My family lost their home to fire two days before Christmas of 2006. It took the insurance company till January to even respond to the claim even after being called on Christmas Eve. We were placed in a run down hole of a hotel, in 3 rooms (we were told our daughters had to stay in the same room) all our children are under age. We are a family of 5,2 girls and one boy.
We were kicked out of a hotel by Country Insurance Company on Feb. 2 and told we were on our own. We requested that we live on site due to the fact we have an elderly mother living in a mobile home on site as well that needed constant care and were told that if we would have had livestock on site they would have done just that, but an elderly woman is lower then livestock to the insurance company. After several weeks of being told no and that the insurance company could not find a suitable home for us, we were informed in a letter that in 3 days we would have to be out of the hotel and we had to find our own place to live.
We rented a camper so we could be close to take care of my elderly mother, this is a family of 5 living in a 30ft travel trailer on site. We moved into this in the dead of winter.
It is the end of June and still no word about rebuilding our home. We had negotiated the price on the dwelling and were told by Tim Foederer of Belleville, a property loss adjuster assigned to us that it was to be paid 2 months ago and still nothing, Country insurance company has now sent us a registered letter stating that we are to turn over every piece of paper we own for them to copy and review, including receipts that we have no way of replacing since they were lost in the fire. They want us to prove that we had clothing, furniture, etc. Then the letter states that they will set a date for this interview under oath.
We are tired and beaten, the insurance company has used every trick they know and I am sure we will see more of the same. They have not even talked about paying off the mortgage company so we continue to make our house payment for a house that is not there, nor have they told us we could even start our house cleanup.
The insurance agent Dick Horner of the Country Insurance agency in Greenville IL. Told me that he would help us in this time of crisis, promising we had the best insurance available, but when we hired a public adjuster to help us fill out the mountain of paperwork, he stopped helping and even stated that it was a bad idea and that he does not think that the insurance company would look favorably on us for doing so.
The insurance company is now hiding behind the fact we hired a public adjuster and has responded to our request that "since you hired a public adjuster it is their responsibility to contact us. We are getting the run around. Even the State Board of Insurance of Illinois refuses to help us, saying we cannot file any claims against the insurance company.
We have now looked into hiring an attorney and will be filing suit soon if this is not settled. We have no where else to turn nor can we find anyone who will help us.
Living in a 30 ft travel trailer through another winter is not what we want to do. We wake up every morning next to a black hole that was our home and we cannot explain to our children why they have to sleep on a bunk in a camper and cannot give them any hope of ever having their own room again. We are even losing any hope of having a home by the time our daughter graduates next May. I cry just thinking how we had told our kids not to worry that we would have a better Christmas next year.
They have canceled our insurance, refused our original proof of loss statement and claim they are working on it, even though they told us that the house and the personal property were being handled separately. Now they refuse to pay them separately. We have been told we only have a year from the date of loss to settle this and to turn in any claims. I guess they figure we will give up or they can wait until the year is over and not have to pay anything.
We are almost afraid to submit this for fear of retaliation but we have to do something. We had been told by friends who work for insurance companies we would be treated worse than criminals and that insurance companies train their employees on how to do anything possible not to pay or to cause duress to their customers hoping they will give up or just rollover and take getting screwed and now we know from experience that is true.
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