Families say they are out thousands of dollars after FPL mess up

Almost a dozen families lost thousands of dollars after they say Florida Power and Light fried their electric systems more than a month ago.

They say that not only are they paying the repair bills themselves, but FPL isn’t offering to help or giving them updates.

Now, the families are fed up and taking matters into their own hands.

“We’ve kind of been had, by a publicly-held utility that we thought was doing a good job until they came in and destroyed a lot of things for us,” said Cynthia and David Roney.

It all started with a transformer that blew while FPL was working in their neighborhood leaving multiple families without working appliances.

“We’re holding out for a fair resolution,” the Roneys said.

And they aren’t the only ones in this Town and River neighborhood who say they were affected by FPL’s mess up.

As the utility upgraded the electric system, they say a transformer blew. It happened on Micheal Reitnmann’s property.

“Nobody has contacted me at all, when they knew that this whole five or six home community that we have year has major damage and their whole life was distracted,” Reitnmann said. “Potentially as I say my house could’ve been burnt to the ground.”

And still neighbors say they are the ones paying for FPL’s mistake.

“It’s stressful that I have to be out time and effort and money and I have to wait for repair people to get estimates,” said Amanda Spencer, another neighbor affected by the surge.

While some still wait for claims with FPL to process, others including the Roneys are at their wits’ end and plan to take legal action.

“This is not an accident. This was not an act of God. It was bad performance on the part of FPL,” the Roneys said.

Neighbors tell WINK News they still haven’t received any updates from FPL, but FPL told WINK News they are still working on a solution with the affected customers and can’t disclose details at this time.