My name is Michael. My husband Austin, our son Cypher, and I are reaching out because we have nowhere else to turn. We are a loving family who poured our dreams into a new home, only to have it ripped away—first by fire, and then by the very people supposed to help us. We thought we were insured and protected, but instead, we are being pushed to the brink of financial ruin.

On July 22, 2025, just five weeks after moving into our new home, my family, including our toddler, lost our home to a house fire. We thought the fire was the worst part, but we were wrong. The nightmare we have endured since at the hands of our insurance company and their contracted vendors has been far more traumatizing than the fire itself.

From day one, we were abandoned. The initial adjuster refused to answer calls and left us to find our own housing with a toddler and pets in tow. When a restoration company finally arrived to "salvage" our belongings, they treated our life’s possessions like trash. They threw items down the stairs, smoked inside the warehouse on top of our things, and mixed our toddlers clothing and other personal belongings with rotting food.

When we tried to inventory our loss, we caught the restoration company employees picking through our belongings to keep for themselves. Even worse, we later discovered this company was selling our "non-salvageable" items on Facebook Marketplace for profit. When we reported this theft to the insurance company, they told us the items were "abandoned" and refused to help and defended this company.

The damage to our home went deeper than the surface. While our independent structural engineer confirmed that the fire caused major foundation failure, leaving the house leaning and dangerous, the insurance company’s engineer claimed it was a "pre-existing condition." We bought the house 5 weeks prior and everything was fine until a few weeks after the fire, but that is just a coincidence. They are denying the part of the claim to fix the foundation, which requires lifting the entire house, meaning we can’t fix it.

The insurance company has now advised that all additional living expense coverage will end at the end of September 2026 regardless if we have a house to move back into. They are stopping our rental payments, they have denied mediation, and are forcing us into expensive litigation. We are left with a burnt, structurally unsound house that we cannot repair and cannot sell for enough to cover the mortgage.

How You Can Help: We are facing homelessness, bankruptcy, and all the joys of financial ruin despite having Insurance coverage precisely for worst case scenarios like this. We are raising funds to cover:

• Rebuilding Our Home: Funds to complete the necessary work that the insurance company has deemed “pre-existing”. Since insurance has denied these massive expenses, we need help to make the structure safe and habitable again so we aren't forced to sell it as a total loss.

• Legal fees to fight the insurance company’s denial.

• Housing costs for our family and toddler once insurance cuts us off.

• Basic necessities to replace our belongings that were destroyed or mishandled.

Insurance is supposed to protect families, but ours has left us behind. Any donation, no matter how small, helps us fight for our home and our future. We are sharing this story because we don't know what else to do. Please share this. Don't let them do this in the dark.