The Tornado

All four of us, my wife, our friend Sandi, the dog, and me, waited patiently as the Tornado passed over our home. It did not touch down on top of our house, but we all felt it pass because we experienced headaches and heard it outside. At one point I took a quick look outside the closet and felt my left ear pop and I quickly closed the door back. 

We eventually heard over the radio that the tornado had passed our area. We opened the closet door and to our surprise the roof was still on the house. In fact, the house seemed to be all in one piece. As we continued to look around, we saw outside, scattered about our yard, what looked to be debris from a hardware store.

As we continued our search, we found that all our gutters had been bent and found that 2 inches of rain had fallen in as little 10 minutes. 

We soon learned from a house inspector that the tornado had lifted and simultaneously twisted our house before setting it back on the foundation.

We were told not to do any work on the house because it would take 6-8 months for the house to settle, and we wouldn't know how much damage the house had sustained until then. 

After meeting various contractors and getting appraisals we began the process of picking the contractor to work on our home. At the suggestion of our insurance adjuster, Steve Catrine, we selected Remodel Raleigh, Inc. to be our contractor. 

Our first estimate from Remodel Raleigh Inc. was $63,000. Our main point of contact with Remodel Raleigh, Inc. was Doug. He said that I could trust him and that he would fix our house as if it were his own house. We signed a contract with Dough on September 8th and the repairs on our home started soon after. We then moved in with our friend Sandi while Doug worked on our home.  

We gave him money for materials but told him that he would have to wait 3 days before depositing so I could move the money into the account for him. However, he went that day to the bank to cash the checks and one of the checks bounced because there was not enough money in the account. 

Furthermore, because of the various medical concerns I have I decided to hire an engineer to make sure Doug was doing the job properly. Soon after Doug and the engineer had their first meeting the engineer called me and said that he quit because he didn't need that kind of stress from working with our contractor.  

Despite Doug's promise that he would do the job correctly there were several instances where he said one thing but did another. For example, he said he would scrape the ceilings, but he only partially scrapped them. He also said he would put new plywood underneath the hardy plank siding, but he never did that. He was also supposed to put on new roof flashing, but never did that and the roof currently still leaks. 

The costliest action that Doug made was when he neglected to properly turn off the HVAC unit. I told him to do so because I was very concerned about mold or other airborne contaminants, stirred up by the repairs, that might get into the air system. I even had a letter from my primary care physician stating their concern for air contaminants stirred up by the construction. The letter also insisted that I should relocate while repairs were being made. 

He did not do this and shortly after we moved back into our home, I had a massive allergic reaction to sheet rock dust that had gotten into the air system. However, it was because of this negligence that the doctors were able to find and resolve my aneurysm. 

After Doug "finished" repairs on the house we moved back into the house. However, about a week after we moved back in, I experienced a systemic symptoms of an allergic reaction. I went to the doctor, and she said my symptoms were due to sheet rock dust. 

This in turn caused me to have reactionary arthritis, causing me immense joint pain, and we had to move back out of our home into a hotel. We spent the next few months living in a hotel and ended up spending Christmas at the hotel. During our time at the hotel, I learned that Doug's liability insurance was with Erie Insurance, who also insured our home. 

Due to the financial burdens of living in the hotel for so long we ended up moving in with a friend for 6 months. At the beginning of this 6 month stint I underwent surgery to remove the aneurysm. The surgery was successful, however the day I was supposed to come home from the hospital I suffered a stroke. 

The week before my aneurysm surgery my house was inspected, and my insurance company said that the damage we had suffered was merely the result of poor construction. This claim was made after the insurance company previously said that the earthquake had caused the damage to my home, not the tornado. And even months before that they told me I had to come up with records describing the state of my home before the tornado damage.

An interesting side note is that the Erie Insurance agent never inspected my home when I first hired them to be my home insurance company. ​ 

Before the radiation treatment, however, I was subject to a series of kidney stones. I had planned to give the house over to the bank on March 29th. However, I was in such pain from the kidney stones that I did not go. At the time I did not know it was a kidney stone. 

After a few days I finally passed the kidney stone. I then planned to go back by the bank to hand the house over, but I got a second kidney stone. After the second one I decided it was not time to turn the house over. The day after passing the second stone I had radiation treatment done for the thyroid.

For the next month, I was housebound due to the radiation treatment. During this time, I continued to receive letters, and phone calls, from the insurance company despite the fact that they knew about my medical complications. My doctor wrote me a letter that I shared with the insurance company stating that I needed to avoid stressful situations. 

In July of 2013 I slowly began to get re-involved with all things related to the house. I hired a public adjuster to help with the dealings with the insurance company and we began records from all things related to the house. 

2 months later, in September, Wells Fargo said they needed the house to be inspected by one of their own representatives. He inspected the house and told me that I would get a copy of his report. I was later informed by Wells Fargo that only 50% of the repairs had been completed by the contractor. However, I have never received a copy of the report like I was promised. So as of right now Wells Fargo expects me to fix the house without any sort of list detailing what needs to be repaired. 

I saw my doctor again during December and was told that my blood clot had not fully dissolved. I had been hoping to resume work, regarding the house, at the beginning of 2014. However, the continued presence of the blood clot makes this difficult for me to do.
 

I have spoken with a few lawyers who specialize in this area and was told it would take $300,000 to $600,000 to get this ready for trial. I would have already put some of the paperwork together myself, but my ability to organize has been severely diminished due to my stroke. 

As of right now, I have until April of 2014 to either get this extended or filed as a lawsuit before Erie Insurance is no longer held responsible for the damage done my home.