whoami
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Joined: Jan 8, 2011 12:43:49 GMT -5
Posts: 1,292
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Post by whoami on Jan 4, 2016 19:35:30 GMT -5
My house got struck by a tornado in 2011, and there is NO WAY this person knows what she will have to pay out of pocket right now. If she has home insurance, they will pay - but won't cover everything. Won't cover tree removal, for example, except for trees that fell onto the house. (We got $1500 for tree removal from our insurance carrier for the four trees that fell onto our house, not a dime for the two acres of trees that fell on our lot). FEMA does not go around handing out money. They help the community shelters, they provide money to the community for tree removal/landfilling of storm debris, etc. The ONLY home owners that got FEMA money were those who had no insurance at all - and they didn't magically get money to cover all their losses, just SOME money to get back on their feet. FEMA also had money to help farmers who lost crops. But homeowners like us that had insurance? We didn't see a dime of FEMA money, although we were out of pocket by about $30,000. (Home owners will only replace what got broken - so, for instance, if you had half your windows blow out, they will replace those windows, but not the unbroken windows, because, as our insurance agent told us repeatedly, they are only obligated to make sure you have windows that work, it doesn't matter if you have mismatched windows that make it impossible for you to sell your house - if you want matching windows, you have to pay the difference in price - so we had to kick in our own money on the repairs). Our insurance DID pay for hotel rooms and then 3 months in a furnished rental, plus storing our furniture while the home was rebuilt. IMHO I wouldn't give anything to this person, because there is no way she knows she'll be out of pocket $15,000 - not yet, not if the insurance company only just came out to visit. And besides, this is what you're supposed to have an emergency fund for. Unless she has some other financial hard ship (widow with small kids, for example, or recently lost her job) she should pay for her own home repairs. Dh and I got lots of sympathy, and free labor shoveling debris out of our yard, and free food from the church that operated as a crisis center, and free water from police and random citizens who were going around providing water bottles to people who were digging out. Our church offered us some cash, but we're better off than most of the people who live in our little town, so we told them to give that to someone with a greater need. I would have been ashamed to go begging on GoFundMe for strangers to send me money. People have these little tragedies every day - sickness, car wrecks, job losses, divorces, house fires - since when did we start asking strangers to foot the bill for us? I wouldn't give her any money because she lied to enhance the story. Given the speed that the GoFundMe account was created, it screams money grab to me. We are also in DFW and have a 1% wind/hail deductible on our house. We have had 3 roofs destroyed by hail (with various degrees of damage to other parts of the house, and we were given preliminary checks before the adjuster left the property. I'm curious if we are talking about a mobile home/trailer in the case of the OP.
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Deleted
Joined: Oct 13, 2024 9:21:46 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2016 20:23:34 GMT -5
True. You know it's always the kids that get me... They can't help the crap they are born into. It's their bottom that gets lowered as well. Next time the brother/uncle might not miss.
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Deleted
Joined: Oct 13, 2024 9:21:46 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2016 21:41:16 GMT -5
I have severed my relationship with DH's friend who called us and whose daughter was the tornado victim. DH can continue the relationship as he chooses but I am out. Our friend, the victim's father, spun a lot of sad tales about the house slab being a POS and the neighborhood being in decline, both of which are probably true, and I am really sorry about that, but that doesn't have a rodent's rear to do with the present situation. It is tough when you purchase a home and the slab turns out to suck, and it's really tough when the neighborhood demographics change over time and your house goes down in value but WTH does that have to do with a frickin' tornado? My slab is iffy and my neighborhood is 50/50 but I sure as hell won't be asking $$ from anyone b/c of the choices we made 20 years ago.
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zibazinski
Community Leader
Joined: Dec 24, 2010 16:12:50 GMT -5
Posts: 47,912
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 4, 2016 21:58:51 GMT -5
True. You know it's always the kids that get me... They can't help the crap they are born into. Yes, but hopefully they learn NOT to emulate their parents bad choices.
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happyhoix
Distinguished Associate
Joined: Oct 7, 2011 7:22:42 GMT -5
Posts: 21,591
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Post by happyhoix on Jan 5, 2016 16:56:23 GMT -5
I have severed my relationship with DH's friend who called us and whose daughter was the tornado victim. DH can continue the relationship as he chooses but I am out. Our friend, the victim's father, spun a lot of sad tales about the house slab being a POS and the neighborhood being in decline, both of which are probably true, and I am really sorry about that, but that doesn't have a rodent's rear to do with the present situation. It is tough when you purchase a home and the slab turns out to suck, and it's really tough when the neighborhood demographics change over time and your house goes down in value but WTH does that have to do with a frickin' tornado? My slab is iffy and my neighborhood is 50/50 but I sure as hell won't be asking $$ from anyone b/c of the choices we made 20 years ago. Repairs to the slab and changing neighborhood demographics? So now she needs free money from strangers and she's coating her request in a 'poor me, a tornado hit my house' request? She needs to get out and help some real victims of the tornado. I'm sure somewhere there's someone trying to cut up and remove a lot of trees off their lot, or shovel up what used to be their neighbor's house off their front lawn. Maybe she could go around trying to salvage people's photos from the debris. That might give her some perspective.
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Deleted
Joined: Oct 13, 2024 9:21:46 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2016 20:59:34 GMT -5
Ran into Dear Old Dad at Costco today. When I commented that I saw his DD had reached $12000 out of her $15000 goal, he actually boasted that they were raising the goal whenever the donations got close. And repeated that the insurance was paying 100% of the covered amount on both house and car. Grrrrrrr..
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zibazinski
Community Leader
Joined: Dec 24, 2010 16:12:50 GMT -5
Posts: 47,912
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Post by zibazinski on Jan 6, 2016 22:16:24 GMT -5
You can let Go Fund Me know about this fraud. Others might be interested as well.
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taz157
Senior Associate
Joined: Dec 20, 2010 20:50:06 GMT -5
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Post by taz157 on Jan 6, 2016 22:19:02 GMT -5
You can let Go Fund Me know about this fraud. Others might be interested as well. Yeah that!
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