Insurance fallout and payment delays put Englewood animal sanctuary in jeopardy

Fighting with your homeowners insurance company over your Hurricane Ian damages has become a shared experience among Southwest Floridians. Now one woman worries the never-ending struggle to get her home and animal sanctuary back together will force her to close her doors.

Iris Beaugrand loves her animals, all 80 of them at Fandango Sanctuary in Englewood.

“Everybody who doesn’t find a good home comes here,” Beaugrand said. “All kinds of farm animals who were supposed to go to [the] slaughterhouse or didn’t find a home.”

There are donkeys, cows, horses, a wild boar named Wilbur, and even retired chickens.

“I take in the Charlotte County mosquito control chickens when they retire every year,” added Beaugrand.

The non-profit organization allows nursing homes, veteran groups and organizations that help people with specials needs come, relax and enjoy the animals. But groups have to wait to come back to the property. The sanctuary will have to stay at 80 animals for now.

“I get like three calls a week from people asking me to help with animals to find homes or to take them in and I can’t because I don’t have such shelters. A lot of shelters are destroyed,” Beaugrand said. “I really have to send everybody away. I had two emergencies I took in, a little mule from the slaughterhouse, and two cows. Now everybody I have to turn away and it’s sad. It’s heartbreaking.”

Hurricane Ian severely damaged the sanctuary and Beaugrand’s home on the five-acre property.

“I lost 150 trees so there were trees everywhere. I lost a lot of shelters. They were totally destroyed. My barns, the siding, everything was bad. The roof was leaking,” Beaugrand described. “Somehow all of the animals survived. Thank goodness!”

Almost a year after Hurricane Ian, much of the sanctuary is still damaged because she wasn’t able to cash a single check from her insurer.

“It’s very stressful, very depressing because you think you have insurance. I paid, always on time. I was supposed to have very good insurance. So I thought ‘okay, if something really big happens I’m going to be okay.’ Then something really big happened and I’m not okay, not at all,” Beaugrand said.

Beaugrand had United Property and Casualty Insurance (UPC). She filed her claim the day after the storm and thought it would be a smooth process. A couple of days after, she said a field adjuster came out, inspected the damages and did a report.

“They sent me several checks for altogether $40,000 but they made it out to the wrong mortgage company so I wasn’t able to cash them,” she remembered. “Then I contacted them and asked if they can reissue the checks. They said they would. They never did. And then they went under.”

UPC went insolvent in February and now the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) is responsible for paying out those open Ian claims, extending the recovery process for many, including Beaugrand. She’s had to borrow money from friends to fix her leaky roof and to get by.

“I’m in even more trouble. I used all of my savings and all of my retirement money to get rid of the trees and fix the fences temporarily,” she said. “It’s like wherever I turn, I am running out of money and running out of steam.”

Beaugrand said she’s had three FIGA desk adjusters so far.

“They want to send another inspector out because our insurance had offered $40,000 and it’s clearly over $300,000 in damages. We are so far apart,” she said.

She’s worried she’s running out of time.

“I’m really running out of money,” Beaugrand added.

“How much do you pay for food a month,” WINK News Consumer Reporter Andryanna Sheppard asked.

“$2,500 just for food,” Beaugrand responded. ” And then I have extra costs, like every month for the last two, three months, I would say $1,000 in vet bills.”

So Sheppard reached out to FIGA to see what the hold up was. The Executive Director told her Beaugrand’s case was escalated to the assigned manager to monitor and see if the investigation process could be sped up. A new field inspection was done a couple of weeks later. Getting her animals one step closer to stables and Beaugrand one step closer to stability.

If you are having trouble with your insurance company and would like to share your situation with Andryanna Sheppard, you can do so through this form.