These Surfside condo owners survived a harrowing disaster. Now they're forced to battle big insurers.

Sudiksha Kochi and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAY
·2 min read

SURFSIDE, Fla. — The walls of unit 303 told Jay Miller's story.

A rare carved head from the Solomon Islands believed to offer supernatural protection. A bronze statue from Greek mythology. A hand-knotted Indian carpet.

The trinkets and relics encapsulated Miller's memories of a life teaching in the South Pacific, Southeast Asia and Europe. He had placed each one methodicallythroughout his two-bedroom condo next to inherited family heirlooms and photos of his daughter.

All of it disappeared on June 24 when the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people and crumbling everything to pieces.

Now Miller, like some other survivors whose homes were destroyed that day, is struggling to get an insurance payout to replace what was lost in one of the largest building disasters in U.S. history.

More for subscribers: Homes destroyed. Neighbors perished. Now, Surfside survivors face insurance companies.

Some insurance companies have delayed payments or routed them to third parties. At least one – State Farm – has yet to decide if it will issue payments to Miller and possibly others.

Documents provided by USA TODAY show State Farm won't decide whether to pay until the cause of the collapse is determined – a process investigators say could take months if not years.

Authorities in Surfside, Florida, said this week they had identified the last missing person from the partial collapse of a residential condo building that killed 98 people last month.
Authorities in Surfside, Florida, said this week they had identified the last missing person from the partial collapse of a residential condo building that killed 98 people last month.

State Farm confirmed in a statement that it does not move forward with payments without the cause. The company did not answer questions about how many other Champlain Towers South residents it insures and whether they’re also awaiting payments.

It’s not an isolated situation, said Michael Capponi, the founder of Global Empowerment Mission, a Miami-based nonprofit that is working to rehouse survivors in new condos by covering a full year's rent.

"I know many people are waiting for the money from settlements and insurance to come in, but what are they going to do in the meantime?" said Capponi. "The things survivors face are just horrible."

The 12-story condominium that partially collapsed early June 24 in Surfside, Fla.
The 12-story condominium that partially collapsed early June 24 in Surfside, Fla.

The payouts from individual policies are especially important since the policy that covered the replacement cost of the building itself is woefully inadequate. There’s only $48 million available from Champlain Towers South’s policy, according to a judge in a recent court case stemming from the disaster. The price tag for the loss, by contrast, is estimated at close to $1 billion.

At least one insurance company, Universal Property and Casualty Insurance, has already begun disbursing the maximum policy payouts for Surfside collapse survivors. But even that process has seen problems.

Universal insured 42 units at Champlain Towers for repairs or personal-property loss, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.

Steve Rosenthal, who escaped the collapse with little but the clothes he was wearing, said it took him weeks to get one of his payments after the company sent it to his mortgage company.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida condo collapse survivors now reckon with hesitant big insurers