Short answer: According to Fla. Stat. 626.854, a West Palm Beach public adjuster is a licensed professional who represents you, not your insurer, on property claims across Palm Beach County. The same statute caps a public adjuster fee at 20% of the claim payment (10% on declared-emergency claims in the first year) and gives you 10 days to cancel the written contract. Ocean Point Claims documents the full loss and negotiates for the value your policy supports.
What Did Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma Teach West Palm Beach?
West Palm Beach has filed more than its share of catastrophe claims, and the 2004 to 2005 stretch still anchors how carriers and adjusters think about losses here. Hurricane Frances came ashore over Labor Day weekend in September 2004, then sat over the area as a slow, soaking system and pushed wind-driven rain into roofs and wall assemblies for the better part of two days. Barely three weeks later Hurricane Jeanne followed almost the same track, striking already-weakened structures before the first round of repairs was finished. Then Hurricane Wilma swept across South Florida in October 2005, peeling roof coverings, blowing out windows, and shattering storefront glass downtown. The back-to-back pattern from those seasons is one reason so many West Palm Beach claims involve layered damage, where a carrier argues that today's loss is really an old, unrepaired one. Separating new storm damage from prior events, and proving the date of loss, is often the first fight on a claim here.
Why Do West Palm Beach Losses Vary From High-Rises to Bungalows?
West Palm Beach is the seat of Palm Beach County, and its building stock runs the full range. Downtown, high-rise condominium and office towers line the Intracoastal Waterway, where envelope losses, water intrusion through curtain walls, and window failures routinely straddle the line between the association master policy and individual unit coverage. That split is its own dispute, and unit owners are often told their damage belongs to the building while the building points back at the unit. South of downtown, historic neighborhoods like Flamingo Park and El Cid carry period homes with original plaster, wood, tile, and trim that cannot be matched at a big-box store. West toward Florida's Turnpike, the housing turns to large tracts of single-family homes with aging tile and shingle roofs. Each setting produces a different claim, and a scope written for a tract home does not fit a 1920s El Cid bungalow or a downtown tower on Flagler Drive.
Which Claims Do We Handle Across Palm Beach County?
Ocean Point Claims represents homeowners, condo owners, and commercial property owners throughout Palm Beach County. We handle hurricane and windstorm damage, roof damage from wind and debris, water damage from pipe and supply-line failures, mold that follows slow leaks in the local humidity, and fire and smoke losses. We also work condo and HOA association master-policy claims on the downtown and waterfront towers, commercial and business-interruption losses along the Clematis Street and downtown corridors, and claims that have already been denied, underpaid, or lowballed. When a first payment never covered the real scope, a supplemental claim is frequently where the rest of the money sits.
Why Do West Palm Beach Settlements Fall Short?
West Palm Beach claims get shorted in predictable ways. Carrier inspectors write a narrow scope and miss damage a full line-item estimate captures. Sudden losses get recharacterized as gradual wear so an exclusion applies, and named-storm deductibles get stretched onto losses a hurricane did not cause. The matching problem is acute in the historic districts: an adjuster approves a patch of new tile or trim against original, irreplaceable finishes and calls the repair complete, even though Florida's matching rule under Fla. Stat. 626.9744 often supports replacing the full roof slope or wall section so the result is uniform. On the high-rises, the master-versus-unit gap lets both policies underpay while the owner waits. We document the loss to the standard the policy and the statute actually require, not the standard a desk adjuster hoped you would accept.
What Deadlines Does Florida Law Give Your Insurer?
Since SB 2A took effect in 2022, Fla. Stat. 627.70131 puts hard clocks on every West Palm Beach claim. These are the current deadlines your insurer must meet.
| Carrier deadline (Fla. Stat. 627.70131) | Timeframe |
|---|---|
| Acknowledge the claim | 7 days |
| Begin investigation after proof of loss | 7 business days |
| Complete any physical inspection | 30 days |
| Pay or deny the claim | 60 days |
Key takeaway: If a carrier misses these deadlines, statutory interest accrues and a public adjuster can press the delay during negotiation.
How Ocean Point Builds and Pushes Your Claim
We start with a free claim review to tell you honestly whether representation improves your outcome, then send a licensed adjuster for an on-site inspection of the entire property, not just the obvious spot. We read your policy line by line, build an independent Xactimate estimate that captures roof, interior, code-upgrade, and matching exposure, and submit and negotiate the claim while the carrier's clocks run under Fla. Stat. 627.70131, which governs how quickly an insurer must acknowledge, investigate, and pay. We track the filing and supplemental deadlines in Fla. Stat. 627.70132 so nothing lapses. When an insurer stalls or denies, we escalate through appraisal, mediation, or a Civil Remedy Notice under Fla. Stat. 624.155. Your time goes to your home and business; ours goes to the file.
What Are the Fees, and What Is the Next Step?
As a licensed Florida statewide public adjuster firm, Ocean Point works on a contingency fee under Fla. Stat. 626.854, so there is no upfront cost and our fee is a capped percentage of what we actually recover. If there is no recovery, there is no fee, and Florida law gives you a 10-day right to cancel the contract after signing. The free West Palm Beach inspection and policy review carry no obligation. We serve clients across the South Florida region and our other locations statewide. Call (888) 824-1306 or reach us through our contact page for a free review of your West Palm Beach claim, and the Ocean Point Claims team will tell you whether your policy owes you more.
Who This Is For (and When to Handle It Yourself)
Hiring a West Palm Beach public adjuster makes the most sense when the loss is large, causation is disputed, historic-district matching is in play, or a downtown tower's master-versus-unit split is unresolved. If your damage is small, clearly covered, and at or barely above your deductible, and the carrier's first estimate already looks complete, you may not need representation. When an offer looks low, a denial does not add up, or a claim has stalled past the Fla. Stat. 627.70131 deadlines, that is when to choose a licensed public adjuster. The free review costs nothing.