I would strongly recommend being very careful when dealing with this agency, especially if you are…read morean elderly person or someone who may have difficulty communicating in English.
My family recently attempted to obtain a home equity loan, and the bank requested additional information regarding the flood insurance on my parents' duplex. The insurance agent, Patty, was contacted to provide the necessary information.
Patty spoke with my father, who is the owner of the property, and told him that only one of the two homes, Unit A, was covered by flood insurance and that Unit B was not. My father explained that, to his understanding, both units had always been covered. However, Patty continued insisting that only one unit was insured and gave him the option of leaving it that way, meaning one of the homes would remain uninsured, or purchasing another policy for Unit B.
Because my father needed the insurance information to proceed with the loan, he felt he had no choice but to purchase another flood insurance policy. What made the situation even more concerning was the cost. He was being charged approximately $900 for Unit A and nearly $3,000 for Unit B, which immediately seemed unusual to us.
I personally contacted Patty to ask why the cost for Unit B was so high. She told me that, supposedly, the bank had requested an increase in coverage. This still did not make sense because we had documentation showing that both Unit A and Unit B were already covered.
I then asked Patty whether we could simply contact the previous insurance company, Neptune, and add or correct the coverage for Unit B since we believed it was already insured. Patty told me that Neptune was no longer offering flood insurance for homes.
Because the information we were being given did not add up, I decided to investigate the matter myself. I contacted Neptune directly, and they confirmed to me that both Unit A and Unit B were covered under the flood insurance policy. They also could not understand why Patty was saying otherwise, especially since she had access to the insurance portal and should have been able to see the coverage herself.
I was also informed that Neptune was still providing flood insurance, which directly contradicted what Patty had told us.
At that point, I wanted to speak directly with Patty and give her an opportunity to explain why we had been given this information. However, after I discovered what Neptune had confirmed, Patty stopped answering my calls. My father and I attempted to contact her multiple times, but she would not respond.
We eventually spoke with someone else at the agency and asked to speak with Patty. Someone came on the phone claiming to be Patty, but I immediately recognized that it was not her voice. That made the situation even more concerning.
What bothers me most is that my father is an older man whose English is not fluent. He trusted the insurance professional he was speaking with and believed that she was giving him accurate information so he could make the best decision for his property. Instead, based on what we later discovered, he ended up opening another flood insurance policy and paying nearly $5,000 when both units were apparently already covered.
I find this extremely troubling. Elderly customers and people who have difficulty communicating in English deserve the same honesty, transparency, and respect as everyone else. No one should feel pressured into purchasing an additional insurance policy because they are being told that their existing coverage does not exist--only to later discover that the original coverage was in place.
I strongly encourage anyone dealing with this agency to verify everything independently, ask for documentation, and do not simply take someone's word for it--especially when large amounts of money are involved. My family's experience has left us extremely concerned about the way this situation was handled, and I would personally be very cautious about doing business with this agency.
