Home sweet “shed” for family whose insurance company is insolvent

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Some people are just now settling in to their newly repaired or rebuilt homes that were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes.

Others still feel they are at square one because their insurance company hasn’t paid.

Jackie and Chris Hebert expected their insurance to pay promptly and that they’d quickly get back to life as they knew it. Then, just before they were to get a check for $200,000 to repair hurricane damage to their home, their insurer, Lighthouse Excalibur, became insolvent.

“Right now, it feels hopeless because we don’t have a timeline we’re waiting on for money, once we have our money, we can start putting our lives back together,” Jackie said.

Due to still waiting on insurance money, they have been living in what they call a shed in their backyard. The kids use chairs and a futon for bed.

Jackie said the tiny 320 square foot building is too tiny and crowded for five people.

“We don’t have our privacy. So, we don’t have a way to escape when we need to, to get time to decompress,” she said.

While they have hired an attorney, they said they are now at the mercy of LIGA, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association.

“We can’t depend on the insurance company, we can’t depend on LIGA. Even though we had insurance I feel like we’re on our own,” Jackie said.

She said LIGA is supposed to come to the rescue in cases like this.

“I want our story to be shared so that some kind of reform for insurance in Louisiana needs to happen. Insurance companies shouldn’t be able to go bankrupt and have no repercussions,” Jackie said.

7News reached out to LIGA for comment but have not yet heard back.

A letter written by Jackie explaining her families story can be read in it’s entirety below.

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