Florida Insurance Policy Cancellation & Nonrenewal Calculator

How this calculator works

Florida residential property insurance cancellation and nonrenewal are governed by three interlocking statutes — F.S. § 627.728 (mid-term cancellation), F.S. § 627.4133 (renewal / nonrenewal notice and the post-disaster moratorium), and F.S. § 627.7283 (return premium). The framework is designed to protect Florida homeowners from arbitrary loss of coverage in a market where the cost of a coverage gap can be catastrophic — a non-payment cancellation can put your mortgage in default within weeks, and a nonrenewal in the post-2022 Florida market can leave you scrambling 60-90 days for replacement coverage that may not exist at any price.

The calculator evaluates four things from your inputs:

1. Notice-period compliance. Did the carrier give you the statutory minimum notice? Cancellation requires 10 days for non-payment of premium (F.S. § 627.728(2)) or 45 days for any other ground. Nonrenewal requires 120 days under F.S. § 627.4133(2)(a)2. Insufficient notice voids the action by operation of statute — the policy continues on its existing terms regardless of the carrier's intent.

2. Statutory authority. What F.S. cite governs the action, and is the cited reason on the statutory list? After the F.S. § 627.728(3)(a) initial 90-day underwriting window has closed, cancellation is permitted ONLY for one of the enumerated reasons under § 627.728(3)(b): non-payment, material misrepresentation, substantial change in risk, failure to comply with underwriting requirements communicated within the first 90 days, or an OIR-determined hazardous financial condition. "No-reason" cancellation post-90-days is barred and the action is voided.

3. Post-disaster moratorium. Is the F.S. § 627.4133(2)(d)(2) post-disaster moratorium applicable? When the dwelling has been damaged by a hurricane or wind loss during a governor-declared state of emergency, the moratorium bars cancellation OR nonrenewal until 90 days after the dwelling has been repaired. Non-payment of premium is the principal exception. HB 119 (2022) and HB 837 (2023) reinforced the moratorium's scope after the litigation produced by Hurricane Irma (2017).

4. Return premium. What refund does the policyholder receive under F.S. § 627.7283? Pro-rata returns the full unearned premium (days-remaining / 365 × annual premium) and is required when the carrier cancels. Short-rate returns the pro-rata amount minus a ~10% administrative penalty and is permitted only when the policyholder cancels mid-term. The calculator computes both methods so you can verify the carrier's refund.

A worked example — the 90-day window

A new policy effective January 1 ($3,000 annual premium). On day 30, the carrier inspects and discovers an old roof beyond program eligibility — they issue a 45-day cancellation notice citing failure-to-comply with underwriting.

• Days in force: 30 (in the F.S. § 627.728(3)(a) 90-day window)
• Verdict: Valid — within initial 90-day window
• Statutory authority: F.S. § 627.728(3)(a) — the carrier may cancel for any non-discriminatory reason in-window
• Pro-rata refund: $3,000 × 335/365 = $2,753.42
• Recommendation: replace coverage; if no admitted-market carrier will write, apply to Citizens Property Insurance through any Citizens-appointed agent

Compare to the same posture on day 200 (post-window):

• Days in force: 200 (post-window)
• Verdict: Voided — statutory-reason requirement not met (failure-to-comply is in-window only)
• The cancellation is voided; the policy continues on its existing terms

The 90-day window is the cleanest expression of the Florida cancellation framework: in-window the carrier has broad latitude; post-window the carrier is tightly constrained.

The 120-day nonrenewal notice — F.S. § 627.4133(2)(a)2

Nonrenewal is a different action from cancellation. Cancellation ends the policy mid-term; nonrenewal ends the policy at term, but the carrier must give 120 days' written notice before the renewal date for a residential property policy. The 120-day requirement exists because the Florida admitted market in the post-2022 era can take 30-60 days to bind new coverage — without the runway, a nonrenewed homeowner can be force-placed by the mortgage servicer at multiples of the admitted-market rate.

Three notes on the 120-day window:

• Counted from the renewal effective date, not the notice date. A nonrenewal effective December 1 must be noticed by August 3 of the same year. Notice issued in mid-August is short and the policy renews on existing terms by operation of statute.
• Notice must be in writing and properly addressed. The carrier bears the burden of proof on delivery; lost or undelivered notices are treated as no notice.
• "No-reason" nonrenewal is permitted with full notice. Unlike post-90-days cancellation, nonrenewal does not require an enumerated statutory reason. The carrier may simply decline to renew. The protections under § 627.4133 are timing-based (120 days) and disaster-based (post-disaster moratorium), not reason-based.

The post-disaster moratorium — F.S. § 627.4133(2)(d)(2)

The post-disaster moratorium is the single most important protection in the Florida cancellation framework for hurricane-affected homeowners. Triggered by the governor's executive-order declaration of a state of emergency for a hurricane or wind event, the moratorium bars cancellation OR nonrenewal of a residential property policy covering a dwelling damaged by the event. The bar runs until 90 days after the dwelling has been repaired — meaning a 12- to 24-month moratorium is routine for a heavily-damaged property.

The moratorium has been the most-litigated piece of § 627.4133 since Hurricane Irma (2017). Carriers tested the boundaries — issuing nonrenewal notices on policies with open Irma claims, on policies covering still-damaged dwellings, on policies with claims under reservation of rights. The 2018-2020 cycle of OIR enforcement and HB 119 (2022) tightened the moratorium's scope; HB 837 (2023) reinforced timing rules to prevent carriers from running out the 90-day repair tail before final repair was complete. The principal exception is non-payment of premium — a carrier may cancel for non-payment even within the moratorium, on the theory that the moratorium protects the dwelling-coverage relationship, not the premium-payment obligation.

For policyholders with a hurricane-damaged dwelling, the moratorium is the controlling rule and the calculator's other notice-period analysis is largely irrelevant. The action is voided; the policy continues.

Return premium — F.S. § 627.7283

Return premium on cancellation is governed by F.S. § 627.7283. Two methods:

• Pro-rata — the carrier returns (days remaining / 365) × annual premium. Required when the carrier cancels. For a $3,000 annual policy with 200 days remaining, pro-rata returns $3,000 × 200/365 = $1,643.84.
• Short-rate — the carrier returns pro-rata minus a small administrative penalty (typically 10% of the unearned portion). Permitted only when the policyholder cancels mid-term. For the same $3,000 policy with 200 days remaining, short-rate returns $1,643.84 × 0.9 = $1,479.45.

The single most common return-premium dispute: the carrier processes a cancellation initiated by the policyholder (e.g., the homeowner replaced coverage and asked for cancellation) but the cancellation was actually carrier-driven (e.g., the carrier had previously announced nonrenewal, the homeowner moved coverage before term-end). Pro-rata applies in that scenario because the cancellation is effectively carrier-driven; carriers sometimes default to short-rate. Run both numbers and verify.

The post-2022 Florida market

Florida's admitted homeowners-insurance market has tightened materially since 2022. The reinsurance disruption, Hurricane Ian (September 2022), and the 2024 hurricane season produced multiple carrier exits — Bankers, FedNat, Lighthouse, Avatar, and Southern Fidelity went into receivership in 2021-2022 — and tightened underwriting at the carriers that remained. SB 76 (2021) and SB 2A (2022) tightened Citizens Property Insurance eligibility and rate-setting; HB 837 (2023) reinforced consumer protections and tightened bad-faith standards.

The practical effect on the cancellation / nonrenewal landscape in 2026:

• Nonrenewal volume is elevated. Many Florida carriers are nonrenewing policies that don't meet 2024-2026 underwriting (older roofs, wood-frame construction, prior claims, certain ZIP-code exposure). The 120-day notice is the cushion that gives the homeowner time to find replacement coverage.
• Replacement coverage takes 30-60 days to bind. Begin shopping at least 60 days before any nonrenewal effective date; many properties require a 4-point inspection and wind-mitigation report (Form OIR-B1-1802) before any quote.
• Citizens is the insurer of last resort. If no admitted-market carrier will write, any Citizens-appointed agent can submit an application. Citizens' rates are now subject to Florida's "rate-glide" and "Citizens-rate-corridor" rules — for many high-risk properties, Citizens is no longer the cheapest option but is often the only option.
• Surplus-lines coverage fills the gap. For properties the admitted market and Citizens both decline, surplus-lines carriers (Lloyd's syndicates, surplus-only US carriers) write coverage at substantially higher rates and with fewer policyholder protections.

What to do if your notice is non-compliant

Three steps when the carrier's notice falls short of the statutory minimum:

1. File a written objection with the carrier. Cite the applicable statute (F.S. § 627.728(2) for cancellation; F.S. § 627.4133(2)(a)2 for nonrenewal). Demand reinstatement on existing terms. Send by certified mail and retain the receipt.
2. File a complaint with the Florida OIR Division of Consumer Services (1-877-693-5236). Online filing is available at floir.com. The complaint creates a regulatory record that the carrier must respond to, and OIR staff often resolve insufficient-notice disputes informally.
3. Consult a Florida-licensed insurance attorney if the carrier has acted on the notice — billed force-placed coverage, refused to renew, reported the cancellation to a CLUE database, or placed your mortgage in default. Statutory damages and attorney fees may be available under F.S. § 624.155 (civil remedy for bad-faith conduct) for material violations.

What the calculator does not do

This calculator is a planning estimator. It does not:

• Replace counsel. Florida cancellation and nonrenewal disputes can involve bad-faith claims under F.S. § 624.155, regulatory complaints to the OIR, and (rarely) civil-court actions for declaratory judgment. The dollar-mechanics and statutory-citation outputs of this calculator are the input to a conversation with a Florida-licensed insurance agent or attorney, not a substitute.
• Quote replacement coverage. Replacement coverage rates depend on carrier, property characteristics, claims history, and current Florida OIR rate filings — not on the cancellation math.
• Address commercial property. F.S. § 627.728 and § 627.4133 cover residential property; commercial property cancellation operates under different statutes (principally F.S. § 627.7281 and the policy contract).
• Compute the post-disaster repair-tail date. The moratorium runs until 90 days after the dwelling has been repaired. The "repaired" determination depends on the scope of damage, the permits issued, and the certificate-of-occupancy or final-inspection date — case-specific facts that go beyond a generic calculator. The boolean toggle captures whether the moratorium currently applies; the 90-day post-repair tail is computed from the actual final-repair date in practice.

How this page is maintained

F.S. § 627.728 has been stable since its modern form was established in the 1980s, with periodic legislative refinements. F.S. § 627.4133 (the renewal / nonrenewal and post-disaster moratorium statute) has been the most-amended of the three, with HB 119 (2022) and HB 837 (2023) being the most consequential recent changes. F.S. § 627.7283 (return premium) has been stable. The calculator's notice-window figures track the current statutory text; any legislative change to the 10-day, 45-day, 120-day, or 90-day windows triggers a refresh within the quarter.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 against F.S. § 627.728, § 627.4133(2)(a)2, § 627.4133(2)(d)(2), § 627.7283; HB 119 (2022); HB 837 (2023); Florida OIR consumer guides 2024-2026.