Family pushes for class action against Heritage Insurance

A North Port family is battling against Heritage Insurance over the damage Hurricane Ian did to their home.

Their story was featured on Sixty Minutes in September.

The Rapkins are suing and just made a big move in court. They also have big news about their home.

The Rapkins’ attorney just filed paperwork in court this week, seeking to turn their lawsuit against Heritage into a class action against the insurer.

• RELATED: Family continues legal battle with Heritage Insurance

They believe dozens of other Floridians could also be victims of what they claim is fraud.
In the meantime, the damaged home at the center of it all has been sold.

“I’m absolutely furious,” said Jeff Rapkins.

Money may not buy happiness, but the lack of it can certainly bring anger.

“They’ve derailed my life. I thought at 55 years old, I could start to slow down a little bit,” Rapkins said.

But Ian had other ideas for Jeff and his wife, but it got worse after the storm passed.

“I said, ‘It’s raining inside my house.’ My wife would look at her phone in the morning and start crying because the weather called for rain,” Jeff said.

The Rapkins went on WINK News and 60 Minutes to tell everyone how their insurance company, Heritage Property and Casualty, knocked their claim down to almost nothing, leaving them with a leaking roof.

“How much did your field adjuster say you should have gotten?” asked WINK News anchor Chris Cifatte.

“It was in the general vicinity of $230,000,” Rapkins said.

“And then how much approximately did Heritage offer you?” Cifatte asked.

“They didn’t offer. They just sent an explanation letter, and the estimate that was supposedly from my adjuster, who was their adjuster, by the way, for $15,000,” Rapkins said.

Rapkins continued, “And meanwhile, our house is turning into this moldy, mushy pile of gunk that is unlivable, and we were all getting sick; we had to move out. We went after my daughter got out of the hospital. I said, ‘We have to get out of here.'”

The Rapkins just sold the house for land value to get out from under the mortgage.

They cleared $19,000.

Now, they are rebuilding their lives and trying to help other victims with the class action lawsuit.

“It’s so that everybody gets relief, not just me,” Rapkins said.

He knows, like so many of you, that home can buy happiness if everyone values it properly.

“All the Christmases there, we learned how to make jam there. My kids grew up in that house, and a house is more than the sum of its parts; it hurts to to be even thinking about it,” Rapkins said.

A judge would need to approve opening the case to a class action. We heard from Heritage Friday afternoon.

They called this a “head-scratcher” because they say they offered the Rapkins $372,000 a couple of months ago to pay the claim fully.

The Rapkins said two years after Ian, it was too late, and there were too many conditions attached.