Florida builders risk insurance, built for hurricane country.

Florida is the nation’s premier hurricane-and-flood construction environment, and a project mid-build is at its most vulnerable when a storm arrives — open framing, loose materials, no finished envelope. The state’s property market is built around named-storm wind and flood, and both shape how a builders risk policy is written here: a separate percentage hurricane deductible on the wind side, and a flood exclusion that has to be solved off the policy. Here’s how it works.

Named-storm and hurricane wind — and the percentage deductible

Wind is Florida’s signature builders risk peril, and the way it’s deductibled is unlike anywhere else. Florida property policies carry a separate named-storm or hurricane deductible expressed as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat dollar amount — and Florida law is specific about when it applies and how it’s offered. The Florida Department of Financial Services explains the mechanics in its Florida’s Hurricane Deductible guide, including how the deductible attaches once the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane warning for any part of the state.

On a course-of-construction risk, that percentage deductible is calculated against the completed value, so on a large project the wind retention can be substantial — which is why the deductible structure, not just the limit, has to be planned up front.

Coastal windstorm and a market regulated for catastrophe

Florida’s coastal construction exposure is intense enough that the property market is heavily regulated and supplemented by the state:

• The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) oversees the property market and publishes catastrophe-claims and market data driven largely by hurricane activity.
• Coastal and high-wind projects are frequently written through specialty and Excess & Surplus (surplus-lines) carriers, whose deductibles and terms can differ from those of admitted insurers.
• Wind-mitigation construction features and the building code matter to underwriters — how a structure is built affects both whether it can be insured during construction and how the named-storm deductible is set.

Flood — excluded, and unavoidable along the coast

Flood is excluded from standard builders risk forms, and in Florida — with its low elevation, extensive coastline, and storm-surge exposure — it’s one of the perils most likely to actually hit a jobsite. Flood is solved off the builders risk policy: through the federal National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or the private flood market, both of which the OIR addresses in its flood insurance resources. For a project in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area, the construction lender will typically require proof of flood coverage, and we coordinate it alongside the builders risk placement so there’s no gap.