Posted On: August 3, 2007, 12:06 pm CDT

Posted By: Barb Polsky

Broker, Thank you for your reply. You seem to be an honest person and sincerely looking for answers here rather than just resorting to name calling and degrading comments. We really appreciate that. For some reason we've gotten off the track of why I first posted in here and that may very well be our fault because we immediately focus on what happened to us and others all over Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana and I never meant for that to be the focus. That for us is just one of the things that need to be fixed in the insurance industry. And many others see it too, it just seems we open our mouths a lot more than others. Most consumers feel as if the insurance industry is running over them with a steam roller and that they (they consumer) don't even have a chance to breath before they're hit with another problem, another increase, non renewal and on and on. For most of us it seems a never ending process and an ongoing, uphill battle just to be able to keep up. On top of that if you have/had damages that you're trying to get repaired you're facing the above battle plus the one to get your insurance money to start
fixing up your damaged home.

But to answer your response, yes according to the NFIP definition of "flood" storm surge is flood but that's a whole discussion in itself given the laws that were on the books in 2004. As for the VPL I do believe that it was changed in 2006 but the change was not made retroactive back to 2004. I'd have to check back on that to be sure.

Trust me you are not the only one that finds it strange that we were included in the Mierzwa lawsuit. I have heard that many times from others and according to one person it is illegal to do that without informing the party you are including that they are being included in a Class Action lawsuit and we were never informed. I was given the information that was what we were included in by the Florida Dept. of Financial Services when neither us nor our independent adjuster could find out any information about what
was happening with our claim in Sept. 2005. I then heard it from a representative of CPIC (whose name I
will give you if you want it) who just happened to call us on a Sunday afternoon on my husbands cell phone (where he got the number I have no idea) and told me flat out that we were only getting $6,000.00 on our claim "until this lawsuit is settled" (we didn't even have a lawyer at that time) and when I asked "what lawsuit the Mierzwa?" his response was yes, he also proceeded to tell me that the money we were getting was to "pay for the flood damage to our ceiling". Hello? Anybody that had enough water in their
home to have flood damage to their ceiling in a one story house I do believe would have filed a flood claim immediately and had damages far greater than ours was. I had never even heard of the Mierzwa
lawsuit until Sept. 2005 when I was told by Citizens that they had turned over our claim to Florida Dept. of Financial Services and when I called them to find out what was happening that was when I heard the word Mierzwa for the first time. We're also not saying that what happened to us, either to a lesser or greater degree, didn't happen to anyone but it should not have happened to even one person that had damages. And as far as it only being coastal I do believe that the hardest hit areas for the stoms that
hit in 2004 were more interior than coastal (with the exceptions of where the storms first came ashore naturally), those poor people in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte never even had time to prepare properly with Charley because hurricane prediction paths can never be truly accurate, originally Charley was
heading right for us in Port Richey but thanfully we never even saw a raindrop in our area of Port Richey.

We just think that given the track record of what is happening with insurance that some controls need to be used. It is not the fault of agents or brokers, and we aren't saying that it is. We are simply saying that for consumers what is happening is breaking the backs of many and something needs to be done. If the
only way to get it done is to put it in the hands of the federal government then so be it. We don't like that idea either but after trying to get things fixed now for 4 years and nothing is getting better then something needs to be done. And given the track record of CPIC if that's any example of what would happen if the federal government took over that's pretty scary.

I'm sorry we had to sell our home in Florida but am so glad now that we did as the battle still goes on. Our insurance here makes much more sense and I'm telling any of my friends and family if they want to move to stay away from any coast line anywhere.

Again, thank you for your sincerety and your honesty it is much appreciated.

Barb Polsky