Might be homeless in a month

Ok so this pastebin will be unlike any other i've shared. But I don't want to make it too long that nobody reads it, or too short to make it seem like it's not a big deal. I'm not much of a writer and my anxiety and rage is fueling a lot of the rambling.

I might be homeless in a month.

So to kind of skip a lot of text and point you to a basic summary, My house got uninhabitably damaged in Hurricane Ida. I filed my insurance and got a contractor and estimates and made a gofundme to help fund just the initial deductibles I had between Home and Car insurance. You can find that GoFundMe here https://gofund.me/be5b7b34

It has a story and pictures and everything for you to read up on in case you were interested.

However, what you didn't hear, was everything that happened behind the scenes. The busy work of it all. Basically I have not been living in my home for about 5 months now. And time was running out. My insurance company has been going real slow and taking months to do anything. I didn't even get a roof payout till about 2 months later after filing. The estimated damages were in the $33,000 range and they gave me $15,000 out of a $23,000, $10,000 was depreciated up to 33,000 in total damage estimates. The $15,000 was gone in about 2-3 days. My contractor estimated more than that and said that the insurance company was screwing me over. His estimates were about $38,000 more which is where we stand today. About 3 months later. Having never receved another $1 more.

During the process of the house part of damage, things were slowly...SLOWLY moving. Like not at all. My contractor had submitted estimates and requesting supplemental payouts and it was taking forever. Around this time we were also filing loss of contents. Which is everything that got damaged in the store which included tons of electronics and my entire living room. The list was about 60 contents total and somewhere over $10,000-12,000, and they paid out for about 3 items at around $2500. Theye didn't pay for the Fridges that got destroyed, my small entertainment center or any of out game consoles and computers that were damaged by roof leaks in the storm. They paid for the couch, a dog bed and an end table. See pictures in the GoFundMe. So after all this, we looked up the insurance company and consulted a few family members and friends and we were advised to lawyer up. So we contacted the lawyer and they took the case on and we signed documents. All good. About 2 weeks later, my insurance company called and told me they were going to send out a supplemental check for 18,000 to "get me started." Well that was good news. My contractor asked where the other half of the estimate was but said it definitely could get them started while they get the rest.

That 18,000 never came in the mail. It never showed up. Two weeks later, I had my fiance call the Insurance company to figure out where that check was. They would not speak to her. They were completely rude and sarcastic and told her we had to have our lawyer call if we wanted to speak to anyone. This hit me hard because this was the reason they didn't send out the money. I was in literal tears, panicking at what to do. I couldn't believe that this was happening and thought I was making a HUGE mistake and called the lawyer to drop the suit because I couldn't let this happen. She explained to me that they could not legally keep that money from me, and that if there was a paper trail (there was) they could get it from them right away because they owed me that money. She also explained that she would request all the additional money the contractor has been estimating the entire time because to not pay that out would be considered a bad faith legal binding contract that they would be breaking. So I felt kind of comforted after this fact because it seemed like i'd still get the house money and all loss of contents and any extra money from the lawyer estimates would come much later. Which is fine, I wasn't too worried about the stuff, just the house and figure it out as we go.

That is until the lawyer said we needed to hurry. She said she would contact them immediately and get it rolling because our insurance company was at risk to falling into what they call "recievership" which is basically bankruptcy. If that were to happen, everything would default onto the Louisiana state commissioner insurance, would cost a lot more, would payout a lot less and could take YEARS to recoporate. Oh well...guess it was a good thing we hired the lawyer right?

One week goes by. Insurance won't answer the lawyer. Two weeks now. Insurance would answer or return her calls. She tells us just this Thursday as of writing this pastebin that if he didn't respond to her by friday, she would send out legal documents to their supervisor and force them to respond.

Friday, the next day. The insurance company went into recievership and tanked. Everything defaulting to the Louisiana insurance commissioner. This is worst case scenario. Apparently they said they have the resources to handle it and everyone will get their payouts...eventually. How long? Don't know. Lawyer said it could take years as of THEN when she told us about it before details were out, because the insurance company's HQ is out of state, but I read something different, but I may just not be understanding it. Chances are, it's years. My life has been worst case scenario for months already.

So basically, i'm almost out of loss of use money. I have till February 28th to figure out if there are any funds left or if we can even access them at the moment in order to have a home to stay in. I'm doing what I can. I'm already set up to go speak with someone about taking out an SBA loan so I can get the money to repair my house. It'll have to be in the amount for $40,000. I have good credit but I don't know if they'll approve me, or if it'll be approved fast enough to get the money to the contractor to build our house fast enough. We still have to speak with the lawyer to see what we can do, and we have to get in touch with the commissioner and see how we could possibly still use our insurance or when we could expect our money. We already had all the estimates and supplmental aid all figured out. Do I have to start back from square one or do they just pick right back up where they left off and since we were so deep in the process will we get our money quicker or what? Seems impossible in a month.

So as far as I know, despite all I have to figure out and what options I have. My fiance mentioned separating our family and her moving back to tennessee with her family in the mean time for however long it takes. I will be away from my fiance and my two pets during this whole time. My cat Cloud and my puppy Ellinia. Unfortunately I just got a new job so I can not leave or move where I currently am. I have to stay put. I think I should be able to stay with someone if insurance or the lawyer doesn't come through. But even if that were to happen, as of right now, unless $40,000 magically appears before me;

I will be homeless on February 28th.

I don't really know what else to say here. I'am defeated. An already defeated man is being defeated once more.

I just wanted to rant or vent or get advice or something. I really don't know. I kind of just want to give up.