Part 4 of 4The 50-State Property Claim Guide
State legal — Louisiana
Louisiana Hurricane Claim Deadlines: The 60-Day Cure Notice and the Two-Year Window
Act 3 of 2024 moved declared-event property claims onto their own statute. The deadline charts that rank on Google did not follow.
Run the Louisiana clocks on your file.
Enter the dates you know. Clocks without a date show what starts them.
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2
Initiate loss adjustment (declared event)Carrier clock
30 days from notice of loss on a catastrophic loss to immovable property; the commissioner may extend by an additional 30 days.
This is the § 1892.2 track, and it applies only to a catastrophic loss — one arising from a presidentially or gubernatorially declared emergency or disaster (§ 1892(B)(1)(c)(i)). A non-declared loss stays on § 1892: 14 days to initiate adjustment. The declaration is the switch; put it on the file-open checklist next to the policy number and deductible.
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2
Pay amount due — residential (declared event)Carrier clock
60 days from satisfactory written proof of loss for residential immovable property.
The § 1892.2 clock that replaced the old 30-day § 1892 deadline for hurricane claims on July 1, 2024. The carrier controls the start date until proof of loss is satisfactory; under § 1892.2(D) a request for information the insurer already has, or one the trier of fact finds unnecessary, does not reset the clock.
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2
Pay amount due — other immovable / commercial (declared event)Carrier clock
90 days from satisfactory written proof of loss for immovable property other than residential; the commissioner may add 30 days for a commercial policy insuring multiple locations.
Same satisfactory-proof-of-loss trigger as the residential clock, thirty days longer.
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2(C)(1)
Pre-suit cure period notice (condition precedent)Hard deadline
60 days' written notice of the violation to the insurer before filing suit — a condition precedent to any action for penalties and attorney fees.
It can be the Department of Insurance form or a formal written demand stating the facts and circumstances. Suit filed without it is automatically stayed until 60 days after the notice is received (§ 1892.2(C)(7)) and is dismissed at the insured's cost if the carrier then pays the full amount demanded. Recoverable expenses, including attorney fees, are capped at 20% of the amount alleged due (C)(3); a partial tender inside the window halves the penalty on the amount paid (C)(4).
- —La. R.S. 22:868(B); Wilson v. La. Citizens (2024)
Suit limitation: two years from inception of the lossHard deadline
The policy's own limitation clause, which R.S. 22:868(B) bars from being shorter than 24 months after the inception of the loss.
This is a policy term, not a prescriptive statute for the claim. In Wilson v. Louisiana Citizens (No. 2023-CC-01320, Jan. 2024) the Louisiana Supreme Court enforced a two-year policy clause and dismissed a late suit. Read the actual policy before calendaring; a cure notice transmitted inside the final 90 days suspends prescription under § 1892.2(C)(6).
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2
Prescription on penalty claimsHard deadline
Two-year liberative prescription on the § 1892.2 penalty and attorney-fee claim, running separately from the underlying policy limitation.
Under § 1892.2(C)(6), a cure notice transmitted in the last 90 days before prescription runs suspends the period — for both the penalty action and the underlying policy dispute — until 30 days after the insurer's written response, which is due within 60 days.
- —La. R.S. 22:1264
Proof-of-loss submission window (declared event)Hard deadline
Not less than 180 days to submit proof of loss on a declared-event loss; the window does not run while the emergency declaration stands and civil authorities deny access to the property.
Coverage cannot be automatically denied for missing the policy's proof-of-loss timing on a declared-event loss. Replacement-cost policyholders get one year from the date of loss, or from issuance of proceeds, whichever is later, to complete repairs and recover withheld depreciation.
- —La. R.S. 22:1892.2(B)(1)
Penalty floor for arbitrary failure to payContext
Where the failure to pay is arbitrary, capricious, or without probable cause: the greater of 50% of the amount found due (or of the shortfall on a partial tender) plus proven economic damages, or $2,500, with reasonable attorney fees and costs.
Section 1892(J) now imposes a good-faith duty on the insured and the insured's representative; an estimate or cure notice without a good-faith evidentiary basis is a statutory factor the trier of fact must weigh before awarding any penalty or fees (§ 1892(J)(4)). Price the notice the way you would price a sworn statement.
Computed from the claimOS field guide for this state. Clocks the guide states as plain days are counted as calendar days; business days are counted as weekdays. Informational, not legal advice. Verify against the current statute and policy language.
Two Terrebonne Parish files from the same named storm. Same carrier, same $180,000 dwelling limit, sworn proofs of loss mailed the same week in September. One draws a $94,000 supplemental tender the following spring. The other draws a dismissal at month twenty-three, taxed to the insured, because nobody sent the sixty-day notice Louisiana has required since July 1, 2024.
The scopes were close to identical. Same roof system, same interior water path, same engineer on both inspections. What separated them was that one adjuster knew which statute the file was running under, and the other was working off a deadline chart that stopped being accurate two years ago.
Hurricane claims left § 1892 in 2024
Search Louisiana claim deadlines today and the pages that rank will tell you the carrier owes payment within thirty days of satisfactory proof of loss, and that an arbitrary, capricious, or baseless failure to pay exposes it to a fifty percent penalty. For a kitchen fire in Monroe, that is still correct. For a hurricane claim it is wrong on the day count, wrong on the penalty floor, and silent on the step that now decides whether you have a claim for penalties at all.
Act 3 of the 2024 Regular Session — Senate Bill 323, signed May 7, 2024, effective July 1 — pulled catastrophic losses to immovable property out of R.S. 22:1892 and moved them into a new section, R.S. 22:1892.2. The carve-out is written into the old statute. Section 1892(B)(1)(b) provides that in the case of a catastrophic loss, a first-party claim arising under a policy for immovable property is penalized under § 1892.2, "and the provisions of this Paragraph shall not apply." The same act repealed § 22:1973 outright and relocated the insurer's duty of good faith into § 1892(I).
Whether a file is catastrophic is not a judgment call. Section 1892(B)(1)(c)(i) defines catastrophic loss as a loss arising from a natural disaster, windstorm, or significant weather-related event that was a presidentially declared or gubernatorially declared emergency or disaster. Ida, Laura, Delta, Zeta, Francine — all declared. A May hailstorm in Bossier City with no declaration is not, and that file stays on the thirty-day clock. The declaration is the switch, and it belongs on your file-open checklist next to the policy number and the deductible.
| Clock | No declaration — § 1892 | Declared event — § 1892.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Initiate loss adjustment | 14 days from notice of loss | 30 days from notice, commissioner may add 30 |
| Pay amount due — residential | 30 days from satisfactory proof of loss | 60 days from satisfactory written proof of loss |
| Pay amount due — other immovable | 30 days from satisfactory proof of loss | 90 days, plus 30 by commissioner for multi-location commercial |
| Pre-suit notice to carrier | None required | 60-day cure period notice, condition precedent |
| Penalty floor | Greater of 50% or $1,000 | Greater of 50% or $2,500, plus proven economic damages |
| Prescription on penalty claims | 2 years | 2 years |
The sixty-day notice is a file, not a formality
Section 1892.2(C)(1) makes sixty days' written notice of the violation a condition precedent to bringing an action. Not a best-effort step, not a demand letter you send if negotiations sour — a gate. File suit without it and § 1892.2(C)(7) automatically stays the case until sixty days after the notice is received. If the carrier then pays the full amount demanded, the prematurely filed action is dismissed at the insured's cost.
The notice can be the Department of Insurance form or a formal written demand providing sufficient notice of the facts and circumstances. That second option is where the work is. Whatever number you put in the notice sets the ceiling on what a cure has to cover, and it also sets the ceiling on your expenses: § 1892.2(C)(3) lets the insured claim actual expenses incurred, including attorney fees, capped at twenty percent of the amount alleged to be due under the policy. A notice demanding $70,000 carries at most $14,000 in recoverable expenses. A notice that undercounts the supplement undercounts both.
Two outcomes follow. Pay the full noticed amount plus those expenses inside sixty days and the carrier extinguishes the cause of action on that demand — § 1892.2(C)(3). Pay part of it inside sixty days and the penalty otherwise due on the amount actually paid is cut in half under (C)(4). Carriers read that paragraph. A partial tender on day fifty-eight is not a concession; it is a fifty percent discount on exposure, and it is the most predictable carrier move on the calendar.
The clause that buys time, and the way to lose it
Louisiana's two-year window is the part most often stated confidently and sourced badly. It is not a prescriptive statute for the underlying claim. It comes from the policy. R.S. 22:868(B) bars any clause limiting a first-party right of action to less than twenty-four months after the inception of the loss, so twenty-four months is a floor carriers write to, not a ceiling the legislature imposed. In Wilson v. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (No. 2023-CC-01320), decided January 2024, the Louisiana Supreme Court enforced exactly that policy language and dismissed a suit filed more than two years after a 2020 loss. Read the limitation clause in the actual policy before you calendar anything.
Then read § 1892.2(C)(6), which almost no deadline guide mentions. If the cure period notice is transmitted within the last ninety days before prescription runs, the prescriptive period is suspended — for the penalty action and for an action concerning the underlying policy dispute — until thirty days after the insurer transmits its written response. The carrier owes that response within sixty days under (C)(5). A notice sent at month twenty-one, documented and dated, converts a hard wall into a moving one.
What "satisfactory written proof of loss" has to survive
Every payment clock in § 1892.2 starts at satisfactory written proof of loss, which means the carrier controls the start date until you take it away from them. Three provisions help.
Section 1892.2(D)(1) permits additional requests for information or inspection during the investigation, then removes the usual game: a request for information already in the possession of the insurer or its representatives does not extend any of the insurer's deadlines. Subsection (D)(2) adds that a request found by the trier of fact to be unnecessary, considering the other proof already available, does not extend the deadline either. When the third request for the same roofing invoice arrives, answer it and note in the file that the document was produced on a prior date. That note is the argument later.
Section 1892(A)(5) is the quietest lever in the chapter: on written request, the insurer must issue a copy of its field adjuster report on the insured's property damage claim within fifteen days. Fifteen days, on a form request, for the document that explains the tender. Send it the week the tender lands, not the month you decide to fight.
R.S. 22:1264 backstops the proof itself. On a declared-event loss, coverage cannot be automatically denied because the policyholder could not meet the policy's proof-of-loss timing, the time limit for submission is not less than one hundred eighty days, and it does not begin to run while the emergency declaration stands and civil authorities are denying access to the property. The same section gives replacement-cost policyholders one year from the date of loss or from issuance of proceeds, whichever is later, to complete repairs and recover withheld depreciation. On a blue-tarp file where the roofer is booked into next season, that second sentence is the one that pays. The sworn statement in proof of loss still has to be built field by field, but § 1264 means a late one is not fatal.
The duty that now runs toward you
Act 3 added something public adjusters should read twice. Section 1892(J) imposes a duty of good faith and fair dealing on the insured, the claimant, and the representative of the insured or claimant — which is you, by name. Breaches listed there include submitting an estimate or claim for damages that lacks a good faith evidentiary basis, misrepresenting policy provisions, and failing to act in good faith when setting deadlines or making demands.
It creates no separate cause of action against you. What it does under § 1892(J)(4) is require the trier of fact, in any action under § 1892 or § 1892.2, to weigh that conduct when deciding whether the insured gets penalties or attorney fees at all. An inflated line item in a cure period notice is no longer just a credibility problem in a mediation. It is a statutory factor a judge must consider before awarding the fifty percent your client is counting on. Price the notice the way you would price a sworn statement — because for penalty purposes, it now works like one.
That is the operational shift behind the whole 2024 rewrite. The penalty math still favors a well-documented Louisiana file, but the path to it runs through a dated notice, a defensible number, and a record of what the carrier already had and when. Carriers have adapted their timing to the sixty-day cure window; the files that hold up are the ones where the cycle time after a named storm is tracked as evidence rather than experienced as weather. If you are building that record by hand across a hundred Ida-era supplements, see how claimOS handles deadline tracking for public adjusters, and the state deadline library for the clocks in the other jurisdictions you work.
Does the 30-day payment deadline still apply to Louisiana hurricane claims?
No. Since July 1, 2024, a catastrophic loss to immovable property runs under La. R.S. 22:1892.2: 60 days from satisfactory written proof of loss for residential property and 90 days for other immovable property, with a possible 30-day extension by the commissioner for commercial policies insuring multiple locations. Section 1892(B)(1)(b) expressly makes the older 30-day penalty track inapplicable to those claims.
What is a cure period notice, and is it required?
It is 60 days' written notice of the violation, given to the insurer before suit, and § 1892.2(C)(1) makes it a condition precedent to any action for penalties and attorney fees on a catastrophic loss. It may be the Louisiana Department of Insurance form or a formal written demand stating the facts and circumstances of the dispute. Suit filed without it is automatically stayed, and can be dismissed at the insured's cost if the carrier then pays the full amount demanded.
Is the two-year deadline to sue a Louisiana statute?
Not for the underlying claim. The two years typically comes from the policy's own limitation clause. R.S. 22:868(B) prohibits limiting a first-party right of action to less than 24 months after the inception of the loss, and in Wilson v. Louisiana Citizens (2024) the Louisiana Supreme Court enforced a policy's two-year clause and dismissed a late-filed suit. Claims for penalties under § 1892.2 carry their own two-year liberative prescription. Read the policy.
Can a cure period notice extend the deadline to file suit?
Yes, in one situation. Under § 1892.2(C)(6), if the notice is transmitted within the last 90 days before prescription runs, the prescriptive period for both the penalty action and the underlying policy dispute is suspended until 30 days after the insurer transmits its written response. The insurer owes that response within 60 days.
How much can the insured recover if the carrier misses the deadline?
Under § 1892.2(B)(1), where the failure is arbitrary, capricious, or without probable cause, the penalty is the greater of 50% of the amount found due — or 50% of the shortfall where a partial tender was made — plus proven economic damages, or $2,500, whichever is greater, together with reasonable attorney fees and costs actually incurred. A partial payment made within the 60-day cure window cuts the penalty on that paid amount in half.
How late can a proof of loss be on a declared-disaster claim?
R.S. 22:1264 sets the submission window at not less than 180 days and stops it from running while the emergency declaration is in effect and civil authorities are denying access to the property. Coverage cannot be automatically denied for missing the policy's own proof-of-loss timing on a declared-event loss.
Sources cited
- La. R.S. 22:1892.2 — Catastrophic loss claims settlement practices; penalties and attorney fees— Louisiana State Legislature
- La. R.S. 22:1892 — Payment and adjustment of claims; good faith duty; penalties— Louisiana State Legislature
- La. R.S. 22:1264 — Presumption of coverage— Louisiana State Legislature
- New Duties for Insurers and Insureds Under LA Overhaul of Bad Faith Statutes— Phelps Dunbar LLP
- LA Supreme Court Clarifies Contract Controls Prescriptive Period for First-Party Bad Faith Claims— Phelps Dunbar LLP
Related field notes.
Statutory clocks, tracked on every file.
claimOS calendars these deadlines automatically on each claim: acknowledgement, decision, payment, and the suit limitation, each with its code section attached and visible to the whole team.