Florida Total Loss Car Insurance Law: What § 626.9743 Requires

The statute that governs your payout

Florida doesn't leave total-loss valuation to the insurer's discretion. It's written into state law at Fla. Stat. § 626.9743, the claim-settlement-practices statute for motor vehicle insurance. The statute tells the insurer how to build the number, what a comparable vehicle has to be, and what it has to show you when it takes money off the top.

That matters because most total-loss offers in Florida come out of valuation software from CCC, Mitchell, or Audatex. The software produces a tidy-looking PDF with a market value, a list of comparable cars, and a column of adjustments. The statute is the yardstick you hold that PDF against. When an adjustment in the report doesn't meet the standard the statute sets, the report's own math is what supports a corrected figure.

The 90-day comparable-vehicle rule

The starting point under the statute is what it would actually cost you to buy a comparable car. Florida law puts a time limit and a market limit on which comparables count:

"Cash settlement must be based upon the actual cost to purchase a comparable motor vehicle, including sales tax, derived from the cost of two or more comparable motor vehicles available within the preceding 90 days in the local market area."

Fla. Stat. § 626.9743(5)(a)

Two things to pull out of that. The comparables have to have been available in the preceding 90 days, and they have to be in your local market area. A comp that was listed eight months ago, or one pulled from a market three hundred miles away, doesn't fit the rule. Those are two of the most common problems in a software-generated report: stale listings and out-of-area cars quietly padding out the comparable set.

The statute also defines what makes a car comparable in the first place:

"A comparable motor vehicle is one made by the same manufacturer, of the same or newer model year, of similar body type, with similar options and mileage as the insured vehicle."

Fla. Stat. § 626.9743(5)(b)

Same manufacturer, same or newer year, similar body type, options, and mileage. When a report reaches for a comp that differs on one of those and then applies a "market research" adjustment to bridge the gap, that adjustment is exactly the kind of thing the statute expects to be documented and specified, not just asserted.

Deductions must be itemized in dollars

This is the heart of the Florida rule and the part insurers most often fall short on. If the settlement varies from the straight comparable method, the statute demands the math be shown:

"When a total loss is settled on a basis that varies from the comparable/replacement methods, the determination of value must be supported by documentation and any deductions from value must be itemized and specified in appropriate dollar amounts. Betterment/depreciation deductions shall be itemized, specific as to dollar amount, and accurately reflect the value assigned, and shall be maintained in the claim file."

Fla. Stat. § 626.9743(5)(c), (6)

Read that against a typical valuation report and the gaps jump out. The most common one is a flat condition deduction, the same dollar figure or percentage subtracted from every comparable regardless of what shape each car is actually in. If the report never inspected those cars, an identical deduction across all of them isn't a value determination "supported by documentation." It's a number the software applied by default.

The itemization language applies to betterment and depreciation deductions too. If the report knocks value off for wear or prior condition, the statute says that deduction has to be itemized, specific as to dollar amount, and it has to accurately reflect the value assigned. A vague lump sum labeled "condition" doesn't meet that bar.

Sales tax is owed on top

Florida is explicit that your settlement includes sales tax. It's baked into the definition of the payout itself:

"The insurer's cash settlement must include applicable sales tax on the comparable motor vehicle."

Fla. Stat. § 626.9743(5), (9)

The statute's valuation basis is "the actual cost to purchase a comparable motor vehicle, including sales tax." So sales tax isn't a courtesy add-on the insurer can drop. It's part of the number the law tells them to pay. Check whether the offer actually includes it, because when it's left out on a car worth twenty or thirty thousand dollars, that alone is a meaningful gap.

Common flaws in Florida valuations

Here's how the statute lines up against the adjustments that most often shrink a Florida total-loss offer:

What the report does	What § 626.9743 says
Same condition deduction on every comp	Deductions must be itemized, specified in dollar amounts, and supported by documentation
Comparable valued below its listed price for "typical negotiation"	Value must be based on the actual cost to purchase; deductions itemized and specific
Comps from more than 90 days ago	Comparables must be available within the preceding 90 days
Comps from outside the local market	Comparables must be in the local market area
Sales tax left out of the offer	Cash settlement must include applicable sales tax
Cross-spec "market research" adjustment	A comparable is same make, same or newer year, similar body/options/mileage

None of this requires you to guess at what the car was worth. Every one of these is a check you run against the report the insurer already handed you, using the statute as the standard.

What to do about a low offer

Start by getting the offer in writing and reading the valuation report line by line against the rules above. If a deduction isn't itemized, if a comparable is stale or out of market, or if sales tax is missing, you have a specific, statute-grounded reason to counter, not a gut feeling that the number is low.

1. Send a written counter-offer. Point to the exact adjustments that don't meet § 626.9743 and show the corrected math from the report's own numbers.
2. Escalate if the insurer won't move. Florida's appraisal clause is a policy provision, not a state mandate, and some Florida insurers have removed it. If your policy still contains one, either side can invoke it: each picks an appraiser, the two pick an umpire, and a decision agreed by any two is binding. It costs you your own appraiser fee plus half the umpire fee, so it's usually worth it only on a larger gap, and it's a step after a written counter, not a first move.
3. File a complaint. The Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Consumer Services takes consumer insurance complaints at assistcon.myfloridacfo.gov.

One note on Florida specifically: the appraisal clause is not guaranteed to be in your policy here, so don't count on it as your fallback until you've confirmed it's actually there. Your strongest lever in most cases is the written counter built on the statute, because § 626.9743 applies to every total-loss settlement regardless of what the policy says about appraisal.