I am writing to you today because I am at a loss about who to contact regarding my flood insurance. I received a letter in early November stating that my flood insurance needed to be increased to cover my total mortgage amount, which I immediately knew was not correct from the very beginning. I contacted my insurance agent, and she reiterated that we had plenty of insurance and that no more was needed. I then contacted the SunTrust insurance department, and the gentleman I spoke with agreed and said I had well "above and beyond" what we need to have. He then forwarded the document to the loan department for review. He assured me that there was no need to follow up and all was fine.
Anyway, three weeks later I got a call at 7 pm on December 23rd stating that the review of the document still said I needed to increase coverage. She also said I should have gotten a follow-up document that stated the same, which I did not get until today, December 27th, and the letter was dated 12/16 and was sent first class mail. I researched my online escrow statement and saw a new policy for wind storm insurance for $719.72 from Sterling National Insurance, not even flood, so that was even wrong, which confused me more. That was taken out in October. I then found out they deducted the $719.72 from my escrow on December 14th for a forced policy.
I then went inside my insurance agency and showed them the documents, and they were truly baffled how something like this happens. They faxed over a stack of documents to SunTrust insurance but failed to get management on the line. They also received no answers as to why this is happening. They have a document that states the Florida statute that says the insured need not have any more insurance than the replacement value of the home. Our replacement cost estimate is 149,500, and our flood insurance is 180,000, well above what we need. It is also stated in our mortgage policy that this insurance is based upon the replacement cost of our dwelling. They also said it was totally illegal to be doing this.
I do not understand how something like this happens at all, especially when I pay our mortgage on time. I am concerned because our mortgage came in for review right after they took the forced insurance out of our escrow, and it will be at least 60 dollars more a month. I have read a few horror stories online that this has happened to other people in the same timeframe, and they are now taking legal action for fraud and embezzlement. I need some answers and am not getting any. Let me know how to proceed. I really would like to get this figured out and have had no luck so far. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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