A couple are fighting to get coverage on two totally damaged vehicles that were destroyed after a tree fell on top of the cars July 14.
Rick Ford, 43, of St. Robert, said he was sitting in his living room on the morning of July 14 with his wife, Sharon, and a friend who had driven there only 10 minutes before when they heard a loud crash.
Ford said he recently moved into the mobile home on Hector Lane in Valley Park, which is owned by Try Us Properties, in St. Robert. He said after he lost his job in Illinois, he came to the area looking for work, which he found at Fort Leonard Wood. The paperwork for their home, Rick Ford said, only went through July 10.
Ford said, at first, it looked like no one was going to take responsibility for the damage.
"(The) insurance company said it's on us," Rick Ford said.
Ford said initially, the response from the property management indicated that he would have needed renter's insurance and full insurance coverage on both cars for anything to be covered. He said he has liability insurance, which fulfills the state required minimum insurance standards.
"It's full of termites, it's dry-rotted, that tree should have been gone," Sharon Ford said. "That (car) is my transportation, it might not look like much, but I depend on it."
Expectant mother Alyssa Donnelly, 19, of St. Robert, said her boyfriend had driven to the Ford's mobile home and been there only 10 minutes when the tree toppled onto the cars. Donnelly is 31 days from her due date and is now without a car to drive to the hospital.
"That was our only car," Donnelly said. "What are we supposed to do now?"
But, after talking to several attorneys, Rick Ford said the company has finally begun to accept responsibility.
Rick Ford said Friday he was informed the insurance company would get a rental car for his wife who has been on medical leave for three weeks from her job in Effingham, Ill. Rick Ford said his wife has been diagnosed with cancer and has frequent doctor's appointments in Illinois, where she technically still lives.
"She just came to visit; she was supposed to be back (on Friday)," Rick Ford said.
Sharon Ford said the property manager, Tanya Huizar, was going out of her way to help. Sharon Ford said the manager gave her money out of her own pocket for a bus ticket to Effingham when it looked like the insurance company wouldn't pay.
"She took the money out of her pocket because she felt like they weren't going to do anything," Sharon Ford said.
Despite attempts, Huizar could not be reached for comment.
Sharon Ford said the neighbors in the area also have been helpful to her husband and herself, with groceries and transportation.
Rick Ford said a claims adjuster from the insurance company came to take photos Monday, five days after the initial claim. He said the adjuster has to communicate with the company's headquarters in New Jersey, so it will take at least several days before anything begins to be worked out.
Farmers Insurance, which insures the Valley Park property of Try Us Properties, was unable to comment
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