Most Louisiana hurricane policies give you a year to file suit. Some give two. A few give less. The clock starts on the date of loss — not the date the adjuster denied your claim, and not the date you finally got tired of waiting.
That deadline doesn’t move because the carrier is “still investigating.” It doesn’t move because they sent a new adjuster. It moves when the policy says it moves, and most don’t.
Two patterns we see at the eleven-month mark
The insurer never paid what the claim is worth. They paid the contractor’s first scope, ignored matching costs, and told you to submit anything else as a supplement. Eleven months in, the supplement is still “under review.”
The insurer denied and pivoted to flood vs. wind. They told you the damage was flood; your flood carrier told you the damage was wind. Both files have been sitting open while the prescriptive period ran.
In either case, the answer is the same. Pull the policy, find the suit-limitation clause, and calendar the date.
What the suit-limitation clause actually means
Louisiana lets parties contract for a shorter limitations period than the default ten-year prescription, as long as the period isn’t unreasonably short. One year is enforceable. Two is common in Citizens policies. The clause usually sits in the conditions section under “Suit Against Us.”
What to do before you hit it
Get the entire claim file, not just the summary letter. Request it in writing. Document every repair you’ve paid out of pocket — receipts, photos, contractor estimates. If your contractor wrote a supplement, get a copy from them directly; carriers sometimes lose them. Don’t sign a release without reading the release. We’ve seen final-payment checks endorsed with language that waived everything else.
If the deadline is inside ninety days, call. Filing suit doesn’t mean trial. Most hurricane cases that get filed resolve through appraisal or mediation within the first six months. The filing itself is what stops the clock.