What’s next for the Rapkins? Family sues Heritage Insurance

A family is paying for a mess they didn’t ask for or create.

On “60 Minutes,” Ginny Jeff Rapkin told the nation that they believed their insurance company changed the licensed adjuster’s initial damage report costing the couple more than $200,000. WINK News then confirmed the state opened a criminal investigation.

When state chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis confirmed the criminal investigation, WINK News asked him what advice he had for the Rapkins and others trapped in a fight with their insurance company.

Patronis told WINK: Don’t file a lawsuit first, come to the state for help.

The Rapkins said they did go to the Department of Financial Services, and they told WINK, that didn’t work at all.

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• RELATED: New details emerge confirming state investigation into Heritage Insurance 

• RELATED: Family continues legal battle with Heritage Insurance

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“This is the room my son stayed in,” said Jeff Rapkin.

Just standing in this bedroom gets to Rapkin.

“You have all these memories from a home, and this could have been saved. All they had to do was cover the top,” said Rapkin.

It pains Rapkin to see the mold growing on the walls, coating the ceiling and the insulation.

Hurricane Ian whipped the roof right off the Rapkins’ home and two years later, there’s still this gaping hole.

“We were living in this house. We would lie in bed at night thinking, ‘Is it going to crumble underneath us, are we going to die tonight?’ So we had to leave,” said Rapkin.

And who can blame them?

When it rains, water pours down through the house.

Now, Rapkin and his wife live in an apartment. All because they say Heritage Insurance refused to pay their claim.

“What’s happened here is wrong. This is a lack of common human decency, a lack of humanity,” said Rapkin. “We’re out of savings. We’re out of money.”

The Rapkins went on “60 minutes” and accused Heritage of changing their licensed adjuster’s initial damage report.

Jordan Lee determined there was $231,000 worth of damage, starting with the roof.

But Heritage sent the couple a check for $15,000.

After watching the story on “60 Minutes,” Florida’s chief financial officer told WINK News his office can’t do much to help the couple because they filed a lawsuit instead of working through the state’s Department of Financial Services.

“As soon as they hire an attorney, then it’s in the court system. We can’t do anything,” said Patronis. “That’s why I just tell people, ‘If you’ve got a problem, call our office. You can always hire an attorney. You can always hire a public adjuster, but we offer a lot of services at no cost to the taxpayer, which we’re very good at.'”

That’s not Rapkin’s experience. He filed a report with the state’s Department of Financial Services in February of 2023.

“Crickets, nothing. Silence, absolute silence. I filed a second complaint with DFS. I’ve gotten nothing,” said Rapkin.

Two months later, Jeff and Ginny took matters into their own hands and filed a lawsuit against Heritage.

Jeff is a lawyer, an adoption lawyer, who is representing himself.

“I’m going to lose. I’m in insurance land, and they’re throwing out rules and laws at me that I’ve never heard before, and I’m struggling to keep up,” said Rapkin.

That trial is set to begin in less than three weeks.

As for the Rapkins’ claim, no one from the state responded to their complaint.

WINK News asked Patronis to look into it, and he said he would, but as of Wednesday, he is busy responding to victims of Hurricane Helene.