Reports of Hurricane Damage in Florida Have Changed, Whistleblowers Say | 60 minutes

Jeff Rapkin admits he prayed for the “untimely death” of the expert who examined his home after it was devastated by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

Rapkin, a Florida resident and father, said the appraiser told him his home would likely need a complete remodel. So Rapkin was shocked when his insurance company, Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance, only sent him $15,000, minus the deductible.

As it turns out, adjuster Jordan Lee was also shocked when he wrote in his report that he believed the Rapkins were owed $231,368.57. Lee says he later learned that dozens of his damage reports had been significantly altered.

“It was basically everyone,” Lee said.

Rating of houses according to Ian

Violent winds and heavy rains caused estimated damage $113 billion in damage from Hurricane Ian made landfall in September 2022. The Rapkins had weathered more than a half-dozen hurricanes in their home, but Ian was different, Rapkin said.

“It felt like the hurricane was in the house,” Rapkin said. “We couldn’t keep the windows closed.”

The video shows how the steel roof of their home was torn off during the hurricane. Ian left trees on and around their house. The roof was torn and everything inside the house was soaked.

The Rapkins called Heritage after the storm to begin the claims process. Heritage sent Lee, a licensed appraiser since 2017, to assess the damage. After major disasters, most insurance companies hire third-party companies like Lee to hire adjusters to help them deal with the thousands of claims.

Lee says he leaves homeowners his cell phone number after inspecting a home so they can call him if they have any questions. His phone rang after Ian, with angry homeowners on the other end.

“Call me names left and right, up and down. You know, 'How could you do this to us?'” Lee said. “It was actually really bad. And out of the thousands of claims I’ve handled, I’ve never had calls like this.”

“Allegations of systemic criminal fraud”

Two years later, whistleblowers, all of whom are licensed adjusters, say several insurance carriers used altered reports after Hurricane Ian to deceive customers and reduce payouts.

An estimated 50,000 homeowners affected by Ian are still battling with their insurance companies to repair or rebuild their homes. The Rapkins filed a lawsuit against Heritage, accusing the company of breach of contract and fraud.

As Lee investigated what had gone wrong with the Rapkin house, he learned that a desk adjuster who had never been to the family home had deleted entire sections of his report but left his name and license number on it, making it look like his work looked like.

It is standard procedure for field clerks to work with those in the office to make minor changes, but Lee said that was not the case with the Rapkin report.

As he delved into his hurricane work, Lee discovered that 44 of his 46 Ian reports had been adjusted to give the policyholder less money. An estimate he wrote for about $488,000 was changed to about $13,000. Another was reduced from about $239,000 to about $3,000.

Lee and two other claims adjusters testified before Florida lawmakers on December 13, 2022, about what a watchdog group called “systemic criminal fraud” by the insurance companies.

Ben Mandell, a licensed appraiser for a decade, did not work for Heritage but said 18 of the 20 reports he wrote for another insurance company after Ian were altered. Mandell said he and other claims adjusters were instructed by some of their managers to leave claims out of reports.

“It was a deliberate plan to do this,” Mandell said. “And it wasn’t just one carrier doing this. There were six carriers that we found were doing this in the state of Florida. They all got the memo.”

According to Mandell, the policy meant that insurance companies were becoming less willing to replace roofs and only make repairs. Mandell said what he was asked to do was illegal.

“It's illegal because when I do a damage estimate, I have to say what the damage is, not what the damage should be,” he said.

Mandell said he was fired after complaining to his superiors. Now he and five other whistleblowers, including Lee, are represented by attorney Steve Bush, who himself served as an expert witness for more than a decade. They were all either fired or left their jobs because of the changes to their reports.

“Most people won’t stand up and fight.”

Some insurance companies hope that customers will simply accept the money insurers offer them, Bush said. He said he believes some insurance companies are unwilling to spend cash on a roof replacement unless a policyholder sues.

“Most people are not going to stand up and fight,” Bush said. “I can't tell you how many people come to me and say, 'Hey, what should I do? I had to replace my roof.'”

Florida's insurance market has been a risky undertaking for years. After a decade of costly storms, several national airlines left Florida. Smaller regional carriers have stepped in, but at least nine insurance companies in Florida have collapsed since 2021 and some of the remaining ones have changed their loss reports, Bush said. He says he has evidence that airlines manipulated reports in six different states without policyholders knowing they weren't getting the money they deserved.

Doug Quinn, executive director of the American Policyholders Association, an advocacy group he founded after his death, said there is almost no transparency in the claims process The house was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“Victims of insurance fraud are the last to know that they have been victims of insurance fraud,” Quinn said.

Call for change and wait for repairs

Bush turned over what he said was evidence of insurance fraud to state investigators, and Florida opened a criminal investigation. But two years after the storm, Florida has made no arrests.

“If you really want to see change in the industry, handcuff someone,” Bush said.

Quinn said insurance cases are investigated and prosecuted quickly and aggressively when they involve a policyholder or adjuster who attempts to defraud the insurance industry.

“All we are asking is that cases alleged to be perpetrated by the insurance carriers or the salespeople they hire are equally aggressively investigated and prosecuted when fraud is discovered,” Quinn said.

Quinn said it's hard to say how many policyholders may have been given less money than they were entitled to.

But two years after Hurricane Ian, every unrepaired house and tarp tells a story.

In the Rapkins' house, mold and Mother Nature are eating away at what's left. The home's split roof is an open wound for the family, who still have to mow the lawn every month and make mortgage payments on their rotting home. They also pay rent on an apartment nearby and $4,000 a year to Heritage for home insurance, even after that Rewards went up.

“And of course I can’t find another insurance company,” Rapkin said.

Rapkin originally believed that an innocent mistake may have been made, but he no longer believes that way.

“This is a scam. This is it,” he said. “That means: ‘Let them disappear at all costs. We're not paying.'”

Heritage responds

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Heritage said it cannot comment on specific policyholders but intends to “pay any eligible claim” and has no intent to deceive. The company says that in its own sample, about 42% of claims were revised downwards and 26% were revised upwards.

Heritage says it has made “many reforms” since Hurricane Ian, including updating its claims processing software, which it blames for not listing the names of adjusters who changed reports.