When a storm hits a managed property, everyone looks at the manager. The board wants answers. Owners want repairs. Vendors want signatures. The carrier wants documents. And every one of those pulls arrives in the same 72 hours.
This checklist puts the first three days in order for Florida community association managers and commercial property managers. The sequence matters. Done in the right order, these steps protect people first, then the property, then the claim.
The standard you are held to
Florida CAMs are licensed under Chapter 468, and Section 468.4334 sets the professional standard: discharge your duties loyally, skillfully, and diligently, dealing honestly and fairly, in good faith, with care and full disclosure to the association.
In a loss event, "skillfully and diligently" has a practical meaning. It means you knew what to do, you did it promptly, and you can prove both. The proof part is why documentation runs through every step below.
Hours 0 to 24: safety and stabilization
Account for hazards before anything else. Downed lines, gas smell, structural cracking, standing water near electrical. Restrict access, put up notices, and log what you restricted and when.
Call the emergency vendors you pre-vetted. Water extraction, tarping, board-up. If the association has no pre-storm vendor list, this is the moment that convinces you to build one.
Mitigate, do not renovate. Insurance policies require the insured to protect property from further damage, and reasonable emergency costs are generally covered. But mitigation means tarps, extraction, and drying. It does not mean tearing out and rebuilding before the damage is documented and the carrier has notice.
Start the log. One document, kept from hour one: date, time, action, person, cost. This log becomes the backbone of the claim file and your own professional protection.
Hours 24 to 48: document before cleanup changes the scene
This is the window managers most often get wrong, because pressure to "get it cleaned up" peaks exactly when evidence is most fragile.
Before debris leaves the property:
• Wide photos of every affected building side, roof area, and interior space
• Close-ups of each damage point, with something for scale
• Video walkthroughs narrating location and date
• Photos of damaged contents and materials before disposal
• Moisture readings if your mitigation vendor takes them, in writing
Keep samples where practical. A section of damaged roof membrane or flooring in a labeled bag has settled more than one causation argument.
Organize as you go, not later. Create one folder per building or area, name files by date and location, and back everything up off-site the same week. Six months from now, "somewhere on the maintenance tech's phone" is not a filing system, and the person who took the photos may no longer work for the company.
Pull the pre-loss records too. Roof reports, milestone inspections, reserve studies, and maintenance logs that show the property's condition before the storm are gold. Carriers often argue damage is old wear and tear. Dated records beat that argument. The records list in our free SIRS checklist doubles as a pre-loss evidence file for exactly this reason.
Notice to the carrier
Report the claim in writing as soon as the loss is known. You do not need final numbers to give notice, and waiting for a full damage picture is how associations end up fighting late-notice arguments on top of everything else. Florida law puts hard deadlines on hurricane and windstorm claims, and the safest calendar is the shortest one.
Check the policy's duties-after-loss section the same day you give notice. It lists what the carrier can require: prompt notice, protection of the property, an inventory of damage, documents, and possibly examinations under oath. Knowing the list early means nothing on it catches the association by surprise later.
Confirm who is authorized to give notice for the association, copy the board, and save the carrier's acknowledgment with the claim number. From this point forward, every substantive communication with the carrier goes in writing or gets confirmed in writing afterward.
For what happens after notice, from the carrier's adjuster through settlement, see our guide to how a condo association insurance claim works.
Vendor coordination without losing the claim
Vendors are essential and vendors are a risk. Three rules keep both true things in balance.
Scope in writing, emergency work only. Sign for mitigation now. Do not sign full reconstruction contracts before the claim's scope is established.
Watch the paperwork you sign. Florida has restricted assignment-of-benefits arrangements, but vendors still present documents with broad terms. Direction-to-pay and work authorizations should be reviewed, and anything assigning policy rights deserves a hard look from the association's attorney first.
Keep vendor files claim-ready. Every invoice itemized, every scope documented with photos, every change order in writing. The carrier will scrutinize each line months from now.
Communicating with the board and owners
The manager's job is to keep the board deciding and the owners informed, without becoming the claim's spokesperson to the carrier.
Give the board short written situation reports: what happened, what has been done, what decisions they need to make, what it costs. Recommend the board meet promptly and put claim decisions in minutes. Decisions that live only in phone calls have a way of being remembered differently when the claim gets contested a year later.
Know your lane with the carrier too. A CAM can gather documents, report facts, and coordinate access. Negotiating the value of the claim on the association's behalf is a licensed activity in Florida, reserved for the policyholder's own representatives such as a public adjuster or attorney. Managers who stay inside their lane protect their license and the claim at the same time.
For owners, a simple update rhythm works: what happened, what is being done, what owners should do about their own unit policies, and when to expect the next update. Owners with damaged units should be told in writing to notify their own HO-6 carriers, because association and unit policies split responsibility under Florida law.
The file the carrier will ask for months later
Association claims run long. A year from now, someone will ask for the mitigation invoices from day two. Build the file now, in one place:
• The running log
• All photos and video, organized by date and location
• The policy and endorsements
• Carrier correspondence and the claim number
• Vendor contracts, invoices, and scopes
• Board minutes touching the loss
• Pre-loss condition records
A manager who produces that file on request has done the job the license demands. Our resources for property managers page collects more tools for this audience, and the free SIRS checklist is the fastest way to get the records side organized before the next storm makes it urgent.
James Coyne, Public Adjuster, License W482618, Coyne Commercial Group, License G350978