Assignment of Benefits Rules Roofing Sales Teams Need to Know

What an Assignment of Benefits Actually Transfers

An AOB is a legal transfer, not a courtesy. When a homeowner signs one, they hand you their right to the insurance payout for that claim. You bill the carrier directly, you negotiate the scope directly, and in a lot of cases you can pursue the insurer through litigation if the carrier underpays, all without the homeowner personally involved in the fight.

That is exactly why AOBs became controversial. They moved a huge amount of claim-dispute activity, and litigation, into contractor hands, and several states responded by restricting or banning the practice outright.

Florida's Post-2023 Ban, in Plain Language

Florida's HB 7065, codified at Fla. Stat. §627.7152, bans AOBs outright for any residential or commercial property insurance policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023. If your sales team operates in Florida and the underlying policy is new or was renewed after that date, an AOB is not a paperwork option. It is off the table.

What Still Applies to Pre-2023 Florida AOBs

An AOB signed on a pre-2023 policy that has not yet renewed can still be enforceable, but it has to meet real requirements, not just a signature line. It must contain a written, itemized per-unit cost estimate for the work, and an indemnification clause protecting the insurer. It may not include rescission fees, cancellation fees, or administrative fees tacked onto the homeowner.

Separately, under Fla. Stat. §627.7153, insurers that still offer AOB-restricted policies have to notify policyholders of that restriction annually, and price the restricted policy lower than an unrestricted equivalent. That is a carrier-side rule, but it shapes what your homeowner is actually working with, so it is worth knowing when you're explaining the claim process to them.

Why the Rest of the Industry Is Watching Florida

Roofing line items made up over 25% of all residential insurance claim value in 2024, and non-catastrophic wind and hail claims climbed from 17% of all residential claims in 2022 to 25% by 2024 (Verisk, via Insurance Business Magazine). Roofing claims are a large and growing share of what insurers pay out, which is exactly the kind of exposure that drives carriers and legislators to tighten the mechanisms, like AOB, that hand claim control to contractors. Sales teams should expect more states to legislate here, not fewer.

What This Means If You Run a Multi-State Sales Team

Do not assume the AOB form your team uses in one state is legal, or even the right tool, in another. AOB statutes are written and amended state by state, and this guide only has verified, sourced detail on Florida's rule. Build your paperwork around what you can confirm locally: check your state's current insurance code or ask an attorney before your reps use any assignment-style document outside a jurisdiction you have already verified.

The safer default in most conversations is the contingency agreement covered in the companion guide, which transfers nothing and carries far less regulatory exposure than an AOB, in Florida or anywhere else.

Sources

The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Assignment of Benefits resources
• Brelly, Florida contractor Assignment of Benefits law
• Insurance Business Magazine, Verisk 2025 US Roof Report data

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