Hurricane Season Ends. Your Deductible Does Not.

Florida's hurricane deductible applies on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses that occur during the calendar year. It resets on January 1 — not on November 30, when the season officially closes. A storm in December still comes out of this year's deductible, and Florida has had December storms.

The season is a date on a map. Your deductible is a term in a contract, and the two were never the same clock.

How the deductible is calculated

For hurricane damage, the deductible is usually not a flat number. It is a percentage of the insured value.

Before issuing a personal lines residential policy, Florida insurers must offer alternative hurricane deductibles of $500, 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of the policy's dwelling limits. Fla. Stat. 627.701(3)(a). Higher-value risks are treated differently: at $250,000 or more in dwelling limits the $500 option need not be offered, and at $3 million or more the 2 percent option need not be offered either.

Two percent is the common choice, and it is larger than it sounds. On a unit insured for $600,000 it is twelve thousand dollars out of pocket before the policy pays anything.

The calendar the policy actually follows

Here is the sentence that settles it. Under Fla. Stat. 627.701(5)(a)1, for personal lines residential policies, the hurricane deductible "shall apply on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses that occur during the calendar year."

Three consequences follow, and the third is the one people get backwards.

• One storm in June and another in September come out of the same deductible. You do not pay it twice in a year.
• If you already met it this year, a December storm is cheaper for you than it would have been in January.
• If you did not, nothing about November 30 helps you. The season closing does not zero the counter. January 1 does.

What triggers it, which is not the season either

There is a second clock, and it is also not the calendar.

Whether a loss is a "hurricane loss" at all — and therefore whether the hurricane deductible applies instead of your ordinary one — depends on a defined hurricane period. Fla. Stat. 627.4025(2)(c) sets it: the period begins when a hurricane warning is issued for any part of Florida, and ends 72 hours following the termination of the last hurricane watch or hurricane warning issued for any part of Florida.

So the trigger is the National Hurricane Center, not the season dates. A storm that produces a Florida hurricane warning in December sits inside a hurricane period exactly as one in September does.

What the hurricane deductible does not cover

The deductible decides what you pay before the policy responds. It does not widen what the policy responds to.

• Flood and storm surge are not in it. They are excluded from the property policy entirely and insured separately. A hurricane that floods your ground floor produces two different conversations, and only one of them involves this deductible.
• It is not your only deductible. Damage outside a hurricane period — a pipe, a fire, a tree in January — runs through your all-other-perils deductible, which is usually a flat dollar amount and much smaller.
• It does not cap what you pay in a year. It resets annually, which means a storm next January starts a new one. The reset cuts both ways.

What does change on December 1

Less than people think. Nothing in your policy changes. No deductible resets, no coverage switches on or off, no clock restarts.

What changes is the weather, and the odds. Those are good reasons to relax. They are not reasons to assume the financial exposure went with them.

And one thing that does not change in either direction: flood is not part of this. Hurricane deductibles sit in your property policy; flood damage is excluded from it and is insured separately. If storm surge is the risk you are actually worried about, that is flood insurance, and it has its own waiting period that makes December a sensible month to look at it.

Frequently asked questions

When does the hurricane deductible reset? On January 1. The statute ties it to the calendar year, not to the hurricane season.

If a storm hits on December 10, which year's deductible applies? This year's. The calendar year has not ended.

How do I find out what my deductible is? It is on your declarations page, stated as a dollar amount or as a percentage of the dwelling limit.

Can I change it? Generally at renewal, within the options the insurer is required to offer. A lower percentage means a higher premium, and the right answer depends on what you could actually absorb after a storm.

Does this apply to my condo unit? Yes, personal lines residential includes condo unit policies. What differs is what the limit is measured against. See condo insurance.

What to do next

Today is a good day to find out what your hurricane deductible is, rather than finding out in the middle of a claim. Send us your declarations page and we will tell you the number, what it would cost to lower it, and whether the rest of your homeowners insurance matches the way the building is actually exposed.