Short answer: the first check is an opening number, not a final one. If the insurance payment doesn’t cover the repairs, Florida gives you a path to claim the difference — it’s called a supplemental claim, and you generally have 18 months from the date of loss to file it. That window closes whether or not your repairs are finished.

I’m Edgar Velazquez, a licensed Florida public adjuster (License #P140117). I represent homeowners, not insurance companies. Underpaid claims are most of what crosses my desk, and this is what I tell people who call me holding a check that won’t cover half the roof.

WHY THE FIRST CHECK COMES IN LOW

The number on that check came from the carrier’s estimate: written by their adjuster or a desk reviewer, priced by their software, scoped on their inspection. Nobody in that process was negotiating for you.

Estimates come in low in predictable ways: rooms and trades left out of the scope, unit prices below what repairs actually cost in your market, depreciation held back, code-required upgrades ignored, matching costs skipped. None of that necessarily means someone broke a rule. It means the estimate answers the carrier’s question — the least this could plausibly cost — instead of yours: what it actually takes to put the property back.

STEP 1: DO NOT TREAT THE CHECK AS THE VERDICT

Depositing the first check usually doesn’t close your claim by itself. But read everything that comes with it before you endorse or sign anything that says “full and final settlement” or “release.” If those words show up anywhere, stop and get advice before you touch it.

What actually closes most underpaid claims is the homeowner deciding it’s over. The carrier is counting on exactly that.

STEP 2: READ THEIR ESTIMATE LINE BY LINE

Ask the carrier for its complete estimate, not just the cover letter with the number. Then look for the money in four places:

• Missing scope. Every damaged room, every trade. If the water came through the kitchen ceiling and the estimate has drywall but no cabinets, no flooring, no paint, that’s not a small miss — that’s the estimate.
• Depreciation. If your policy pays replacement cost, the carrier may hold back “recoverable depreciation” until repairs are done. Homeowners routinely leave that money unclaimed because nobody told them to go back for it.
• Code upgrades. Florida’s building code often makes a lawful repair cost more than a like-for-like patch. If your policy includes ordinance or law coverage, the estimate should reflect it.
• Matching. Discontinued tile, weathered shingles, mismatched planks. If the material can’t reasonably be matched, the estimate has to deal with that reality, not ignore it.

STEP 3: PUT A LICENSED ADJUSTER ON YOUR SIDE OF THE TABLE

Everything up to this point is diagnosis. Now understand what the fight actually is: their estimate against yours. The carrier’s number was produced by a licensed adjuster using professional estimating software. Answering it with anything less is how underpaid claims stay underpaid.

A public adjuster is licensed by the state to represent you, the policyholder, in your claim (Fla. Stat. 626.854). I re-inspect the property, document what the first inspection missed, and write my own complete estimate — room by room, trade by trade, in the same industry-leading estimating software the carriers’ own adjusters use. The negotiation stops being your word against their number and becomes their estimate against a professional one. We work on contingency — no upfront cost — and Florida caps our fees by law: generally 20 percent of what you recover, and 10 percent on claims from a declared emergency during the first year after the declaration. If nothing more is recovered, you owe nothing.

Can you run the process yourself? Legally, yes. But every step that follows — the supplemental claim, and the escalation tools after it — works only as well as the claim file behind it. Building that file is the job you’d be taking on alone.

STEP 4: THE SUPPLEMENTAL CLAIM, AND THE CLOCK BEHIND IT

Florida law has a name for going back for the rest of the money. A supplemental claim is “a claim for additional loss or damage from the same peril which the insurer has previously adjusted or for which costs have been incurred while completing repairs or replacement” under an open, timely claim. You generally have 18 months from the date of loss to give notice of it (Fla. Stat. 627.70132). A brand-new claim has to be reported within 1 year. These are hard deadlines, and they run from the date of the loss — not from the day you noticed the check was short.

And the clock cuts both ways: under Fla. Stat. 627.70131, within 60 days after the insurer receives notice of an initial, reopened, or supplemental claim, it must pay or deny that claim in full or in part — with limited extensions for circumstances genuinely beyond its control. Your supplemental notice starts its own 60-day clock on the carrier.

STEP 5: THE ESCALATION TOOLS, AND WHY THE FILE COMES FIRST

If the carrier still won’t move, Florida gives you real escalation routes. Read this part carefully: every one of them runs on the claim file behind it. A mediator can’t award what nobody documented. An appraisal panel prices the scope that’s put in front of it. A lawyer builds a case out of the record. This is why having a public adjuster matters beyond the negotiation itself — we prepare and document the claim file so that if any of these routes becomes necessary, you walk in with evidence instead of a grievance.

Free state mediation. Florida’s Department of Financial Services runs a mediation program for residential property disputes (Fla. Stat. 627.7015). The insurer bears the cost, a neutral mediator sits between you and the carrier, and it’s non-binding — so you lose nothing by trying it.

Appraisal. A low payment is exactly the kind of fight the appraisal clause exists for: both sides agree the loss is covered and disagree about the amount. But in Florida an appraisal award is final and binding, so the scope and pricing have to be right before you invoke it — you get one shot at that fight.

An attorney. If the carrier won’t pay what the evidence supports, or the dispute turns into a coverage fight or bad faith, a first-party property attorney is the right weapon. A good public adjuster tells you when you’ve reached that point instead of holding onto your file.

THE DEADLINES, ONE MORE TIME

One year from the date of loss to report a new claim. Eighteen months from the date of loss for a supplemental claim. Deadlines to file suit also apply and depend on your date of loss and your policy. If your loss was recent, you likely have time. If it’s coming up on a year old, do not wait another week to find out where you stand.

WHAT I’D DO THIS WEEK IF I WERE YOU

1. Request the carrier’s complete estimate and a certified copy of your full policy.
2. Walk the property room by room against their estimate and write down everything that’s damaged but missing from it.
3. Photograph everything and gather every invoice, report, and record.
4. Get a second opinion from someone whose paycheck doesn’t come from the carrier. My review costs you nothing.

A low check is designed to feel like the end of the process. The homeowners who get their repairs fully paid are the ones who treat it as the beginning.