Complaint Review: American Bankers Insurance of Florida

An insured logger inadvertantley dropped a tree into our mfg. home on June 08, 2011 causing tremendous damage.  I called American Bankers Insurance of Florida within the hour of the accident and told them the logger was insured.  They told me to file the claim through them and they would put it through their "Subrogation Department".  They started the claim and indicated a representative would contact me within 24 hours.  I was contacted the following day by a rep. and she set up how the process would work with regard to an adjuster contacting us to come out and assess the damages.  (Note***I finally recieved contact from the original rep who was handling our claim and she stated, " I forwarded your claim to the Subrogation Unit and they are who you need to contact".  I asked her why she couldn't return my phone call letting me know this after 3 weeks of Vmail requests.  I let her know this was completely unprofessional and that I would have been fired from my job had I ever thought about conducting business as such.  She apologized but now we're onto week 4 with no info.)

By Monday the following week, we still had not been contacted by their adjuster (North American Adjusters).  I called back and couldn't get the rep to return my vmails.  Day 6 and I call American Bankers Ins. main phone line and get someone else to get me the name of the adjuster and the company they use.  I placed a call to the adjuster and finally got a call back.  Imagine this...he's located in a different state and won't be able to come out for a couple of days.  Day 8...the adjuster finally arrives and does a damage assessment report.  We wrap up what he has to do and he said it would take a week or so to put his report together.  Well after a couple of weeks I call as I've not heard anything.  The adjuster then states he's just finished up and is forwarding to American Bankers Insurance for review.

I called American Bankers Ins. a few days later to check the progress of our claim.  I was told by our new rep. in the Subrogation unit that they had sent it to committee for review and it was still in process.  Okay...now several weeks have past since the claim was filed and we finally get a determination of damages.  We felt the amount was seriously under-estimated and also wanted to verify there was no frame damage.  We requested they send out a sturctural engineer to make that determination.  The Structural Engineer came out on July 28, 2011 and he submitted his report to North American Adjusters on August 12, 2012.  The result of the Structural Engineers Report was somewhat indeterminate, neither stating completely sound or unsound as far as the frame goes.  My insurer refused to give me a copy of the report because "it is part of their work product" so I had to obtain a copy another way.  The structural engineer was hired by North American Adjusters and American Bankers Insurance and was also not legally allowed to release a copy to me.  I called and argued with my insurer that their "work product" in-fact belonged to me as I paid for the policy.

There are only a couple of contractors within a 100 miles of our home who do manufactured home repairs.  Most that I called were to far away or stated that "why isn't the home totaled? and they weren't interested in taking on the scope of repairs.  We found 2 contractors to give us bids and found that the adjuster from North American Adjusters missed multiple repair issues.  It was suggested we hire a public adjuster to come and reassess damages.  Well, $500.00 out of our pocket we have the adjuster come out and determine they missed the repairs by almost $20,000.00 dollars.

On January 12, 2012...yes, a little over 7 months later we receive a letter from American Bankers Insuance agreeing to the total of damages.  Keep in mind the side and roof of our house had a 60' fir tree with a trunk diameter of almost 2-1/2' go through our house.  It is still all under tarps despite all the snow and rain we receive here in the Pacific NW.  On Monday we had 7 " of snow.  Huge electric bills and have to use space heaters. 

Now, here's the additional problems:
01.  We did not hold an Actual Cash Value Replacement Policy so the insurance deducts approximately 1/3 of the cost of repairs from damages awarded.  Once our home is repaired then the 1/3 holdback is generally issued.  However, American Bankers Insurance said we were responsible for going after the loggers insurance to obtain the holdback after repairs.  I called the loggers insurance and they said that in-fact was not true as American Bankers Insurance put the claim through subrogation.  So now American Bankers Insurance refuses by their verbal statement to me to be responsible for following through to the end with the claim.

02.   Our manufactured home could be fully replaced for almost the same amount as our damages.  However, they wrote our policy for almost 4 times the amount of the value of our home.  We thought the bank dictated how much coverage we had to have and so we thought the more we had the safer we were.  Well, with a manufactured home this is not the case.  It's almost as though they are considered disposable.  I've tried to talk with their underwriters and they said Liberty Mutual transferred our policy to them and they weren't allowed to change anything on it.  Liberty Mutual stopped doing manufactured home policies and transferred all their policies to American Bankers Insurance.  I asked the underwriter if they actually took a look at what they were insuring and he said "No they didn't" and it's up to the homeowner to make changes.  Well, I have been instructed by the Oregon Insurance Commission to file claims against the insurers for possible multiple offenses involved in our case.  If our home had been insured correctly, it would have been totaled and we could have proceeded accordingly.  Insurance is expecting us to put more into repairs for a home not worth the amount of the repairs which included the interior being completely mismatched with wall and ceiling panels mixed with tape and textured finishes etc.

What a complete nightmare.  We've had to hire a private insurance investigator and may have to hire an attorney which will also cost more than our house is worth.  Hoping the Oregon Insurance Commission will be able to show us which laws have been violated by American Bankers Insurance of Floriday, North American Adjusters and quite possibly Liberty Mutual.  The Oregon Insurance Commision allows 20 days for response from the insurer and whomever else the report involves.

For any of you who have encountered sloppy, inefficient and uncooperative sevice from your carrier and their affiliates, I recommend filing a report with your State's Insurance Commission. 

We are now just 3 months away from 1 year of the initial accident and no closer to getting resolved.  I would like to ad...the loggers insurer which is American Hallmark Insurance has behaved in an exceptional and professional manner and I would certainly consider them as an insurer to look at.  American Bankers Insurance only services out of Florida so I have to start making any calls at 5 am our time until 2 pm our time due to the regional time differences.  Not helpful.  Never insure yourself without having a local representative/agent that can work on your behalf.