My name is Pat Strickland. I’m 79, and my husband Ted is 77. On December 15, 2022, a sudden house fire forced us to flee our home.
We were grateful to survive—and believed our insurance would rebuild our home. We had a $1 million policy and thought we’d be back within months. After all, my husband has been with State Farm since he completed his Air Force active duty in 1972.
More than three years later, our home is still uninhabitable.
State Farm stopped paying for reconstruction in 2023, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars remaining on our policy. Our house now sits unfinished—with no ceilings, walls, floors, or essential fixtures in many rooms. It is also filled with packed boxes of our belongings that we could no longer pay storage for.
Shortly after the fire, we were placed in a $4,500/month 1950's rental home, (San Francisco Bay Area), plus furniture rental costs of nearly $600/month. We later discovered insurance only covered this for two years. By the time we learned, it was too late to move as I had lost my job, at age 76, and our entire retirement savings has now been drained just trying to keep a roof over our heads. And we still do not understand why our insurance company has failed us.
We’ve also lost over 1,800 personal belongings—many irreplaceable family items—discarded during cleanup without our knowledge, with only minimal compensation offered.
On top of everything, we are both facing serious health challenges. I’ve undergone major surgery and developed heart issues, and my husband recently suffered a pulmonary embolism. The stress has been overwhelming.
We have tried loans through a HELOC or HEA program but were turned down, because we must be living in our home to qualify. We have enough funds left for one more month on our rental house and furniture.
We cannot afford a legal battle with the insurance company. Instead, we are pursuing a professional appraisal process that should release the funds needed to finish our home—but we don’t have the money to pay the licensed appraiser's hourly fees, (half the cost of an attorney's), and complete all evidentiary work to prepare him for the appraisal process.
We are asking for $200,000 to:
Complete the appraisal process
Restart rebuilding our home to the point we could move in with utilities and minimal furniture
Cover moving, storage, and basic living costs in the interim
After a lifetime of working and saving, we are now facing financial ruin through no fault of our own.
Our goal is simple: to return home.
Any donation or share means the world to us. Thank you for helping us rebuild our lives.
— Pat & Ted Strickland