WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Mortgage companies frustrating some homeowners with the way they disperse insurance checks

Mortgage companies frustrating some homeowners with the way they disperse insurance checks

By Cheryl Mercedes - bio | email

WHITE CASTLE, LA (WAFB) - Nearly three months after Hurricane Gustav, homeowners have made repairs and received checks from their insurance companies.

However, another player in the scenario, the mortgage companies, must endorse those insurance checks before the homeowner ever sees the money. One homeowner says he's working a second job just to pay the bills, while he waits for money that is rightfully his.

David Whitehurst modestly calls his project a "touch-up," but it includes re-tiling his home, installing new dry wall, repairing his ceiling, and more. Whitehurst says he's drained his checking and savings accounts to do the repairs.

He says he called an insurance adjuster and a month later the paperwork was processed. He went to work, collected his receipts, and the insurance company sent him two checks. One was for a little more than $22,000 another for a bit more than $3000 to pay for repairs. The check was made out to him and HomEQ servicing, his mortgage company. HomEQ told him it would disburse the payments in three checks, but so far, Whitehurst says he hasn't seen a penny.

Whitehurst had the roof repaired on Thursday. The rest of the repairs to his home are nearly complete, but this tugboat worker says he's shipping out Saturday for a two-month mission. He won't be home for Christmas because he'll be working to pay the bills. HomEQ representatives are handling his case out of Irvine, California. Whitehurst says when he talks to them on the phone they tell him that cutting insurance checks and disbursing them in thirds is "standard procedure," which is the case with a lot of mortgage companies.