HURRICANE FRANCES
- DIRECT DAMAGES -
$49,100
($6,000 deductible) Revised to
$ 147,028.35
- Roof tiles and leakage (Estimated
re-roof cost $9,500)
Revised to $ 21,627.88
- Bedroom
and Interior water damage (carpet,drywall,ceiling,insulation
estimated at $9,500)
Revised to $ 32,625.02
- Water pressure tank and piping
(Repair cost $850)
- Miscellaneous damage - weathervane
replacement, window glass replacement, lights, cottage, barn, kennel roof
(est. $2,475)Revised to $
38,729.54
- Pool enclosure and screened porch (Estimated
replacement $12,500)
Revised to $24,901.50
- Security fencing and main gates
(Repair estimated $10,000)
Revised to $28,559.61
- Power outage - 12 days (Gas cost
$600 plus equipment $975)
- Food and perishables loss
(Estimated $250)
- Tree removal
from structures , utilities or property access (Estimated $1,750)Revised
to $ 4,576.33
-
Insurance payment of $38,267.60 or 88.8%
of initial claim
-
Insurance payment of $38,267.60 or 26.0%
of Revised claim
- POST HURRICANE DAMAGES -
$222,998.22
($1,000 deductible)
- INSURANCE CLAIM DATA
- Federated National Insurance - PO
Box 407193,Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33340
- Policy # FNH 7027078-00 initiated
December 4, 2002, renewed on
December 4, 2003 , amended in
January 2004, renewed on 4
December 2005
- Reported on 09/08/2004 to
866-505-2325
- Insurance Commissioner complaint
filed 09/10/2004 Case # 1-55962981
- Claim response 09/17/2004
- Claim status contact 800-420-7075
- Claim Number :
H0104104913
- Claim contact for reconstruction:
Alacrity Inc. 770-953-3220 (Bill Schwarz)
- First
renewal invoice received - 09/10/2004
- Second
renewal invoice received - 10/10/2004
- Phone contact with Ft. Lauderdale
Claim Office - no e-mail/internet access 10/23/2004 only printed matter
via P.O. Box accepted.
- Adjustor calls to schedule
appointment 10/27/2004
- Adjustor inspection 10/30/2004 by
P&C Adjustment Services Inc. (Calvin Woodard -
561-775-8655 catclaims2@aol.com
)
- Adjustor advises delay in decision
to separate Fire from Hurricane Damages 11/1/2004
- Follow-up with State Insurance
Commissioner 11/3/2004 (Jeff) 1-850-413-3101
- Federated Insurance replied to
Commissioner that it needed more investigation on Fire Claim
(11/05/2004)
- Adjustor follow-up regarding
clarification and advance payment 11/06/2004
- Adjustor follow-up to separate
Hurricane Claim from Garage fire claim 11/14/2004. Seeks to use existing
claim # for Fire and make new one for Hurricane. Stated advance of
$20,000 in process, report filed with Federated.
- Follow-up with State Insurance
Commissioner 11/15/2004 (Lynn) 1-800-342-2762
- Attempt to split claim denied by
Federated. No knowledge of adjustor report per Christine at 800-293-2532
at 14:17 on 11/15/2004. She denied a payment in process.
- Adjustor follow-up at 8:30 PM
11/17/2004 to confirm sending request for advance via email with
Supervisor on 11/14/2004. States adjusted value for Hurricane Damages
only at approximately $38,000 after depreciation. I requested written
confirmation but this required claims supervisor authorization. No
confirmation sent.
- Federated National follow-up
conversation on 11/19/2004 with
Joel.
- Follow-up
e-mail from Adjustor on 11/24/2004 concerning travel schedule and
advance request confirmation receipt by Federated on 11/17/2004. No
mention of new Claim # for Fire Damage Claim nor damages claim value
settlement.
- Payment for Policy renewal and
additional Mold Coverage made on 29 November 2004 in the amount of
$2,234 by check # 842
- A follow-up at 12:30 PM on
12/03/2004 reached an operator after 40 minutes and was notified that
the computers were down, to call back later. A follow-up call at 3:30 PM
was answered by Cory after 30 minutes, Cory then asked to be excused for
a minute and placed the call on hold. After about 30 seconds, the call
was answered by a machine stating the mailbox called was full, to dial
another box number or "zero" for the Operator or "star" for the
Directory. The "zero" when dialed produces a message that says "the
number dialed is not correct, to re-enter the number or dial another box
number or "zero" for the Operator or "star" for the Directory.". The
Directory has no-one with the name Cory (or Corie, Kory etc). A specific
extension is unknown since all persons who answer the phone at Federated
decline to provide a last name or extension number and as previously
stated the "zero" just starts the whole recording all over again.
- A further call was made at 4:00 PM
and was answered at 4:24 PM by Vicky who stated that two checks had been
issued on 29 November 2004 and are usually mailed 2-3 days later
insinuating that the checks should be received in the next few days. She
declined to provide any further information stating the check amounts
were not available in the computer file to which she had access.
- On 4 December claim payment checks
#19608 and 19609 in the respective amounts of $18,276.84 and $19,990.76
were received as settlement for Hurricane Damage claims.
- On 11 December the new Homeowner
Policy # FNH027078-01 docs were received for coverage period of 4 December 2004 - 4
December 2005
- On 12/13/2004 P&C Adjustment
advised via e-mail that a new claim had to be registered for the post
Hurricane fire damages suffered.
- On 12/15/2004 a new claim was made
via phone to the appropriate New Claims Center. We were advised the Ft.
Lauderdale, FL. office would call with the new claim number within 2
days. No notification was ever received.
- On 12/23/2004 a Mr. Peter
O'Donnell of Coastal Claims , an independant adjusting firm in Port St.
Lucie (tel 772-465-5973, 772-460-0113, cel 772-579-5310 email
propertyclaims@bellsouth.net )
called to schedule a visit to review Fire Damage Claim.
- On 12/24/2004 the property
adjustor arrived at the scheduled time. Damages were reviewed,
photographed and a verbal statement was recorded. The new Claim Number
was provided: H00104112091
Additional documentation was requested by
the Adjusting professional and while some was provided, the balance was
to be sent during the next 5 days. The process was professional,
courteous and efficient and was completed in under 90 minutes.
- On 12/30/2004 Adjustor called to
clarify a few items prior to submitting claim report.
- On 1/5/2005 Original adjustor, P&C
Adjustors called to confirm report details and said it would be filing
report within one week.
- On 1/9/2005 Adjustor called to
confirm nature of contents not being business related, origin of
receipts etc. and refiled updated report.
- On 1/15/2005 P&C Adjustors
confirmed via email that report had been submitted on or about
1/13/2005.
- On 1/16/2005 Adjustor confirmed
via email that Revised Report had been filed on 1/14/2005
- On 1/21/2005 Federated was called
3 times. Calls were disconnected, then forwarded to a full mailbox and
finally to a mailbox where a callback message was left. No callback
received.
- On 1/24/2005 Federated was reached
at Extension 1319. The adjustor, Rose Farqueson stated she did not have
a file but would fax the independent adjustors to see where the report
was filed.
- A follow-up call was made to Rose
Farqueson on 28 January but the call was disconnected and despite
repeated attempts to reconnect, only 3 messages for a callback could be
left.
- On 31 January, Rose Farqueson
called to say that the Claim File was being processed by Clorinda
Gerasimchik at
Ext. 1405 and to please communicate directly with Clorinda.
- A call was placed to Clorinda at
Ext. 1405 at 09:45 AM on 31 January but a recording stated that the
mailbox was full and no further messages could be left.
- A subsequent callback from Rose
Farqueson confirmed that Clorinda had reported that on 27 January
she had requested a check for $27,400 be prepared in settlement of the
outbuilding Fire Claim. No information was available on the personal
property Claim nor was there any record of the actual check request in
the system.
- At 1:05 PM via regular mail, a
Notice of Cancellation dated 27 January and effective 21 February was
received by the Insured on 29 January. Reason for the cancellation was given as
"Underwriting Reasons
and Excessive or Unusual
Liability Exposures". A
period of 25 days would pass between notification and effective date.
- A call was again placed to
Clorinda Gerasimchik at extension 1405 but only an answering machine
was reached. A message for callback was left at 1:18 PM on 31 January.
- The Insurance Commissioner was
contacted again on 1 February at 11:30 AM. The original file had been
closed stating all payments had been made. It was ascertained that at
least 45 days notice is required to cancel a policy. When a claim is in
process, cancelation can only occur after the claim has been settled and
at least 60 days have passed after payment of the settlement. Neither
situation occurred in this case and a complaint was filed and assigned
Case # 1-92386370.
Virgil Walker at tel. (850) 413-5819 was assigned the case.
- By 21 February the Company had
failed to reinstate the Policy and claimed there existed evidence of
commercial rental of space on the insured property for non-resident
equines. The Agent for the insured wrote a
letter to the Company on 8 March seeking resolution. Since the
insured was uninsured, a new policy was taken from State Farm at a cost
approximately 30% more than the cost of the Federated National Policy.
- On 15 March, Federated National
advised Insured the original policy had been reinstated effective 21
February. The Insured declined reinstatement and received a full refund
approximately 30 days later.
- Further calls were made on 2 and 3
February to both Clorinda and Rose with no response. On Friday, 4
February Rose Farqueson was reached at 0930 and after several attempts
to find Clorinda, she determined that the check was being prepared and
would be overnighted to the insured. The insured stated that he would
appear personally to pick up the check.
- At 1:30 PM the insured was advised
that the check # 29615 in the amount of $27,400 (maximum coverage for "other structures")was ready and the insured went to the office of Federated to
get the check. While there the insured met with Clorinda who discussed
at length the claim and progress towards finalizing everything and
agreed to review the claim with emphasis on whether the garage could be
considered as part of the main structure given that it was connected via
a covered breezeway. Clorinda stated that the adjustors had failed to
mention this issue and in addition there were questions regarding
personal property. The insured agreed to send evidence of the breezeway
and more details concerning the personal property.
- Insured e-mailed Clorinda the
supporting data on 7 February and again on 11 February. Due to personal
matters, Clorinda was absent from her office and did not read the email
until 14 February. She responded by e-mail that
her supervisor stated the garage was an outbuilding. She expected to
complete the personal property claim by 18 February.
- On 18 February Clorinda responded
by e-mail to insured regarding the personal
property claim and that a check had been prepared. She stated that this
had been prepared considering that the maximum coverage was $54,800
under coverage "C". Insured informed Clorinda that coverage "C" was
$127,000 and that $54,800 was coverage "D" (Loss of use).
- On 23 and 24 February insured made
several calls to Clorinda but only a message box was reached.
- On 25 February Clorinda responded
to an email inquiry that the check had been
sent by UPS to the insured.
- The
check # 30117 in the amount of
$41,988.66 was received by insured on 28 February via regular delivery
of US Mail.
- Almost 6 months had passed since
the damages were suffered by the insured. Of a total of
$272,098.22 in damages initially claimed, the insured received $107,656.26 or
approximately 40%. When the payment received is compared to the revised
damage claim of $370,026.57, the paid amount drops to 29.1%.
- Several follow-up calls to the
State Commissioner's hotline resulted in no answer or call back.
Finally, on 4 March at 1400 hours a service representative stated that
the case did not appear nor could any update be found. A referral was
provided to the Supervisor, Jerry Simpson, at 850-413-5810 but his line
was occupied and no information could be obtained.
- A review of damages and costs to
repair was undertaken by a professional public adjustor on behalf of the
insured at the insured's request. The resulting investigation resulted
in an amended claim.
- E-Mail
Correspondence to date: 10
- FEMA CLAIM DATA (Disaster # 1545)
- Claim #: 91-1285235
- Fax report information
800-827-8112
- Inspection visit 23/09/2004
2:10 PM
- Living expense payment of
$1,004.97 on 24/9/2004
- PROPERTY
AFFECTED AREA MAP
- PROPERTY AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH
(after repairs)
For additional information
Send an e-mail
by clicking
HERE