We have had a horrible year, and are about to rid ourselves of these thieves. They took responsibility of a Wind & Hail policy in 11, when we added it to our escrow.in September of 4 days prior to Hurricane Rita's landfall, we were notified that the policy had been cancelled due to non-payment. I spoke with my insurance agent and she sent me copies of several attempts and promises to pay, from Homecomings Escrow Dept. Conveniently, they sent payment on 9/18, when it was determined that Rita would hit the Port Arthur area. Unfortunately, Texas Insurance Commission had frozen all account activity on the morning the payment was received and the acount could not be reinstated.
The hurricane ravaged our home. It was left with nearly $40,000.00 worth of damage. Homecomings refused responsibility for the policy, as we should have been checking on our policy. Eventually, they determined it was a fault in their system and said their insurance would cover the damages. During all of this, the home was uninhabitable, with large sections of the roof missing and mold taking over all of the sheetrock. We were informed that if we did any of the repairs, it would not be covered, unless it was done by an approved contractor. To fix anything woul null & void any coverage. So, my tennants had to move out. Yes, it was an empty, festering rental property.
On 10/19/05 I was told that arrangements were being made to have an adjuster from Standard Guaranty Insurance, their insurance company, appraise damages. They did but they would not duplicate our policy unless we provided proof of what was covered. We provided this proof & still had to make them return to appraise several different things (fence, ac, plumbing, flooring, expanding mold damage...).in the end they agreed to almost 30,000.00 of coverage. However, they would not give us any money until the repairs were done. We had our contractor send them a letter informing them that he had to have 50% before he would begin. He had to have it for supplies, roofing, sheetrock, fence boards, etc. We were sent 6000.00 in February. Throughout this entire time, we were unable to make payments, as this uninhabitable rent house was not supplementing our income.
I informed them that we would make all of the payments when we could. I asked them not to call me asking me for money, while they sat on our insurance money. To be reminded, daily, of our horrible situation was literally driving me crazy. They agreed. I called and sent emails, daily, as our contractor refused to do anymore work without more money for supplies. I was able to get 10000., which we sent some to the contractor and used the rest to get caught up on our payments. This was on March the 7th. Upon payment, they told us our escrow was showing a shortage, because they had chargted us for THEIR $1800.00 insurace policy that was used to cover THEIR mistake! Our payment was to increase by almost $100! I informed them that I was not going to pay for their policy. They said they would refund it back to me, but in the end they still charged me for one day of coverage (200.00) in order to cover their one day of mistake.
In desperation to wash our hands of the entire thing, I asked if they would purchase the home from us. They said they would buy it for 68000.00, and they keep the rest of the insurance money, in lieu of repairs. We owed 71000 on the house, and had it appraised at 115000 less than 4 years prior! So, we declined that slap in the face.
I wrote a letter to the Texas Insurance Commission and they wrote Homecomings and eventually they released all of the funds. It still didnt' pay for all of the repairs, as we had to make up for the thousands of dollars we used to get caught up on our payments.
3 weeks ago, in June all of the repairs were finally completed. We listed the house for sale and had an offer in one day! We are preparing to close, on July 21st, for a saling price of $11,1000, an actual 2000 more dollars than our asking price!
Now that we are ridding ourselves of this horrible corporation, that never even apologized for their catastrophic mistake, we are preparing to file suit. We not only lost our supplemental income, but took away from our own hand to mouth home. I have suffered severe post traumatic stress and anxiety as a result of dealing with these unsympathetic people. I was even told assistance or consideration for account lieniency was only given to Hurricane Katrina victims! Yes, I do have copies of all of this blasphenous correspondence, names numbers to go along with my disgust for our treatment.
Jennifer
Carrollton, Texas
U.S.A.
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