Florida Fire Damage Lawyer
The fire is out by the time you get there. What is left is a smell that gets into everything, a house you cannot sleep in, and a fire investigator asking you questions while you are still standing in the driveway in the clothes you ran out in. In the weeks that follow, your own insurance company starts its own investigation, and it does not always feel like it is investigating the fire. Sometimes it feels like it is investigating you.
I am Louis P. Meyer, Esq., a Senior Attorney at Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A. in Tampa. My practice focuses on Florida property damage claims, and fire claims are the most heavily investigated claims in the business: origin and cause experts, sworn statements, and a level of suspicion that surprises people who just lost everything. This page explains how a fire claim moves and where homeowners lose ground without realizing it.
What this practice covers
A fire loss is rarely just burned rooms. Fire damage brings smoke and soot migration through rooms the flames never touched, water damage from suppression, electrical and structural questions, and personal property losses that have to be itemized piece by piece. A total loss adds another layer: the value of the home itself, building code upgrades during the rebuild, and additional living expense coverage that pays for housing while the home is uninhabitable.
I handle fire and smoke claims across Florida for homeowners and property owners: partial losses, total losses, kitchen fires, electrical fires, lightning strikes, and the smoke only claims carriers love to minimize. The legal work includes coverage disputes, fights over scope and valuation, examinations under oath, sworn proofs of loss, and the presuit process Florida law requires. Where a carrier crosses the line into bad faith, Fla. Stat. § 624.155 provides a separate remedy that begins with a civil remedy notice and a sixty day window to cure.
Why fire claims get investigated like crimes
Most property claims start from trust. Fire claims start from a question: how did this start? Every carrier hires origin and cause investigators on significant fires, and suspicion is built into the process. That suspicion becomes leverage. While the cause is undetermined, payment waits, and requests roll in for financial records that have nothing obvious to do with rebuilding a kitchen. Some of that is legitimate investigation. Some is pressure, designed to make a family accept a small number to end the ordeal.
Two traps follow. The first is the inventory: everything you owned, listed room by room with ages and values, from memory, while you are displaced. Leave things off and they are never paid for; guess at values and the guesses become credibility problems. The second trap is time. Additional living expense coverage runs on documentation and limits, and families burn through it in temporary housing while the investigation drags on.
How I approach this work
I start with the policy and the timeline, then the proof. Fire claims are document cases: the fire department report, the origin and cause findings, photographs, the inventory, and contractor estimates that reflect what rebuilding actually costs in Florida. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.70131, a carrier generally must pay or deny a residential property claim within sixty days after it receives notice, and Fla. Stat. § 627.70152 requires a presuit notice before suit. Most fire claims of any size also involve an examination under oath, and what is said there is sworn. My job is a complete, organized claim the carrier has to answer on the merits.
Questions Florida homeowners ask about fire claims
Why is my insurance company investigating me after my house fire?
Because carriers investigate the cause of nearly every significant fire, and part of that work is ruling out an intentional fire. Investigation alone is not an accusation, and it does not excuse indefinite delay. It does mean your statements, documents, and timeline will be examined closely, so consistency and accuracy matter from the first interview forward.
What does additional living expense coverage pay for?
Additional living expense, often called ALE or loss of use coverage, pays the extra cost of living elsewhere while a covered loss makes your home uninhabitable: temporary housing, and the increased cost of meals and other essentials above your normal spending. It has limits and it requires documentation, so keep every receipt from the first night.
The fire only burned one room. Why is the carrier arguing about smoke in the rest of the house?
Because smoke and soot travel, and carriers know remediation is where the money is. Soot is corrosive and it settles into electronics, fabrics, and ventilation systems far from the burn room. Whether a room needs cleaning, sealing, or replacement is a scope fight backed by testing and contractor documentation, not by how a room smells on inspection day.
Do I really have to list every item I owned before the carrier pays for personal property?
Yes, in substance. Contents are paid from your inventory, and the carrier is not going to reconstruct your closets for you. On large losses this is the single most time consuming part of the claim, and doing it carefully, room by room, with photographs, receipts, and records wherever they exist, is how a contents claim gets paid at real value instead of a guess.
What is an examination under oath in a fire claim, and do I have to attend?
An examination under oath, or EUO, is sworn testimony the carrier can demand under the policy, recorded by a court reporter, usually with the carrier’s lawyer asking the questions. In fire claims they are common and they are long. Most policies make attendance a condition of the claim, so refusing can give the carrier grounds to deny it. What you say is under oath and follows the claim permanently.
My claim was denied because the carrier says the fire was set intentionally. What happens then?
An arson based denial is the most serious denial in property insurance, and the carrier is supposed to have evidence, not a hunch. These cases turn on the origin and cause investigation, the carrier’s proof, and whether its investigation was fair and complete. They are litigated cases, and the record built during the claim phase, every statement and document, becomes the battlefield.
The bottom line
A fire claim asks a family to do the hardest paperwork of their lives on the worst month of their lives, while being investigated by the company they paid to protect them. The homeowners who come out whole are the ones whose claim is documented like it matters, because to the carrier’s file, only what is documented exists.
Louis P. Meyer, Esq.
Senior Attorney, Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A.
100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 610, Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: 561-206-2949
Email: lmeyer@kpattorney.com
About the Author
Louis P. Meyer, Esq. is a Senior Attorney at Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., where his practice focuses on first party property damage claims and personal injury cases across Florida, including fire and smoke claims for homeowners and property owners. He was selected to Florida Rising Stars in 2024, 2025, and 2026. He is bilingual in English and Spanish, writes the LouisTheLawyer publication on Substack, and hosts the podcast Off The Record by Louis Meyer. He holds an LL.M. from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, a J.D. from Whittier Law School, and a B.A. from UCLA, graduating with Honors. He was admitted to The Florida Bar on November 23, 2020, Bar No. 1024811. This page is general information about how fire damage claims work in Florida. It is not legal advice about any specific claim or policy.
Louis P. Meyer, Esq., Senior Attorney, Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., 100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 610, Tampa, FL 33602. Phone: 561-206-2949. Email: lmeyer@kpattorney.com.
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