After Hurricane Wilma, I sustained a minimum of $14800 damage to my barrel tile roof. After my deductible, the insurance company gave me 11535 (3265.00 deductible). My only income is from Social Security so I applied to FEMA to help me pay the deductible. I read in the papers and heard on TV how they were giving away $2000 debit cards to everyone in Louisiana and Mississippi among other goodies. I understand that a lot of these people are on Welfare but I also understand their welfare checks are larger than my Social Security check which I have to live on. At first FEMA referred me to SBA for a low interest loan. I appealed and explained that there was no way I could repay a loan on my income. They then sent an inspector down to verify my damage. A month later they determined that I didn't have enough damage to justify them giving me any aid. $14,800 damage isn't enough damage to a person living on 1098 a month? Not only that, the lowest estimate I have received to repair the roof is $17000. I'm trying to get my insurance company to re-evaluate and give more money towards the roof but the fact remains that I still have 3265 deductible which I can't afford. I don't want to wave the flag or anything like that but I served 4 years in the U.S. Navy, I paid taxes all my life and never got anything for free from the government. What is the criteria the government uses to determine who gets and who doesn't get? I have the answer in my mind but I won't put it in writing.
I think the real problem here is that you saved nothing for your retirement. A responsible person saves for the perverbial rainy day. You did not. I don't feel that your irresponsibility should cause other people's tax dollars to bail you out. try living within your means. Living within your means includes saving a substantial portion of your income for things like retirement and emergencies.
Its sad that so many were hurt and I hope you get some additional help!
The US is big enough, perhapos we should have a nationwide disaster insurance where in BIG cases the government picks up more of the cost of repaiirs..
Certinally those in new orleans who lost everything from porely maintained levees should be made whole. the government screwed up not building them right from day one
All he will find out is Florida windstorm insurance sucks. That was the price we paid to get any company to offer any insurance at all. After Andrew virtually every company simply wanted to stop writing homeowner insurance in coastal Florida. I bet Mississippi, Alabama and Louisianna are going to see the same thing.
BTW for you folks who don't understand, the OP must be buying the low deductible insurance at a signifgicant premium to get his deductible that low. Mine is closer to $10,000.
The twisted reality is the fact that he has any insurance at all is what is hanging up help from FEMA
They gave us SS, but that is going bust. They gave us Pension Benefit Guaranty, but that is going bust. Somebody voted to reduce taxes. Gonna' rob a bank?
No, some French trader screwed up by building a trading post there about
400 years ago. Tom Jefferson, I think, bought it from the French. The rest is history :o)
Florida folks are getting their shorts in a bunch about the coming increases in storm insurance. The state insures when nobody else will. We don't want to pay for insurance, want to live on the water, and want manna from heaven when the sky falls in. Don't want to pay for national health insurance, but want everything it would cover if we bought it. I'm working on a solution :o)
I think those people lost their entire homes, not just damage to their roofs.
Those with dependant children you may well be right.
You could well argue that the damage is now 3265, your deductible.
Or 5465.
But tile roofs are expensive. Storms are inevitable. 22% deductible is pretty high, and one bears the risk that it won't be enough. I have a friend whose mother lives in a condo in Floriday. (Condo doesn't mean someone is rich, anymore than owning one's own home means he is rich.) The whole n'hood sufferred roof tile loss. They are being assessed by the condominum association to pay for part of it (not all, because the CAssoc has storm insurance) and she has her own insurance in addition that she expects will pay for most or even maybe all of the rest. But she's paid for that insurance ever since she's been there.
My mother occasionally complained that she was "insurance poor", but she still bought it because she knew she had to have it. And if I paid more attention to my situation, I might say the same thing.
BTW, I agree with having a high deductible. One should only insure for risks one cannot afford to bear. For the rest, one can be a self-insurer, and one doesn't have to pay for the insurance company's profit or paper work. OTOH, you don't seem to be able to bear the high deductible. What would the additional premium have been to have a lower deductible?
You mean nothing exceptional. You got roads, police, fire, the courts, an army, a navy, the FDA, the FCC, etc.
Would you want to trade places with those people on welfare whose homes and all of whose belongings were totally destroyed?. Even if there were not rainstorms, would like to live off of welfare?
How old are you? If you're considered too old to work (65?) and you gave away most of your assets, you might be eligble for welfare too. Would you want to live like that?
The US and the states have a general policy that even poor or irresponsible people won't be left to die of exposure. It's inevitably going to lead to results like your case that seem unfair.
But there is no "solution". If your losses were fully paid for, people, not rich but with more money than you, or who bought better insurance than you, who lost their roofs would think that paying you was unfair.
It see,s they made some big mistakes in how they executed this, in the case of these two strorms. Specifically it sounds like on the news that the government paid the dailly rate to rent motel rooms instead of negotiating a weekly or monthly rate. Unless they tried and failed, which no news report I have heard or read has said, I think that's pretty stupid. Heck, NYC hotels don't advertise a weekly rate, but when my mother went to visit my brother there (in 1964) , what she did the first day was go to about 5 nearby hotels and find which would give her the next 7 days for the cheapest rate. A couple offered no weekly rate, including the one she was staying at. But the one across the street was about 40% or 50% off since she wanted to stay a week. Maybe the demand exceeded the supply and no motel would do this.
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I am sorry for your loss. I had a tree through my roof a few years ago, so I know how that feels.
My contractor met with the insurance company and explained why their estimate was off. The insurance company agreed and paid me the higher value. You "should" be able to get them to do it also. Maybe I just have a good insurance company (OneBeacon) but I have found them to be very reasonable over the years.
As someone else pointed out, the high deductible was your choice; while it might be callous, you really don't have a right to complain about that now.
So are you suggesting that this is such a BIG case? The guy is out the deductible of $3200. The insurance company his claim of $11,500. And now you think the govt should cover the rest? I'm sorry, but I don't think to have an emergency repair of $3200 is something unexpected, or uncommon for any homeowner anywhere, with or without a disaster. This happens all the time. Replacing a furnace can cost that much.
What I would do is pursue the insurance company for a couple thousand more, since he now believs that is what it will actually take to get the work done. If he can show that the original estimate for repair was low, and submit 3 valid quotes for a higher amount, they may reconsider. Hopefully he didn't sign anything waiving his rights when he accepted payment.
My daughter is a state employee in a state that did not get the brunt of the storms. As part of her job she was working to get evacuees settled into housing, employment etc. She was also trying to locate missing relatives.
She pointed out one day during a phone call that FEMA is a four letter word.
Appeal your settlement to the insurance company. They should base their settlement on your $17,000 repair quote, not on the $14,800 repair estimate. At the same time, appeal FEMA's decision. Was your area declared a "federal disaster area"? If so, I believe you are entitled to a small grant from FEMA even if they're saying your damage isn't "enough". From my understanding FEMA wants to see what your insurance paid and will base your eligibility on the difference between what the insurance paid and what it will actually cost you to make repairs. Best of luck to you!
Who in the hell do you think you are to assume anything about me. Maybe I did save for the rainy day and maybe catosthrophic medical bills wiped it out. This responsible person has worked since he's 11 years old, served in the military and paid taxes all his life. I'm irresponsible? You better pray to your God that nothing ever happen to you or your family where you get financially wiped out and while you're praying to him, ask him to give you a little bit more brains.
I am appealing the insurance settlement but that doesn't help. No matter what they give me to repair the roof, I still have that deductible. I've already appealed to FEMA twice. Yes, my area was a Federal Disaster Area and received the most damage in the area. FEMA will not give me any grant, just a loan application for a "low cost loan". To quote what a "Low cost loan" is on their application: If you are not creditworthy the interest rate is 2% If you do have a good credit history the interest rate is 5.35%
The problem was the silly idea you can actually be safe behind any levee in the 140mph coastal wind zone.. They meed to barge in enough dirt to get them 11' above sea level before they rebuild anything. That is the FEMA rule everywhere else.
The posts or whatever you call them didn't go down far enough. They made this mistake 40 years ago, or was it more. Apparently it was the fault of the Corps of Engineers, although where the fault lay exactly, I haven't heard..
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