Insights

Practical legal education, useful whether or not you ever call us.

Plain-language explainers on the issues at the center of the practice, written for three kinds of reader: homeowners facing a stucco, roof, or property-claim problem; inspectors and claims professionals who meet these problems in the field; and attorneys who want the technical version. No hype — just the way these things work.

Jump to: For Homeowners  ·  For Inspectors & Claims Professionals  ·  For Attorneys

For homeowners

If your home has a stucco, roof, or property-claim problem, start here. Practical, plain-language guidance — useful whether or not you ever call us.

For Homeowners · Construction Defect

Failing or cracking stucco: what Florida homeowners need to know

What stucco failure actually looks like, why the visible crack is usually a symptom of water in the wall, who may be responsible, the process at a high level, and why finding out where you stand sooner protects your options.

For Homeowners · Property Insurance

Roof damage and a denied or underpaid claim: a homeowner's guide

How first-party roof claims work, the common reasons carriers push back, what a homeowner can do about a denial or underpayment, and when claims handling can cross into a bad-faith issue.

For Homeowners · Construction Defect

"Is my home too old to bring a claim?" — construction-defect deadlines for homeowners

Florida sets a hard outside deadline — the statute of repose — that keeps running no matter what, measured from when the home was completed. What that means for an older home, in plain terms.

For Homeowners · Construction Defect

Florida's one-year builder warranty: what it covers, and what it doesn't

Florida's statutory builder warranty is narrow and its clock is short — one year from title conveyance or occupancy. What it actually covers, what it leaves out, and why it isn't the deadline that matters most.

For Homeowners · Property Insurance & Construction Defect

After the storm: when the damage reveals a defect

A storm can be the event that reveals a construction defect that was there all along. Why a homeowner may be holding two separate claims with two separate clocks, and why treating it as one costs the second.

For Homeowners · Public Records

How to check a builder's record before you buy — or before you sue

The state and your county keep better records than online reviews: license status, the qualifying agent, disciplinary history, the permit file, and any recovery-fund payments. How to pull each one yourself, in an afternoon.

For Homeowners · Property Insurance

Document the damage before you repair it

Repairs after a storm are urgent and right. What gets lost, over and over, is the documentation that should happen first — what to preserve, and why the order matters.

For inspectors & claims professionals

High-level education for the professionals who meet failing stucco, damaged roofs, and disputed claims in the field — and often decide who a homeowner should talk to next.

For Inspectors & Claims Professionals

What home inspectors should know about documenting construction defects

How thorough, contemporaneous inspection documentation intersects with a homeowner's later construction-defect claim — what tends to matter evidentiarily, and why clear records help the homeowner.

For Inspectors & Claims Professionals

Claims-handling red flags: a high-level primer for adjusters and claims professionals

Where ordinary first-party claims handling ends and potential bad-faith territory begins — a high-level overview to help claims professionals recognize when a matter may warrant legal input.

For attorneys

The technical version — written to the standard of a CLE talk or a listserv answer, for referring and generalist counsel who do not want to blow a deadline.

For Attorneys · Construction Defect · Flagship

A Chapter 558 notice does not stop the repose clock

Serving a Florida construction-defect pre-suit notice tolls the statute of limitations but not the statute of repose — an absolute deadline that keeps running during the pre-suit process. How a live-looking claim can already be dead, and how to protect the deadline.

For Attorneys · Construction Defect

Repose vs. limitations: the two deadlines in every construction-defect case

A statute of limitations and a statute of repose run at the same time and behave in opposite ways — one tied to discovery, the other an absolute wall from a fixed construction date. Why the difference decides cases.

For Attorneys · Homeowners Insurance

From claim to Civil Remedy Notice: how a homeowners claim becomes a bad-faith case

How a first-party Florida property claim moves from the claim, to the required Civil Remedy Notice and its cure window, to potential bad-faith exposure — explained from the policyholder's side, with the record-keeping that decides these cases.

For Attorneys · Insurance Data Literacy

What "closed without payment" does and doesn't mean in claims data

"Closed without payment" is not a synonym for "denied." Below-deductible closures, excluded perils, withdrawals, duplicates, and non-cooperation closures all live in that bucket. How to read the number honestly — in both directions.

For Attorneys · Public Records

What public records can — and can't — tell you about a home builder

Permits, court dockets, licensing files, and entity records are public and can reveal patterns in a builder's history. What each source shows, what it doesn't, and how to read them without overreaching.

For Attorneys · Homeowners Insurance

The "reasonable interpretation" defense in a first-party bad-faith claim

Carriers often argue that a reasonable reading of an ambiguous clause defeats a bad-faith claim outright. What the defense says, why Florida law does not treat it as a trump card, and the conduct facts that actually overcome it.

For Attorneys · Litigation Procedure

Two fee rulings, one lesson: section 57.105 findings, and how to keep a challenge alive

Two same-day Third DCA rulings: one fee award reversed for missing statutory findings, one affirmed because the findings challenge was never preserved. What each side of a first-party property fee fight needs to do differently.

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