Final day of Insurance Village in Punta Gorda

A source of relief for people dealing with insurance headaches.

The third and final insurance village set up for this week is wrapping up.

Earlier on Wednesday, there was a long line of people at the Charlotte County Event Center on Taylor Street in Punta Gorda.

Throughout the week, people have been able to walk away with checks after meeting with their insurers.

When Hurricane Ian took Candy Pollio’s Port Charlotte home, candy took no chances.

She took every insurance claim she filed, every FEMA document and she kept them because she knew they could in handy someday.

“Couldn’t seem to get anybody to come down and see the place,” Pollio said.

They came in handy on Wednesday.

“They have an opportunity to actually bring their documents, photos of their damage and other information that is imperative to their claim and actually sit down and look for a representative from their insurance company in the eye and have a conversation about the status of their claim and what needs to be done in order to get that claim resolved,” said Tasha Carter, Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate.

Carter believes Pollio did the right thing when she lugged her large, heavy bag of documents to the Insurance Village at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center to present everything she had to her insurer.

It was a face-to-face push to get everything she’s been asking for for nearly seven months.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Pollio said. “They seem that they can take care of me. They’re going to send an investigator to see the walls and so forth, come! Come on down.”

Byron Hall showed up to get help for his 93-year-old step-mother. He said her home suffered tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

“As it stands right now I have to go ahead and proceed to try and get additional money. They did give out $48,000 dollars but that’s not enough to cover everything so she’s taking money out of her pocket to do the repairs,” Hall said.

His attempt at the insurance village did not go well.

It starts with the policy contract, Carter said.

“Then it also depends upon the type of damage that your home has sustained. And what caused the damage,” Carter said.

Carter said lots of people get the help they need at these insurance villages but others like Hall don’t.

“She has funds but they shouldn’t have to come out of her pocket shouldn’t have to come out of her retirement savings to do the work,” Hall said. “That’s not right.”

He left the same way he arrived: frustrated, worried and angry.

But at least Hall got someone to look at his stepmother’s policy and explains what’s covered.