Posted On: June 29, 2007, 1:06 pm CDT

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For the past year, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. officials have repeated the mantra that quality customer service and claims handling are top priorities.

But it would be hard to convince Lake Worth resident Tamara Clausen of that. She's had to wait 20 months to get her claim resolved.

To be sure, claims disputes over damages are part of the game that insurers and their customers play after a storm. Still this game was extreme by anyone's standards: Citizens paid Clausen $53,000 on an approximate $300,000 claim.

Reports by Citizens' own adjusters show she was owed something closer to the $300,000 figure.

Even more difficult to see is why Clausen was denied living expenses, a basic part of her policy, to pay first for her motel rooms and then later for a rental apartment