Legal Question in Construction Law in Florida

Our insurance company is telling us that we have passed the 5 years to claim a latent defect in our home since they repaired a full house fire in 2002.

Background:

I am a Veteran and Disabled. I hired a contractor by the VA to remodel part of my bathroom in order to be able to get into the shower.

While removing part of the bathroom shower curb to build a slope for ease of entry and it was discovered water and mold intrusion. We called the insurance company (USAA) and notified them promptly as well as I notified the VA. USAA sent out their adjuster and noticed dried mold and water that dried up over two days. We continued to demo the shower unit and found excessive water/moisture inside on the outside concrete block wall and under the shower pan. Again we contacted USAA and notified them of this and they sent out their adjuster again for inspection. Once the adjuster came out they not only inspected the shower again, but the entire exterior of the home and roof structures. They noted several deficiencies, wall cracks, etc., but could not find water intrusion. However they said that there was over 38% damage to the roof.

Further background here is that in 2002 the house had a major fire with total loss, USAA had their adjuster inspect, qualify a claim and handled hiring a contractor, not us and we did not sign any contracts for the work and was completed with repairs in 2003. The paperwork as we have discovered stated that the bathroom we were working on was to have been completely demoed and redone. (This did not happen). The roof was suppose to be a 3 tab 25 year roof and the present claim from the adjuster states 3 tab 20 year roof.

Question:

Is this a case of latent defect under Florida Law?

Can the insurance company unequivocally say that we are past the 5 year mark for claims and the homeowner should have known?

Your suggestions on what should be done.


Asked on 1/21/12, 6:02 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Alterraon Phillips APLaw, LLC

FL Statutes for latent defects gives a person 10 yrs to file a lawsuit or 4 years from the date of discovering the problem. Latent defects are something that is not visible to the naked eye. The only thing I did not pick up on in your write up is when did you discover the mold and water intrusion. If it was more than 4 years ago, it would be too late to file a lawsuit. Also noted, your issues may have arisen out of the 2002 reconstruction. The 10 year statute of limitation is this year. As it goes with your insurance company, they likely have a clause in your coverage which only gives you 5 years to file a claim for latent defects. You can ask them where the 5 yr limitation came from. Lastly, before you can say it is a latent defect, it must be determined the source of the water intrustion. It may not be from an exterior source; but, from a crack in the tile in the shower.

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Answered on 1/21/12, 5:39 pm


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