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property held hostage by restoration co.

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K

KathiMI1

Guest
I'm here in Michigan, ready to scream. I had a fire 2 months ago. I called a local franchise of a national restoration co. on the advice of the insur. adj. Serv*** wanted me to sign over rights to sign checks, etc. and I refused. I also edited the contract so that they could not just do the work without my approval. They cleaned out my house... wet books, mildewed silk ties, plastic drinking glasses... even kitchen appliances! I tried to stop them but they said the insurance co. had a right to evaluate the items and that I would not be charged for items that were ultimately claimed.

I told them I wanted a list of costs to "service" my items because if the cost to service them was more than the value of my items, I didn't want to incur the cost. They drycleaned everything (even rags) to the tune of $6000. I tried to fire them and they racked up a bill totaling $23,000. Insurance co. says I need to sign the check to pay them now and fight later so I can put together my claim. When I finally agreed to sign the check, Serv*** now says they won't give me my property until I sign a release so I can't sue them. I don't know what to do. They won't let me even see my things without charging me. When I said I might have to do that, they charged an upfront $400 for thinking about it.

Does anyone have words of wisdom? Attornies don't want to touch it because it's a lot of work for little return. The insur. adj is too busy to care. I hired a public adj. but the more money paid out, the more the public adj. makes.
 


K

KathiMI1

Guest
update on hostage situation

Thought I'd give an update to the original posting in case someone can help...

I contacted Michigan's Attorney General and was told to file a complaint. I did, but received a generic letter saying unless my problem was shared by others, Attorney General didn't get involved.

I contacted the franchise headquarters and filed a complaint. They're supposedly looking into it.

I called my public adjuster and requested we view the items onsite to establish damages before the items are removed. We went through drycleaning and found that about 50% of the clothes was claimable, and the other 50% was incorrectly billed. We haven't gone through furniture yet.

At this point, I'm being told I have to pay an attorney to go after these people, and I'd be lucky to recover legal costs. Is this true? I spoke with one attorney over the phone who tossed around "fraud" but isn't that incredibly hard to prove?
 

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