American Bankers Insurance co. of Florida AKA ASSURANT SPECIAL PROPERTY HOME FIRST AGENCY Denial of claim I.E. Catastrophic Weather Lighting Storm Maryville Tennessee

Well we had a  series of thunderstorms along with severe lightning;thunder and some hale this happened Thursday May 16th 2013. We got 3.5" of rain in a 4to5 hour period. We live in Broussard, La. a community southeast of Lafayette, La. we had been experiencing a rather unseasonably cool spring and really bad weather had been rolling in fron west (Texas) 2to3 weeks prior to this. Anyway as the weather grew more and more intense our satellite signal was inturpted so I proceeded to tour it;the television and the central a/c until the worst had passed.

After the storm had been blowing thru for the last 2hrs. my daughter went into the kitchen to fix us a snack it was then that she noticed that the electric can opener and other appliances were not working she called me into the kitchen and I found the surge protector circuits fir 115volt applinces were all tripped this interupted power to our microwave oven; 2-refrigerators;dishwasher;convection oven and our washing machine among other things. After resetting the surge protectors all appliances were ok. After awhile as she was cooking I decided to turn the a/c back on bot after attempting to do so by adjusting and switching the thermostat the unit wouldn,t run.

I checked the main breaker panel inside the home and all was ok assuming then that either the breaker for the oyside condening unit had tripped or one or more of the fuses in the disconnect by the unit had blown being it was really dark outside by this time and it was still raining off and on I decided to wait until mornig to check this out being both are outside. The next morning Friday I made a quick trip to the Home Depot and purchased 2 replacement fuses returned home checked the breaker outside then pulled the fuse holder and changed both fuses also returned inside tried to get the a/c to come on but it wasn,t happening. I immediatly called an a/c service tech. and explained my problems he arrived and after approx.

2 hours of troubleshooting proclaimed to me it was obvious that we had experienced a elevtrical surge most likely lighning from the storm. I expained to him what we had experienced. He left and promissed to return the next day with a helper and replacement parts that were shorted out a fan-relay;transformer;limit switch;and a contactor. The next day saturday they worked 2-3 hours replacing shorted wires and electrical terminals to try and get our a/c going he was finally able to get the blower to work with the thermostat and the condersor fan motor to start all this accomplised afetr changing the above mentioned parts but the compressor wouldn,t start even afetr installing whay he called a hard start package after some additional checking he determined the compressor motor was burnt.

well long story short we contacted Assurrant on monday the 20th they contracted a local company of their choice to come out and make a report they 1st came out thursday the 23rd they only checke the condensor outside unit iI all but begged them to come inside to check the furnace and offered to show them ythe bad parts and soforth but they said it wasn,t necessary. after they left I called the adjuster and explained and was advised   they would need to check the whole system the finally returned on the 28th now taking all this into matter myself and my wife are both diabetic;have sleep apnea and I have asthma and COPD we also have our youngest daughter living at home working and going to college..

any way they finally made their report and disclaimed the claim stating the the weather was not the cause that trhe system failed do to lack of prpper maintenance and abbuse that the unit shorted out due to the coil pan leaking and that they could see no evidence of lightning eben though I showed the the oak tree just outside my back dgeared fencing that was obviously hit by lightning since the bark was burnt on 1 side of thr trunk oh by the way this tree is only 25ft. from my power pole.Well its been over a moth now and even after they sent a 2nd company to inspect and myself asking them to send an adjuster and asking for copies of thje reports which were prpared by a 3rd party company called Blevins and was denied access to them twice and the adjuster in the office explaining she was going to mail them twice along with an affadavitt for my repair man to fillout which has still not happened I guess that mail is coming to me VIA Timbuck Two.

I don,t get it have been paying this insurace for 10 years included with my monthly mortgage which has steadily increased by more that 20% over the last 5 years even though we have never had a claim before. What a RIPOFF.Well afetr several disgrunteled they agreed to have another inspction done again this company called Blevins contacted me on the 31st of may explaining that the contractor was coming from Metairie,La. which is a suburb of New Orleans 120 miles from here well on the 18th of June a guy showed up to do the inspection only he wasn,t from the a/c company in New Orlens he was from a small town north fo us about 20 miles explaing he was sent by some guy named Sal in New Orleans that contacted him on their behalf  to do the inspection

wow i,am the one that went thru this and i,am confused as all hell. So he did his 10 minute inspection he also declined to see the burnt parts that were replaced didn,t care to look at the tree that was hit by lighting that by this time I had cut and removed and how he came up to the same conclusion that #1 company had in the 1st report is beyod me especially since the second letter fo denial which I recieved on the 25th of june according to Blevins and American Bankers /Assurent was determined by a person named Donald Evans with Advantage A/C I don,t know becausethe gentleman that performed the inspection and sent his report is a Greg Romero with Greg,s A/C company i,am really confused but can definatly see past the lying, stealing, two faced illegal dealings of these intertwined companys and what about our Stae Insurance Commissioners Offices that are supposed to regulate thes companies and the business practices and by know as I write this complaint the day today ambient temperature here is in the mid 90,s  very disrespectfully and d**n mad