Awaking to a strange noise the night of Oct. 4th, Pam Smith thought an intruder had broken into the house. But when her husband stepped out the bedroom door to investigate, the slosh of water was the first sound she heard.

A hose to the dishwasher had come loose, gushing water across the kitchen floor linoleum and into the bathroom and hallway. The couple spent hours sopping up the water with whatever they could grab.

Recognizing the severity of the damage the next day, Smith called her insurance company, Universal Property and Casualty.

Five months later, she and her husband have received nothing from the company. Without the insurance settlement, they could not afford to rebuild or remove all the moisture that penetrated the floors and spread throughout the sub-flooring.

"The loss happened in October. We're now in April and this claim is not resolved. If you were to take that long to pay your insurance premium, you'd no longer have coverage," said Madeline Bentivogli, a public adjuster with Epic Group International, who is helping Smith with negotiations from Universal Property and Casualty.

Underneath the warped linoleum in the Smiths' kitchen and bathroom, black-colored mold lines the crevasses in the floorboards like fine spilled pepper. In the corners of the bedroom closets, white mold dusts the carpet.

Smith's son Brandon, 11, developed asthma three months ago. Her daughter Alyssa, 8, who complains of headaches, sinus congestion and sore throats, says she can see mold growing behind the picture frames on the walls.

Under Smith's insurance policy, she's entitled to a maximum of $96,900 for the total loss of her house, but at this point, even that amount of money won't be enough, she said.

"At first all I wanted was my house fixed, now I want blood," said Smith, who said the stress caused by the condition of her house and her childrens' poor health is wearing on her and her husband.

About a quarter-mile past the point where East Terry Street turns into swamp-lined dirt road, the Smith house sits tucked away in the woods. An above-ground swimming pool filled with clear water stands a few feet from the stairs that lead to the first floor of the home, which sits on stilts.

Since her family bought the house five years ago, she has been paying yearly homeowner's insurance premiums ranging from $1,100 to $1,400.

"Every year we pay them and we pay them three months in advance so that if something ever happens we won't have to worry about it," Smith said.

After Smith reported the damage to her home, she waited three weeks before an adjuster called. When he did call, she said, the adjuster told her he was too busy with hurricane claims and would not be able to inspect her house for three to four months. Smith called her insurance agent to complain and the company sent out a different adjuster, from Cardinal Claims Services, the next day.

Smith said the agent was hostile to her and her family and inspected less than half the house. She said he complained about having too much work to do and reluctantly took photographs of the damage.

A secretary at the Cardinal Claims office in Cape Coral said the adjuster could not talk about Smith's case and she referred questions to Universal Property and Casualty in Miami.

Rob Kelchner, claims manager for Universal Property and Casualty, referred questions to the company's attorney, Jay Loughren of Fort Lauderdale. Loughren declined to discuss the case.

Following the adjuster's visit, the insurance company hired Herschell D. Miller, a mold specialist, to test Smith's house.

In a report to the insurance adjuster in mid-November, Miller described Smith's house as wet and moldy.
"Both the inside sample results were found to have high levels of aspergillus/penicillium spore contamination, which is not good...," Miller wrote. "It is recommended that the residents should consult with their physician concerning these laboratory reports as to whether they should continue to reside in the house until remediation is complete."

Smith said that by the time she received Miller's report, she had already taken her son to the emergency room because he was having trouble breathing. The emergency room doctor and the allergist she took her children to later told her to move out of her house, she said.

"They kept saying, 'You need to get out. You need to get out,'" said Smith. "But when you don't have money to afford a second life... I can't afford two houses."

Doctors also told Smith the mold could harm visitors to the house, so Brandon and Alyssa cannot invite friends over.
Based on the results of the mold test and the adjuster's inspection, the insurance company in December offered Smith approximately $11,000 to take care of the structural damage to the home and $10,000 to get rid of the mold.

Knowing that the structural repairs would cost more than $11,000, the Smiths declined to accept the company's offer and hired Bentivogli. Smith's policy caps mold claims at $10,000.

Bentivogli inspected the house and estimated the damage at about $70,000.

Bentivogli said she attempted to communicate with Universal Property and Casualty as early as January, but received no response from the company until she began pursuing civil remedies in early March.

The insurance company, which has until May to reach an agreement with Smith before a suit is filed, responded to Bentivogli by mailing her three checks for Smith.

The checks totaled $20,600 and the fine print on the backs read: "The endorsement of this draft by payee constitutes a receipt and release in full settlement for the claim for the item mentioned in the draft."

Had the checks been cashed, Smith would have no grounds now to fight for more money, Bentivogli said. The checks were returned to the insurer.

"It wasn't proper. It wasn't normal protocol," said Bentivogli of the insurance company's actions.

Smith's situation is unique because her family's health is at risk and the insurance company has delayed payment for so long, said Bentivogli. The longer it takes for Smith to receive payment, the more damage her family endures and the cost of removing the mold increases.

"Not everybody has $10,000 in the bank to take care of this problem," Bentivogli said.

Since last year's hurricanes, Bentivogli said, insurance companies have been willing to offer less and less money for damage caused by accidents such as Smith's.

Before the hurricanes, Epic Group obtained an average of 100 to 200 percent more for their clients than insurers offered. Now, said Bentivogli, her agency is getting 300 to 400 percent more for clients.

Part of Smith's hassle with her insurer is probably due to bad timing, said Bentivogli.

"She had the bad luck of having a water damage claim right after we got hit with four catastrophes," Bentivogli said.
Though her house wasn't destroyed by hurricane force winds or flooded by rising tides, the damage to her home and family is serious, Smith said.

"I understand that it's not as bad as a hurricane would be, but I've lost my house. There's mold growing on things," Smith said, referring to keepsakes and her wedding dress. "Things that I can't replace."
 

Photo by Michel Fortier

Five months after a leak from the family's dishwasher flooded much of their Bonita Springs house, the Smith family, Brandon 11, left Alyssa, 8, right, and their parents Clarence and Amy are still fighting with their insurance company. The family says the resultant mold makes the house unhealthy to live in but they can't afford to fix the problems themselves or live in another house until the insurance money comes in.
 

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