SEMINOLE, Fla. — Eight months after Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off their condo building at Seminole Square apartments, seniors are living with no air conditioning and little hope that permanent repairs will be made.
WATCH: 'I was hoping somebody could help us': Seminole seniors living with no AC months after Hurricane Milton
It's why one neighbor, Cyndy Donnelly, emailed ABC Action News since they are still navigating their insurance claim months after the storm.
"I was hoping somebody could help us, you know, maneuver through the insurance process," Donnelly told ABC Action News Anchor Nadeen Yanes. "And maybe put it point us in a direction of somebody that could help us get our claim processed."
A DESPERATE PLEA
Donnelly was in tears as she took us through her condo, now down to the studs after Hurricane Milton ripped off the roof, leaving behind a gaping hole in her bathroom.
"That's where you can see the sky," Donnelly pointed up.
This condo was supposed to be Donnelly's dream retirement home.
"It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. I mean, I've lost so much sleep, and it's very stressful," she said. "Because we're, you know, there's 25 of us, and we can't rebuild the insides of our units until we have the roof replaced."
And what's worse, when the roof ripped off, it took all eight air conditioning units with it.
"It is so hot right now. There's people on either side of me that are living here," Donnelly added.
"I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN"
In fact, Donnelly introduced us to her next-door neighbor, Glenda Medders. At 81 years old, she is living with walls cut out, plastic over furniture and just a few fans bringing in the slightest breeze, as there is no AC.
"If you stand here, it's a nice breeze," Glenda showed us. "You make the most of what you know. You can only do, what you can only do. I can't do. I can't make the insurance company do anything, you know."
CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE RESPONSE
At the request of Cyndy and Glenda, I tracked down the condo's policy with Citizens Property Insurance. In a statement, Citizens said they have paid out several checks on this claim.
"Though claims file details are confidential by statute, we have reviewed this claim and believe Citizens is responsibly reimbursing for repairs being made at the Seminole Square Apartments. Citizens will certainly fulfill its obligations under the policy as we continue to work with the public adjusting firm hired by the condominium association board to represent them in this matter," a Citizens spokesperson wrote to us in an email.
"ALL TYPES OF ISSUES AT HAND"
So we went to track down where that money went and why repairs haven't begun. We spoke with Craig Kobel, the President of Strategic Claims Consultants, who is the public adjusting firm handling the claim.
"There's all types of issues at hand here," Kobel said. "There's really no particular party to blame. It's a lot of circumstances that are creating tremendous challenges for this association and getting repairs going."
Kobel confirmed Citizens Property Insurance paid out three checks, one in January, one in March and one last Friday, two days after we reached. The payout from Citizens so far totals just shy of $570,000. However, the problem here is each of the three buildings at Seminole Square Condos has their own condo association board, but they are all under just one insurance policy.
"So you have three different associations, with three different boards attempting to make decisions and none of them get along," Kobel added.
Another challenge, the condo association Cyndy and Glenda live in didn't have proper fund reserves, he said. The residents didn't even have enough saved to meet the 5% hurricane deductible.
"Frankly, this was not an association that could bear the burden of the 5% hurricane deductible right off the bat to self-sustain," he added.
After we spoke with Cyndy, the firm held a town hall to get all three associations on the same page. The goal is to get loans and special assessments to begin covering the gaps in coverage and begin getting in a temporary roof.
Kobel said the contractor is now willing to front the costs to expedite work for those living in the Florida summer heat, now entering a new hurricane season.
"But if we could just pull up the insurance money and their self-insured retention there, that should get going. We're hoping as early as two weeks from now," Kobel added.
Both Cyndy and Glenda are grateful.
" I'm thankful that you come out, because you know nobody will seem to be listening to us. You know, we were talking to each other, but we, each of us, couldn't do a thing," Glenda said.
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