happens: whether you repair, whether the price changes, or whether the buyer can cancel. Follow it, and put every notice in writing.

Then protect the claim. Take photos before anything is cleaned or moved, stop further damage with a tarp or boards, and report the loss to your insurer. Florida law sets claim deadlines that keep running whether or not you sell.

• Photos and video of every room and the roof, with the date.
• Report the claim, and write down the claim number and the adjuster's name.
• Tell the buyer in writing, as the contract requires.
• Agree in writing who gets the claim money if the sale goes ahead.

Storm damage in Florida: the claim deadlines →

Badly damaged in a flood zone: the 50% rule

A house in a flood zone that is badly damaged can face a rule that changes what repairs are allowed. Federal flood rules in 44 CFR 59.1 define "substantial damage" as damage "whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred." "Substantial improvement" uses the same 50 percent test for any rebuilding, addition or other improvement.

Local governments apply the rule through their floodplain programs. Hillsborough County's page on the FEMA 50% Rule says it applies in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area when "the cost of repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or addition equals or exceeds 50% of a building's market value," and that "the structure must be brought into compliance with current floodplain requirements." The county lists elevating the structure, relocating it, or demolishing and rebuilding as the options a design professional may help choose from. It counts "permits pulled within the prior 12 months from the date of your most recent permit application."

For a seller, this means two things. A buyer who plans to repair a heavily damaged house in a flood zone will ask whether the 50% rule applies, and that changes what the house is worth to them. And repairs you pull permits for can count toward the 50% for the next 12 months. Ask your county's floodplain office before you start large repairs on a house you plan to sell.

A property tax refund if the house could not be lived in

Florida Statutes section 197.319 offers a refund of property tax when "a residential improvement is rendered uninhabitable for at least 30 days due to a catastrophic event." It covers homestead and nonhomestead homes.

The refund is figured from how much of the home's value was lost and how many days it could not be lived in, out of 365, applied to the taxes you paid on time for that year. The owner applies to the county property appraiser on the state form "no later than March 1 of the year immediately following the catastrophic event."

If you sell a damaged house, ask the title company how the tax proration and any refund will be handled at closing, and keep the March 1 deadline on your calendar.

Contractors at the door after a storm

After a storm, contractors may come to your door. Florida Statutes section 489.147 limits what they may do. A contractor may not offer "a rebate, gift, gift card, cash, coupon, waiver of any insurance deductible" or anything else of value for letting it inspect your roof or for making a roof insurance claim. Unless it is a licensed public adjuster, a contractor may not interpret your policy, advise you on coverage or adjust the claim for you.

There is also a cancellation right. Section 489.147(6)(a) lets an owner cancel "without penalty or obligation within 10 days" after signing or the official start date, whichever comes first, when the contract was signed within 180 days of an event under a state of emergency declared by the Governor and the house is in the declared area.

Before you sign anything, check the contractor's license, get a written estimate, and talk to your insurer. If you plan to sell, a quick contract for repairs can also commit you to work a buyer would have priced differently.

How to check a cash buyer, and scam warnings →

What to tell the buyer after a storm

Storm damage is part of the house's story, and Florida law asks sellers to share what they know. The flood disclosure in section 689.302 asks directly about flood damage, flood insurance claims and flood assistance during your ownership. For other damage, Florida's Supreme Court held in Johnson v. Davis (1985), a case about a leaking roof, that a seller who knows of facts materially affecting the value that the buyer cannot readily see must disclose them.

Write down what happened, the date, what was repaired, by whom, with what permit, and where any insurance claim stands. Give it to the buyer before the contract is signed, and keep a signed copy.

Selling as is: what to tell the buyer →

A season checklist for sellers

Use this list before and during a sale between June 1 and November 30.

Lower premiums help buyers too

Insurance is part of a buyer's monthly cost. Florida Statutes section 627.0629(1) requires residential property insurance rate filings to include "actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials" for fixtures or construction methods "demonstrated to reduce the amount of loss in a windstorm." A wind mitigation inspection report lists the wind-resistant features an inspector finds on the house, which the buyer's insurer can use.

If you plan to stay a while before selling, the My Safe Florida Home program in Florida Statutes section 215.5586 can help owner-occupied homestead houses built before January 1, 2008, with an insured value of $700,000 or less, pay for some hurricane work, including roof covering replacement and opening protection. Grants depend on yearly state funding and must be finished within 18 months of approval.

Selling in the season: a timeline

Here is one way to line up a sale between June 1 and November 30.

The season in numbers

These are the dates, limits and deadlines from this guide in one place, each from the source named in the guide.

If your own insurer drops you during the sale

Your policy has to stay in force until the deed is recorded. If a nonrenewal or cancellation notice arrives while the house is for sale, check the dates. Florida Statutes section 627.4133(2)(b) requires at least 120 days' notice before a nonrenewal, cancellation or termination of a personal residential policy takes effect, with shorter periods in listed cases, such as 10 days for nonpayment of premium.

Use that time. Ask your agent for a replacement policy early in the 120 days, before a storm watch can pause new policies. If you have a mortgage, tell your lender, since lenders require proof of insurance.

Questions to ask the buyer's agent

A short call with the buyer's agent in the first days of the contract can save the closing date.

• Is the buyer paying cash or using a loan?
• Which insurer is the buyer using, and has the policy been bound?
• Does the buyer's lender require flood insurance for this house?
• Has the buyer seen the roof age, the wind mitigation report and the flood disclosure?
• If binding is suspended near closing, how many days of extension does the contract allow?
• Who will check the house after a storm, and how will damage be reported?

Words you will hear

Insurance and flood papers use their own words. Here is what the common ones mean.

A cash sale during hurricane season

A cash offer does not depend on the buyer getting a mortgage approved. With no lender in the buyer's deal, there is no lender rule that the buyer's policy be bound before funding, so a binding suspension does not have to move the closing date.

BIMINIO buys houses as is in Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Lakeland, including houses with storm damage, old roofs and past claims. A cash offer is below full market value. You get a written offer within 24 hours, with the comparable sales we used and proof of funds, and you pick a closing date from 7 to 35 days out. We pay the closing costs.

Vacant or damaged property →