Florida property owner Reza Razavi thought he had a golden ticket from his insurance company in the wake of Hurricane Milton.

Initially, he was relieved when he received a $20,000 advance check from his insurer, so he could begin repairs on his multi-unit building on Pass-A-Grille Beach, Florida. Hurricane Milton, which caused an estimated $50 billion in damage, flooded his property and many of his neighbors.

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But his relief turned to frustration when TD Bank, which holds his mortgage, refused to endorse the check, halting his much-needed repairs. They claim he needs notarized documentation explaining the need for the money and how the funds will be spent.

“We had to remove the flooring, the baseboards and drywall,” Razavi told WFTS Tampa reporters. “We need funds to be able to complete our work.”

Razavi wasn’t the only property owner facing this roadblock. TD Bank’s refusal to cash similar insurance checks is affecting others in Florida; his neighbor also received an advance check from his insurance company worth $2,500 that TD Bank refused to cash. Here are workarounds so you can avoid further headaches should your insurer come through, but your bank does not.

Why are banks holding up insurance checks?

Banks are cautious about releasing funds from insurance checks because they are often returned or disputed. The bank may also hold a vested interest in the property. In Razavi's case, TD Bank holds the mortgage. Mortgage lenders typically require proof that the insurance payouts are used for legitimate repairs.

TD Bank, for example, asks for notarized documentation detailing the planned repairs and sometimes requests a claims adjuster’s report. However, those documents can take weeks or even months to obtain due to the backlog created by disasters like Milton.

Industry expert Karyn Roeling of Seibert Insurance admitted that while documentation is a common request for large final claim payments, banks do not commonly require it for partial payments.

“I don't think it's right,” she told ABC reporters. “You would hope that the bank knows that a catastrophe has occurred in the area. You would think that somebody at the bank could make an exception to say, yes, our normal protocol is this but we're not going to follow normal protocol because this is an unprecedented two events, back-to-back.”