Complaint Review: Assurant Specialty Property - Nationwide

On May 3rd 2014, my home was burglarized and my family was devastated! My fiancé and our two daughters were all greatly affected by this break in. I assured (Ironically the name of this Horrible Company) my fiancé and kids not to worry because our renters insurance was current. We had made 6 monthly payments all debited directly out of our account with-out an issue to Assurant Specialty Property.

It wasn’t until we actually NEEDED them is when the NIGHTMARE really started. I contacted Assurant on May 5th to start the beginning of a long process that resulted in being ROBBED TWICE; I was assigned to an adjuster named Latierra Martin-West. She told me to send her "Proof of ownership" which she explained could be: Receipts, Owners Manuals, Bills, Warranty Registrations, Photos, Etc. 

After long exhausting hours collecting as much information as we could about the 12 items that we claimed, mostly electronics, which were stolen from my home. We sent EXACTLY what they asked for by MAY 9th, 2014. A combination of Receipts, manuals, warranty and web registrations, pictures and all. I am now ashamed to say that after spending HOURS gathering that information we felt even more confident in our claim. So we rest assured.

Two weeks goes by and we haven’t heard anything from our adjuster Latierra Martin-West. So I started to get concerned, I immediately call and get no response, after several messages and failed attempts I get a call back greeted with a very nonchalant attitude and completely no concern about the length of time that had went by. Then I realized something was wrong. The energy completely changed from before. She seemed unprepared for the call and the conversation; it appeared on my end that they haven’t worked on anything.

LATIERRA MARTIN-WEST explained that the next steps were that my file was to be forwarded to, Anthony Gaytan CFE (Special Investigations Unit), to assist her in confirming the "proof of ownership" submitted. This process sounded normal, I then realized that this was a department within Assurant used to "DIS-PROVE" or "PICK-APART" or "Dissect" so to speak the "proof of ownership" submitted. That’s when I realized the INSURANCE COMPANY I TRUST, WAS WORKING AGAINST US. 

After a couple of days, I reached out to Anthony Gaytan to ask for an update, he explained that he still was working on my claim and that he would contact me after he completed. After waiting the remaining of the week, I contacted ANTHONY GAYTAN again to ask for an update and he said he would call back to do an interview which also felt odd, but I complied.

A couple more days goes by and I finally get extremely frustrated and contact MICHELLE SANCHEZ- Allegedly the "DIRECTOR" who I requested several calls from and she has yet to return ANY. Anthony Gaytan called me and we did the recorded interview as instructed all making you feel like a criminal in a time were you have already suffered enough. And that’s exactly how the conversation ended, he in-directly accused me of tampering with an invoice submitted by one of the laptops involved. I explained that this was a complete mistake on the COMPANIES END and not mine. He didn’t seem to even care.

I immediately called the company and gather more information about the laptop and realized that getting this information was easy if the right questions are asked. I realized then we were being ROBBED TWICE! So I gather even more information from the company and they were very corporative and helpful in getting me the "proof of ownership" I needed. I sent LATIERRA MARTIN-WEST and MICHELLE SANCHEZ a total of 11 documents including the ownership box, web and warranty registrations, pictures of box and serial number close ups, fed-ex shipping information from a time it was repaired, screen shots of welcome pages and logins of companies website, thorough contact information of the company in case they needed to verify the information provided.

I wanted to make as transparent and ultimately impossible to deny. Then it happened; LATIERRA MARTIN-WEST called and denied us. :'''( 

After further research I found that this company has over 2,000 complaints online and also goes by 4 differently aliases and has 4 websites (all different)! This is a HUGE RED FLAG and suggests SCAM in every way. Here are some of the aliases and websites to watch out for.

Assurantspecialtyproperty, assurant, abicflood, myassurantpolicy

Latierra Martin-West 

Claims Adjuster

Assurant Specialty Property

800-358-0600 ext. 38740

Michelle Sanchez

Director

Assurant Specialty Property

800-358-0600

Anthony Gaytan, CFE

Special Investigations Unit

Assurant Solutions

Miami, FL

800-852-2244 Ext. 35379

Please share this story and WHAT EVER YOU DO, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY WILL EXPLOIT YOU AND US LAWS AND LOOPS HOLES TO ILLEGALLY TAKE ADVANTAGE