EXCLUSIVE: Cape Coral Couple’s Cry for Justice – 16 months after Hurricane Ian, Still No Insurance Money, and Fears of Withheld Information

“I think they’re a bunch of crooks. I feel they’re… How would they feel if this were their family or their house?” Elaine Damiano, Cape Coral homeowner

A Cape Coral couple is demanding answers and accountability. It’s been 16 months since Hurricane Ian made landfall and they say they still haven’t received the insurance money they need to fully restore their home.

Elaine and Michael Damiano are in their late seventies and say they’re draining their retirement savings to make their home livable. To make matters worse, they fear the people who should be working for them, are withholding key information that may shed light on why their insurance claim is still open and unresolved.

WINK News Investigative Reporter Céline McArthur has been delving into the couple’s case for almost a year and finds out what’s going on—now.

• RELATED: Florida CFO responds to WINK News property insurance investigation: ‘This is why I fight for people to get their claims closed.’

The Damianos are livid.

It’s been 496 days since Hurricane Ian stormed through their home, and they say their insurance company, public adjuster, and attorney are keeping them in the dark about what’s going on with their claim. The couple believes some clues can be found in a document they haven’t gotten their hands on.

Elaine Damiano is a hobbyist with a passion for crafting home decor.

“I am a Jack of all trades, master of absolutely nothing,” said Elaine.

The Damianos fear their insurance provider—Cypress Property and Casualty Insurance Company—lacks the incentive to close the case.

Elaine suggested, “Maybe they’re just waiting for us to drop dead so they don’t have to pay anything.”

And now the senior couple is in debt.

Michael shared, “I have a lien on my house, you know, first time in my life.” He went on to say, “They don’t want to pay the vendors that did work for me. In my opinion, they’re obligated to do that.”

Nine days after the storm, the couple hired public adjuster Scotty Moland of Tailored Loss Consultants.

He submitted a claim for $384,000 on their behalf two months after Ian. Cypress paid about $51k to begin renovations soon after.

“It was enough money to replace the roof. It’s enough money to get something started,” said Moland.

It wasn’t enough to get the job done, and Moland admits he could not get Cypress to shell out any more money.

Moland explained, “Everything that could be negotiable, or workable now becomes a fight.”

In March of 2023, I challenged Cypress. The executive vice president admitted his company dropped the ball and issued the Damianos a check for about $113,000. Moland collected his 10 percent fee and brought in attorney David Sholl to represent the couple and attempt to settle with Cypress or sue. He acknowledges it’s a costly strategy.

“If an attorney is looking to go to litigation, they’re going to charge anywhere from 25 to 33%. So if they do the full 33%, the homeowner loses 43 percent of their claim, just to get to the end,” said Moland.

Last year, Sholl argued that every Southwest Florida homeowner should partner with a public adjuster-attorney team to collectively challenge their insurance companies.

“They come in with a whole team of people in their interest to determine, how can I say this… You should never rely on the person who has to pay you money to tell you how much they owe you. You should have your own team of people telling you how much that person owes you,” said Sholl.

The Damianos hoped Sholl would make some headway with Cypress. Months went by with no more payments to repair their damage.

“We pay the attorney. We pay the public adjuster, who has gotten quite a bit of money. We pay premiums to the insurance company, so we pay them; they hire attorneys… and nothing is going the way it’s supposed to go,” explained Elaine.

Examination Under Oath

In August, lawyers representing Cypress questioned Elaine and Michael about their storm damage, in what’s called an Examination Under Oath. EUOs are allowed under the insurance policy, but Sholl couldn’t figure out what information Cypress wanted that they didn’t have before.

“I think that some of this is being done to potentially push the case under the rug,” said Sholl.

Elaine suggested, “I think what they were looking at was for a way to say we went above and beyond ripping our house apart like, yeah, everybody wants to rip their house apart.”

Elaine argues her public adjuster advised them on what needed to be torn out as he was evaluating their damage. These are images of Moland from his 3-D walkthrough of their home!

“Our public adjuster was here with everything,” said Elaine. “Everything was being torn apart, ripped apart. And nobody’s advising. Nobody’s advising that this shouldn’t come out. They’re all saying it should come out.”

Where’s the transcript?

Moland was also ‘examined under oath’ by Cypress, which legal experts say is not unheard of. However, the results of that EUO remain a mystery. The Damianos repeatedly directed Moland and Sholl to secure a recording or transcript of the interview.

She insisted, “That is ours! That’s ours. Okay, they have it, we would like a copy of it, all you have to do is just send us a copy.”

They never got it.

I also asked Moland, Sholl, and Cypress for a transcript, and I didn’t get it. Moland claims he asked and didn’t get it. Sholl tells us he’ll look into it and get back to us. Cypress didn’t respond to us.

Elaine pointed out, “Somebody’s hiding something because normally, that public adjuster would be glad to give us this information. Our attorney would be glad to turn this information over.”

The Damianos refuse to back down from their repeated calls for responsiveness and transparency.

Expressing frustration, Michael implored, “Would you please keep us as informed as to what’s happening? We have no one calling us. There’s no information whatsoever as to what the next step is.”

While the Damianos battle for the money they say is owed to them—based on their policy—Cypress has raised their annual insurance rate 39%.

Céline goes to Tallahassee

I drove up to Tallahassee to talk to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who regulates insurance in the state. We watched the Damiano story together.

“Seeing people hurting… it’s not a fun part of the job, but seeing them be made a whole? That’s why I show up every day,” shared Patronis.

Stay tuned to hear what else he said about the Cape Coral couple’s claim.

In the meantime, share your thoughts or be part of the discussion! Email Céline at celine.mcarthur@winknews.com.