Imagine being two days from the due date of your first child. The
walls are adorned with a chosen theme & colour. The room is set
with furniture & beautiful fabrics to match. The closet, drawers
& change table are full of the many gifts from your baby shower
& the endless shopping trips. You are stocked & prepared,
ready to welcome the most life changing form of happiness there is.
Then imagine, you return from a shopping excursion, open the
door to your home, only to have thick black smoke billow out. You
cannot see your own hand in front of your face. Imagine your pets are
inside that house? What do you do?
This is the event that Dave & Sherrill Rees of Port Perry,
Ontario were faced with in May 2010. As Dave rushed in to search for
their two cats, Sherrill followed behind & began opening windows.
Neighbours raced to the scene & dragged Sherrill out of the house
as she was nine months pregnant, ready to give birth. Dave eventually
found the cats. They looked like ducks caught in an oil spill, covered
in soot & smoke but they were alive! Fire trucks & paramedics
arrived on scene. Dave & Sherrill had inhaled & ingested a lot
of soot & smoke. Their skin & clothes were black. Sherrill was
put on oxygen & taken to the hospital to monitor the baby.
An electrical fire with the stove was the cause. The heat was
so intense that it melted the melamine cabinets & counter tops.
The soot was now chemically toxic. The air conditioner in the window
beside the stove fed the soot throughout the entire house. When the
smoke settled all of Dave & Sherrill's belongings were destroyed.
Even tightly closed storage containers were full of soot. It
penetrated right through the walls into the woodwork. Some structural
damage also occurred. This was definitely not a habitable place to
return. Dave & Sherrill went to stay with family, about forty
minutes from their home.
Their ordeal has become a nightmare by bad faith tactics they
endured at the hands of their insurance company. Think your covered by
your insurance company in the case of devastation? Think again! When
their insurance company adjuster met them at their house, they were
assured "Don't worry, we'll take care of you." That could
not have been the furthest thing from the truth!
The insurance company sent in their "special clean up
crew". They were nothing more than a glorified carpet cleaning
company. They began to pack up all of Dave & Sherrill's belongings
into boxes & write an inventory list. They were told to keep
almost nothing, especially baby items & clothing. They were told
that only hard objects such as wood would respond to cleaning.
However, Sherrill requested that they try to clean some things such as
her keepsakes & collectables. They literally wiped the walls for
approximately one full week. When asked by Sherrill why they were
spending so much time wiping walls that would obviously need to be
torn out, the manager's reply was "This is how we assess damage.
The next step is to remove small test patches to see how much soot
& smoke got behind the walls."
Sherrill then went into labour. It included some bad
complications & resulted in an emergency c-section. She gave birth
though to a healthy baby boy who they named Tyson. While recovering in
hospital, the clean up company called Sherrill in her hospital room!
They asked if they could go ahead with removing the small test
patches. Of course, thinking this proper protocol, Sherrill gave the
go ahead.
The next time Dave & Sherrill met the manager of the clean
up company at their home, they arrived to find that most of the house
had been gutted. However, they did leave a lot to finish. What
happened to those small test patches that they were to only remove? It
was obvious the entire house needed to come down but the manager said
he'd have to discuss it with the insurance adjuster first.
In the meantime, Dave & Sherrill received their inventory
list from the insurance company. There were thousands of items on this
list, right down to pens & pencils. They were told to put
replacement values beside each item. When going through the list, they
noticed many items were missing, even their three piece sofa sofa set!
Sherrill contacted the insurance company & was informed by the
insurance company "It is your responsibility to make sure all of
your items are accounted for or you won't be paid."
Sherrill could not possibly re-inventory everything on her own
with a new baby & recovering from surgery. Dave could not devote
that amount of time as he was a long haul truck driver. The Rees
family were left to hire a private adjustment firm, NFA (National Fire
Adjusters). It took approximately nine visits to the cleaning
company's warehouse to re-inventory all of the contents. Approximately
one out of every three or four boxes had the missing items inside, but
were never accounted for!
A new & correct inventory list was submitted to the
insurance company. What happened next left Dave & Sherrill dumb
founded...The insurance company retorted with an allegation of fraud!
They said that the Rees' were claiming for things that they never
owned! How outrageous! All of their contents were under lock & key
at the clean up company's warehouse! It was in the hands of the
insurance company at any time for their review! This was a huge insult
to the Rees' & NFA who are a very large North American adjustment
firm. NFA assured Dave & Sherrill that this was just a bad faith
tactic used by many insurance companies. If they can find fraud in any
part of the claim, then they don't have to pay any of the claim what
so ever.
Dave & Sherrill now had to hire a lawyer as the insurance
company wouldn't speak with them directly any longer. Appraisal dates
were booked where both sides go before an umpire (basically a judge in
training) & dispute their pricing. These cost thousands of dollars
of which the Rees' had to pay half. A decision had been made in the
structural part of their claim but the insurance company still refused
to pay due to the content issue of the claim.
Dave & Sherrill even attended on one occassion where the
insurance company's lawyer wasted much of the time disputing such
things as the value of half a bottle of ketchup on the free market.
One of the cleaning company's employees bold face lied & said that
much of the Rees' contents were not cleaned & salvaged because
Dave & Sherrill told them not to! It was a very disgraceful, ugly
& unbelievable situation. Especially when many of their keepsakes
such as Royal Doulton, figurines, vases, etc. could have been saved
with soap & water. The clean up company ruined these items using
harsh chemicals that removed the paints! Some furniture such as their
wooden bedroom suite was cleaned but scratched, chipped & dented
while in the clean up company's possession! Another appraisal was
booked for a later date. Nothing was really accomplished. A lot of
arguing occurred without any real results.
The lawyers assured the Rees' that they were going to make the
insurance company pay & filed a "Bad Faith" lawsuit
against their insurance company for not paying out the structural
claim. They advised that the process could take another two to three
years in litigation. This company was a repeat offender for bad faith
& had already been sued for one of the biggest cases in history
regarding such. Very quickly, the insurance company responded &
wanted to settle. Their settlement offer was very low though. Their
lawyer advised them to take the settlement & continue with
fundraising as people in the community had formed a facebook group
& hosted some small events. Their lawyer now stated that it could
be another ten years in court. So, Dave & Sherrill took the
settlement. They then lost nearly half of that settlement to various
legal fees (lawyer fees, adjuster fees, appraisal fees, etc.)!
The Rees' had lived at their home ten years prior to the fire.
Since the fire to present, Dave, Sherrill & Tyson have been living
with family, approximately forty minutes from their home in another
town. They have been paying their mortgage, property tax &
insurance for a place they can't live at! The insurance company even
increased their payments, the year after the fire on a claim that
wasn't even paid out & on a house & contents that no longer
exists!
While not all insurance companies act in this manner, many do.
They offer nothing but conflict & delay. Why? Because sadly many
people will walk away from the hassle & insurance companies know
this.
During the summer months Dave, Sherrill & Tyson stay in
their backyard in a borrowed trailer with no electricity or running
water. They live on a country lot, so are at least able to have
campfires. Tyson is now 3.5 years old & has developed so many
friendships in his neighbourhood. There are numerous children his age
where his home is. Tyson cries every time they must leave their home
as there are no kids his age to play with where they stay with family.
It is a sad & uncomprehendable situation for a toddler. He is a
very smart little boy who understands they are going to build a new
house, but doesn't understand why it hasn't been done yet. This is
supposed to be the happiest time on earth for a new family such as the
Rees'. Instead it has been filled with sorrow, intimidation,
complications & plain unfairness.
Many people in the community have donated their services to
rebuild the Rees Family home. However, funds need to be raised for
materials. Please help us, help them! Let's show the Rees Family that
community matters & the world cares! Again I ask...Imagine if this
were you.
You can also follow the Rees family's progress on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/foundations.of.hope
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.496286693822423.1073741825.178668062250956&type=1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.496319327152493.1073741827.178668062250956&type=1
