Florida Court Of Appeals Adopts Dual-Track Approach For Appraisal Of Property Insurance Claims (JD Supra)

Florida Court Of Appeals Adopts Dual-Track Approach For Appraisal Of Property Insurance Claims

  Friday, December 18th, 2020 Source: JD Supra

When an owner seeks the appraisal of a property insurance claim, insurers commonly object by demanding that the trial court must first rule on defenses to coverage before allowing appraisal panel to value the total claim submitted by the owner.

As a result, Florida courts have been hesitant to compel appraisal of an owner’s property claim, usually valued through a public adjuster estimate, when coverage or scope issues persist and have not been first ruled on by the trial court.

Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal just bucked this trend, and concluded that a trial court can order appraisal of the whole claim without considering scope or coverage issues raised by the insurer, and the parties’ appraisers or umpire may determine the total value of the claim.

From there, the insurer may still object to any and all inclusions in the appraisal valuation that is not covered by the policy to remove them from any recovery, but the actual value of the claim no longer needs to be determined by the trier of fact.

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