Florida homeowner featured on ‘60 Minutes’ wants class-action case against insurer

Florida homeowner featured on ‘60 Minutes’ wants class-action case against insurer

TAMPA — When Hurricane Ian struck in 2022, Virginia and Jeff Rapkin’s North Port home didn’t stand a chance. The Category 4 storm felled a tree that landed on their two-story house.

Part of its metal roof was ripped off, opening a hole that allowed rain to pour inside and ruin much of their belongings.

The adjuster sent to assess the damage on behalf of Tampa-based Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. concluded the family was owed $231,368, according to his report.

But Heritage originally told the Rapkins that the adjuster concluded they were owed just over $15,000 — or $10,354 after their deductible.

That was a lie amounting to criminal “fraud” under state law, the Rapkins and their lawyer alleged in a Tuesday court filing. They say dozens of other Floridians are also believed to be victims.

The Rapkins, whose case was featured on “60 Minutes” in September, are now seeking to turn their lawsuit into a class action lawsuit against the company. Insurance adjusters since at least 2019 have alleged that companies have at times manipulated homeowners’ assessments to reject or lowball claims.

“People need to know I’m not alone. I’m just the one who landed on TV,” Jeff Rapkin said Tuesday.

His Jacksonville-based attorney, Steven Bush, said there are probably thousands of potential plaintiffs against several Florida-based insurance companies.

“It’s just wrong what they did,” Bush said. “They lied to policyholders.” Heritage CEO Ernie Garateix said in a statement that the filing “raises more questions than it answers,” since the company issued a check for $372,871 in October. A judge later that month said a trial was now moot.

“So, this latest development is a head-scratcher,” Garateix said.

A judge would have to approve opening the case to a class action. The lawsuit was originally filed last year.

Heritage was fined $1 million by regulators this year for how it treated policyholders after Hurricane Ian. The company was slow to pay or deny claims and didn’t timely communicate with its customers. Garateix said the company has since added a new position and adopted new software.

Regulators earlier this year didn’t mention allegations that the company improperly manipulated reports to pay policyholders less on a claim, as former adjusters alleged in a 2023 Washington Post story.

“I wrote 44 reports for Heritage Property & Casualty, and 100% of them were altered to where I did not recognize them. Every single one,” one adjuster, Jordan Lee, told the Washington Post. Lee assessed the Rapkins’ home.

It is not illegal or unusual for a field adjuster, such as Lee, to have a different opinion about damage than the desk adjuster, who typically has the final say over that damage. Field adjusters are often subcontractors for the insurance company who are paid to go to the home, take photos and estimate the damage.

But what is alleged against Heritage and other insurers is that the companies simply deleted portions of the field adjusters’ estimates, leaving the adjuster’s name on them without telling the adjusters about the changes. Some adjusters have said they were only alerted to it after receiving angry calls from homeowners.

In a December 2022 letter to the Rapkins, Heritage claimed that Lee determined only modest damage to their home. “As we discussed, Heritage received the detailed field adjuster estimate in the amount of $15,469.48, for covered damage,” the company wrote.

Lee’s actual estimate, which was included in Tuesday’s court filing, concluded that once the roof was blown off, “the water was allowed to enter home and cause major damage to the interior.”

Under state law, it’s a third-degree felony for someone to produce a loss estimate for an insurance claim if they know it contains false, incomplete or misleading information.

The Herald/Times found that state regulators have been warned about the practice by insurance companies since 2019. At least eight adjusters working on behalf of different insurance companies have given public statements or sworn statements in lawsuits claiming their estimates were manipulated by their employers.

Florida’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, who oversees the state’s insurance fraud investigators, has not brought charges or penalties against any of them.

Patronis, who also opposed the state’s $1 million fine against Heritage, is now running to replace Matt Gaetz in Congress after being endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump. (Patronis’ top political adviser also does public relations for Heritage.)

Jeff Rapkin, who is a lawyer, has refused to cash Heritage’s check. If he wants the money, he would have to sign paperwork absolving Heritage of all other liability, such as being sued for operating in bad faith — something Rapkin refuses to do.

“I’m sorry, it’s a little late. All they had to do was put a tarp on my roof and fix it and walk away. That’s all I wanted,” he said.

After the storm, he and his family stayed in the house for about nine months because the company promised it would repair the damage, he said.

During that time, he said he and his wife became seriously ill, possibly from mold. His daughter, who has autism, was hospitalized for two weeks, he said, and his dog became sick and died. His family moved into an apartment, paying both his mortgage on the home and Heritage’s insurance premiums in addition to rent. His savings have dried up, and last month, he sold his home of more than 20 years to a Florida company that specializes in “transforming damaged properties.” “I just wanted my house back,” he said. “I wanted to be able to sit on my bed without water falling on me.”

By LAWRENCE MOWER/Miami Herald