At a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) spoke to Natalia Migal, a property owner whose home was damaged in a weather event.
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00:00Senator Booty. Thank you so much, Chair. You know, Florida is no stranger to
00:06disasters. In fact, my state has suffered through some incredibly serious, damaging,
00:13tragic storms. And all too often I find myself speaking to Floridians who are
00:18struggling to put their, not just their homes back together, but their lives back
00:22together, because so much of our lives is embedded and built within our homes.
00:27And let me just thank you all for taking time to be here today and talk, talk to
00:33us. I know coming to a Senate hearing is no small thing. I want to thank the chair
00:38for putting this together and for making sure that we have two panels so that we
00:44can talk to a variety of people. We can only fit so many people here at the table
00:48right now. I think making sure that we are paying attention to the
00:57public discourse right now in terms of challenges in recovery and even some
01:05public stories about what is being found underneath insurance companies and
01:11claims and helping people recover. And I think the the worst thing we could do
01:16right now is to not have a hearing like this to address what is being said in the
01:22broader conversation in America, especially in states where we have suffered storms and
01:29people are still right now trying to recover. Obviously, as attorney general, I even had
01:36to sue representative of FEMA after the last storm. And so we know that we can't just
01:42leave everything to happen and trust that everybody is going to play according to the
01:47rules without some sort of oversight. And so I think it is important that you were
01:54here today to share your stories. And I also think it's important for our
01:57colleagues and for the subcommittee to learn more about what is going on. Just as
02:03we would expect insurance companies to do the right thing and live up to the
02:07policies that they have offered and certainly have collected money and payment
02:11on, we know that is in every industry. We have those that are good faith players
02:16and we have those that that may seek to do harm or take advantage of a tragic
02:20situation. And I wanted to ask you, Ms. McGough, I know that you have specifically
02:26had a bad experience. And I wondered, I think I think you mentioned you had the one
02:33adjuster come out and then another adjuster come out. Did anyone from Allstate ever
02:38call you and walk through the specifics of why something may be covered by your
02:43policy or not covered by your policy or was it just an adjuster coming out and
02:47communicating with you? No, no one called me to walk me through the details of the
02:53policy and how they that would be applied. I was called mostly regarding
02:58scheduling matters and the adjusters. So even after the multiple estimates as they
03:05gave you lower estimates than you had received, no one called to tell you line
03:10by line why something may or may not have been covered? That is correct. And Mr.
03:15Schroeder, I'll ask you first, when you submitted your estimate, when you had
03:20discussions, did anyone go with you line by line why something might not be worth
03:26what you estimated or might not be covered by the policy?
03:29Um, are you are you asking when I when I submit an estimate to the reviewers do they
03:37go through? They if there's something they disagree with, you know, they would say to
03:43remove it. There's typically not an explanation for why and when there is more
03:52often than not, it's not, um, what I would say legitimate, not according to the
03:57policy. It's, uh, you know, that hail damage is entailed damage. Take it off.
04:03Or that is wear and tear and not hail damage. Take it off. Those are the answers I
04:11would get. But no, they wouldn't go through my entire estimate line by line with me.
04:16No. And Ms. Miguel, I'm going to come back to you for a moment. Um, when you
04:23didn't receive right away the money you needed to repair the home, were you forced
04:27to come out of pocket to repair the house? We have done relatively minor repairs so
04:34far, simply because we do not have any insight into the budget that we might have
04:38at hand. So only the most crucial repairs, um, and for example, putting a tarp up on
04:45the roof, uh, to prevent further damage or rainfall, um, has been done so far.
04:51And you had to pay for that just out of your own money, money that was probably taxed on
04:57your income? Yes, that's correct. And of course, engaging with, um, external, uh, experts
05:02such as the engineer was also out of pocket. Would that have been helpful to be able
05:08to deduct from your taxes the money you had to lay out to recover for your roof with storm
05:13damage? I have not deducted those, um, expenses from my taxes at this point. Would that have
05:19been helpful to recover? Would that have been helpful? Uh, likely, yes. I've been exploring
05:24with, with colleagues, uh, you know, and a bipartisan approach to trying to address, uh, money that
05:31people are having to use from their own pocket. They, they get money from their jobs and then
05:35they have to outlay it to stop rain from coming into their home and then they still have to pay taxes
05:40on that money. Would that have been helpful to you and your family? Absolutely. That would have
05:44been helpful. And, uh, and I don't want to go over time, but Mr. Quinn, I would like to follow up with
05:48you. I know that you've been so focused on this and I know much, a lot of your energy and time and
05:54talent has been focused on this issue. Would, do you believe it would be helpful? And I know many states
05:59are set up and structured different ways, right? Um, one agency may have statutory authority to
06:06investigate these matters where another agency wouldn't. And so if that one isn't moving fast
06:12enough or this one wants to compliment it, sometimes that's not available and it looks
06:15different in different states. Do you think it would be helpful to have a cross section from
06:20different agencies being able to within one state task force or even federally a task force where that
06:27where the agents or the officers are specially trained in this area? Yes, ma'am. I believe that would be
06:34very helpful. Thank you, Chair.