The short answer: Georgia gives your claim real deadlines and real teeth. The insurer must acknowledge your claim within 15 days, decide it within 15 days of your completed proof of loss (capped at 60 days), and pay within 10 days once the amount is set. Bad-faith refusal risks a penalty of up to 50% of the loss or $5,000 plus attorney's fees. Public adjuster fees are capped at 33⅓%. Roofers may not negotiate claims. One trap: your deadline to sue can be as short as one year.
Reg. 120-2-52-.03
O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6
O.C.G.A. § 33-23-43.3
White v. State Farm
Georgia claim law in one pass
Georgia's rules for property insurance claims live in three places: a claim-handling regulation with hard calendar deadlines, a set of statutes that police insurer conduct, and a licensing chapter that controls who is allowed to represent you and what they can charge.
The deadlines. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 120-2-52-.03 requires the insurer to acknowledge your claim within 15 days of notice and to send proof-of-loss forms within 15 days. Once you return a completed proof of loss, the carrier has 15 days to affirm or deny liability — extendable only with written explanations, and capped at 60 days total unless documented information is genuinely missing. Once coverage is confirmed and the undisputed amount is determined, payment is due within 10 days. And if the carrier denies, the same regulation requires the denial to reference the specific policy provision, condition, or exclusion it relies on. A denial that just says "not covered" is deficient on its face.
The conduct rules. O.C.G.A. § 33-6-34 lists 16 prohibited unfair claims settlement practices — misrepresenting policy provisions, failing to investigate reasonably, lowballing to force lawsuits, and the rest. And when a refusal to pay crosses from wrong into unreasonable, O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6 puts a number on it: after a proper demand, an insurer that fails to pay within 60 days and is found to have acted in bad faith owes the loss plus up to 50 percent of it or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Paying late doesn't cure it. Straight talk: the bad-faith action itself is a lawsuit, filed by a policyholder attorney — a public adjuster's job is building the record that wins it.
Who may represent you. Adjusting or negotiating another person's claim in Georgia requires a public adjuster license (O.C.G.A. §§ 33-23-43, 33-23-43.1). The contract is regulated — required terms, prohibited terms, and a three-business-day right to rescind (§ 33-23-43.2) — and the fee is capped at 33⅓ percent of the settlement (§ 33-23-43.3). When the dispute is only about the size of the number, Georgia policies also carry an appraisal clause, and Georgia courts treat the amount of loss as exactly what appraisal is for — our appraisal guide walks through invoking it.
Georgia claim-law guides
Each guide below answers one question in depth, with the statute quoted and linked in full:
The two Georgia rules that surprise people
The suit-deadline trap. Most policyholders assume they have years to sort a claim out. In White v. State Farm (2012), the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the two-year minimum from Georgia's Standard Fire Policy protects only the fire portion of a homeowners policy. For wind, hail, theft, and everything else, the deadline is whatever your policy's "Suit Against Us" clause says — and one-year clauses are common and enforced as written.
Negotiating with the insurer does not pause the clock. A carrier can string a dispute along past your suit deadline and then be legally untouchable. Read the clause the day a claim goes sideways, calendar the date, and work backward from it.
The roofer restriction. The person offering to "handle the insurance" after a storm is usually a roofing contractor — and in Georgia, roofers legally cannot adjust or negotiate your claim (O.C.G.A. § 10-1-393.12). The same statute gives you five business days after a denial notice to cancel a roofer's contract that is contingent on insurance proceeds. If your roof claim has already been denied, our step-by-step guide to fighting a denied Georgia roof claim covers the full sequence.
How Georgia compares
We hold public adjuster licenses in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina, and the differences matter when your property sits near a state line — or when you're deciding how seriously to take a carrier's stalling:
| Rule | Georgia | Tennessee |
|---|---|---|
| Claim-handling deadlines | Fixed by regulation: 15-day acknowledgment, 60-day decision cap, 10-day payment | No fixed calendar — the standard is reasonably prompt handling |
| Bad-faith penalty | Up to 50% of the loss or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees, after a 60-day demand | Up to 25%, after a 60-day demand |
| Public adjuster fee cap | 33⅓% of the settlement | 15% before the insurer's offer; 25% of the increase after |
Georgia's calendar deadlines are its strength: a carrier that blows the 15-day or 60-day marks has handed you documented regulatory violations. Tennessee counters with tighter, more consumer-friendly fee caps and its own 25 percent bad-faith penalty — the full picture is on our Tennessee claim law hub. South Carolina, where we also practice, draws its own hard line: a contractor acting as a public adjuster on the same claim is a felony (S.C. Code ch. 38-48).
The Georgia decisions that decide these fights
Statutes set the rules; courts say what they mean. Every decision below is published here in the court's own words — the complete opinion, not a summary — with plain-English notes underneath. All 46 are free to read, and the whole shelf is searchable in the case law library.
Questions Georgia policyholders ask us
How long does an insurance company have to settle a claim in Georgia?
Georgia regulation 120-2-52-.03 sets the clock: the insurer must acknowledge your claim within 15 days of notice and supply proof-of-loss forms within 15 days. Once you return a completed proof of loss, it must affirm or deny liability within 15 days — extendable only with written explanations, and capped at 60 days total unless documented information is still missing. After coverage is confirmed and the undisputed amount is determined, payment is due within 10 days.
What is the penalty for insurance bad faith in Georgia?
Under O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6, an insurer that refuses in bad faith to pay a covered loss within 60 days of a proper demand owes the loss plus a penalty of up to 50 percent of the loss or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney's fees — and paying late does not erase the exposure. The bad-faith action itself is a lawsuit, which is attorney work; a public adjuster's role is building the documented record that proves the refusal was unreasonable.
How much can a public adjuster charge in Georgia?
Georgia caps public adjuster fees at 33 1/3 percent of the settlement under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-43.3. The contract itself is regulated too — O.C.G.A. § 33-23-43.2 imposes required and prohibited terms and gives you three business days to rescind. Friedman & Associates works on contingency within the cap: no recovery, no fee.
Can my roofing contractor negotiate my insurance claim in Georgia?
No. O.C.G.A. § 33-23-43 makes it unlawful to adjust or negotiate someone else's claim without a public adjuster license, and O.C.G.A. § 10-1-393.12 specifically bars residential roofing contractors from doing it. If you signed a roofer's contract contingent on insurance proceeds, that statute also gives you five business days after a denial notice to cancel it in writing.
How long do I have to sue my insurance company in Georgia?
Check your policy's own deadline today. In White v. State Farm (2012), the Supreme Court of Georgia held that the two-year statutory minimum protects only the fire portion of a homeowners policy — for wind, hail, theft, and other perils, courts enforce the policy's own suit-limitation clause as written, and one-year clauses are common. Negotiating with the insurer does not pause that clock.
Do I have to accept my insurance company's estimate in Georgia?
No. When coverage is admitted and the dispute is about how much the loss is worth, your policy's appraisal clause lets you force a binding valuation by independent appraisers. Georgia's Supreme Court treats the amount of loss as squarely appraisable (McGowan v. Progressive, 2006); only true coverage disputes stay with the courts. Frame the demand as the total amount of the admitted loss — carriers stretch a narrow 4–3 case (Lam v. Allstate, 2014) to resist appraisal whenever the fight is over how far the damage extends, and framing defeats the maneuver.
This is a fight you shouldn't run alone. A free, confidential case review by a licensed public adjuster takes three taps — and if we take the case, you pay nothing unless we recover.
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