In this eye-opening and emotionally charged episode of Happy Hour Holidaze, hosts Manny Febre and Sean Febre sit down with Florida homeowner and social influencer Brittany Galvin to explore her harrowing journey of navigating the tangled web of insurance claims after Hurricane Helene devastated her home. This candid and raw conversation sheds light on the emotional, financial, and logistical nightmares that homeowners face when natural disasters strike, even when they believe they are fully insured.
Brittany shares her firsthand experience of how her family's dream home, located in Tampa Bay's flood-prone intercoastal area, was severely damaged by two back-to-back hurricanes—Helene and Milton. Despite having both flood and homeowner's insurance, Brittany quickly learned that the process of filing claims and receiving assistance was far from straightforward. From being told to contact FEMA in the middle of the night to facing endless hold times and minimal support, Brittany exposes the gaps and inefficiencies in disaster response systems. Her story isn't just personal—it's a wake-up call for anyone living in high-risk disaster areas like Florida, North Carolina, and California.
The episode dives deep into Brittany's struggles dealing with insurance giants like Universal and flood insurers like Bankers. She reveals the harsh realities of dealing with insurance adjusters, the importance of hiring a public adjuster, and the tactics companies use to delay or deny claims. Brittany shares how her proactive decision to hire a public adjuster early helped her in some ways, but also led to frustrations with their limited impact. She bravely discusses how FEMA's minimal aid left her family to fend for themselves, even after suffering catastrophic losses estimated at over $500,000.
Listeners will gain invaluable insights into how disaster insurance truly works—or fails to work. Brittany reveals practical tips and hard-learned lessons, like why homeowners should document their belongings with serial numbers, the critical importance of immediate mold remediation, and how to strategically navigate insurance policies to avoid denial of claims. She even shares how homeowners can protect outdoor structures and mitigate future damage through better property planning.
The conversation expands beyond Brittany's personal experience to highlight systemic issues within the insurance industry. Manny, Sean, and Brittany discuss the broader implications of living in disaster-prone areas and how recent legislative changes in Florida impact homeowners—including the controversial 50% rule that forces homeowners to elevate or demolish their properties if damages exceed half the value of their dwelling. They compare the performance of major insurance providers like Citizens and Universal, shedding light on the disparities in how claims are handled and paid out.
Brittany also shares how she used her social media presence to rally community support, raise funds, and provide aid to neighbors who were equally devastated. Her resilience shines as she recounts cooking meals for displaced families and organizing volunteer efforts—all while fighting for her own family's survival. Her dedication to turning personal tragedy into community strength is both inspiring and humbling.
In a striking moment of vulnerability, Brittany opens up about the mental and emotional toll of battling insurance companies, ultimately leading her family to sell their damaged home as-is and start fresh. She candidly discusses how the experience has permanently changed her perspective on homeownership near water and her future plans to create a comprehensive guide for disaster survivors—a resource she wishes she had during her ordeal.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Manny Febre (00:00):
Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, your go-to
podcast for business,entrepreneurship and life
stories.
I'm your co-host every singleweek.
Manny Fabre, we got Sean Fabre,my co-host, and in studio today
we got Brittany Galvin.
Social influencer, does it all.
She's a hustler, a mega hustler, and we're looking at what's
(00:22):
going on in California now withthe wildfire and everything that
they're about to go through.
And we in Florida went throughthe hurricanes not only Florida,
but many other states wentthrough this two hurricanes that
were very vicious and youreally don't know how to start
once that hurricane has hit yourhouse.
And Brittany went through thewhole process and she's going to
(00:43):
fill in.
Kind of, give us a little tipsand tricks or secrets on how to
really battle these insurancecompanies and get what you
deserve.
So, brittany, how did thatwhole situation come down to you
having to really battle theinsurance companies?
Or let's just start from whereyou would think would be the
most helpful for aninexperienced homeowner who, you
(01:04):
know, feels like oh, I haveinsurance, everything's going to
be okay.
Well, it's not that easy.
Brittany Galvin (01:09):
Yeah, um, and thanks for having me, guys again
.
Manny Febre (01:12):
Yeah, absolutely Nice to be back so and
unfortunate circumstances.
Brittany Galvin (01:15):
but, um, you know, I guess we could just
start from the fact that, likeI'm we we talked about I'm born
and raised here, have a home.
Like, I've always had insurancebecause my husband's um, you
guys know my husband it was hisdream to live on the water, so
we purchased this home and, ofcourse, we pay a significant
amount for flood insurance inaddition to homeowner's
insurance.
So, when you live anywhere in aflood zone our zone was a which
(01:39):
is like the worst you can getin Florida Um, you have to pay a
significant amount because,should you ever have something,
you know, a hurricane or stormsurge, which is the lesser of
the two, that what you think youwould.
You kind of sit back and you'relike, okay, I have homeowners
and flood, I pay a ridiculousamount, but if anything ever
happens, everything here iscovered and I'm unfortunately
(02:00):
learning that it's not that cutand dry and it's not that easy.
Manny Febre (02:04):
I think the crazy thing too, Britt, is that a lot
of people didn't expect Heleneto have any effects on us really
, because it was so far away.
Brittany Galvin (02:12):
Yeah.
Manny Febre (02:13):
And that one was the one that actually did the
most damage to everybody.
Brittany Galvin (02:16):
Yeah, helene brought in.
In my neighborhood alone thereare 960 homes and we live in the
Bay.
So people who are watching thisthat aren't in Tampa you have.
You know everyone thinks it'sjust the coast, clear water,
treasure Island, st Pete.
But realistically, if you havelittle like bays, if you have
little you know avenues that goin to like intercoastal, yeah
(02:37):
like intercoastal.
That's what the word I'mlooking for.
The water goes in there and hasnowhere to go.
At least, at least I just toldyou not to say at least.
Before we started this.
I just told him not to say atleast, but at least.
Like on the coast, the water,you know it's the waves and
you've got titles and this andthat, but the water doesn't get
stuck.
When it goes into theintercoastals and you've got
(02:57):
just wind and hurricane pushingon it, that water literally has
nowhere to go but up.
So for us, our neighborhood,the 960 homes, every single one
of them flooded.
The least amount was six inchesand that was in the very center
of the neighborhood.
That was in what they call likenew Baycrest.
So they were built 30 yearsafter our home.
I have a 5.1 elevation.
(03:18):
I think legally now to build ahouse it has to be like 12 feet.
Yeah, 12 feet, so I was like wayunder what the legal amount and
coded amount was Gosh, sorry, Ikeep hitting that.
So the water came in and we gotanywhere from the six inches to
five and a half feet in ourhomes.
So our home specifically had 24inches was the minimum in the
(03:39):
front of the home, it was 24inches, on the back it was five
and a half feet.
So we got a significant amountof water in the home.
And so, you know, although Iwas losing it, we were home when
it happened and although,although I was losing everything
, like in my mind, I was like,okay, we have insurance for this
, like we're going to be okay.
I was trying to be positive,like we're going to be.
I was actually laughing, likewhen not laughing because I was
(04:01):
probably some kind of hysteriahappening but during the storm I
was like we're going to be fine, we have insurance, I'm going
to call insurance.
Actually, 3 o'clock that morningI messaged my insurance agent
and I was like our house justflooded.
We had escaped, we got rescuedand left, but I was like our
house is underwater, so what doI do?
And she immediately told mecontact FEMA, which later I
(04:27):
found out you couldn't do at thetime, which we'll explain,
contact your homeowners andcontact your flood.
So I did.
I went online and I did a claimfor all three of them at three
o'clock in the morning and I wasexpecting to get a phone call
like the next morning, and itdidn't happen that way at all.
Manny Febre (04:43):
Do you think it was just because of the abundance
of claims that were coming in atthe same time?
I mean, I feel like noteverybody jumped on it like you
did at 3 in the morning, but Ifelt like maybe that morning
people were starting to call.
Sean Febre (04:54):
Or did FEMA just not give a fuck?
Brittany Galvin (04:57):
I feel it depends on what you think I mean
.
Some call me a conspiracytheorist.
Sean Febre (05:01):
I mean we can look at North Carolina, and in North
Carolina FEMA gave whateverybody like 750 bucks and say
, hey, good luck.
And then not only that, though,California wildfires that are
going on right now.
Joe Biden just signed somethingthat I gave him $770.
You lose your entire home.
They'll send billions over toUkraine, but as soon as
something happens heredomestically, FEMA is
(05:23):
unavailable.
All funds ran out.
And FEMA actually redirectedfunds to help illegal immigrants
.
If I'm not mistaken, they did.
Brittany Galvin (05:30):
Yeah, and they put them up in places.
I don't think FEMA gives a fuckunder this administration.
When they gave us the $750, itwas, I remember, because we're
kind of going off track here,but it was during the second
storm, it was October 9th orOctober 10th that it hit my bank
account the $750.
, and I just like laughed at it.
I was like I should just donatethis to a bum because what is
(05:51):
that going to do for?
Me, but I think they don't givea fuck.
I truly think they don't.
Sean Febre (05:57):
I think that they are so At least with this
current administration.
Brittany Galvin (06:00):
They are so backwards, they are not put
together and it's kind of likeyou know, we talked about the
vaccine injury stuff with me andwe talked about VAERS being so
unorganized and everybody thinksyou have protections to report
something and they're going tolearn from it and save you.
People think that about FEMAand I'm telling they don't have
their shit together at all.
It's five and a half plus hours, six hours, to even get
(06:23):
somebody on the phone and thenwhen you get them, if you get
them on the phone that day, somepeople are on hold forever and
if you even get them on thephone, you spend 30 seconds on
the phone with them and theycan't answer anything and you
get off the phone.
It was the most asinine thingever, like I'm actually lucky
that I even got in touch withFEMA.
Still to this day, fema hasn'tpaid more than $6,000 for me.
(06:45):
We lost like over three $400,000minimum.
Our first claim was 260 for thehomeowners and the flood
insurance was about 250.
So actually I didn't even addthat up yet, it's like 500 grand
.
Sean Febre (06:58):
So so, if I'm not mistaken, you also hired a
public adjuster.
Yeah, and did they actuallyhelp?
Yeah, so we could actually help.
Brittany Galvin (07:05):
Yeah, so we can back up to that now.
So I called at three in themorning all of the insurance
companies and I realized veryquickly I think I just thought
to myself I'm so used to beingscrewed over by the government
that I was like this isn't goingto go my way.
So I immediately called mycousin, who's a home builder
down in Cape Coral.
They went through Hurricane Iana couple of years ago and I was
like I need a public adjuster,or I didn't even know what it
(07:28):
was called.
I was like what's that thing,that person that like fights for
you, yeah, and she's like it'sa public adjuster, I'm like, no,
I need a private adjuster.
She's like no it's called apublic adjuster.
And so I did.
I immediately called who shetold me to call.
He drove over from the othercoast that morning.
He was there on day two of thehurricane with his team.
(07:49):
So all my neighbors at thispoint are like why are you
hiring a public adjuster?
You have to give up 10% of yourclaim.
And I'm like, and you're goingto get 50% less than me, you
know.
So to give up that 10%, I'mgoing to fight it from the very
beginning.
We could talk about later on,like how there are pros and cons
to what I did versus what theydid, but I still think that
(08:10):
having them from the verybeginning has worked in my favor
, because I haven't necessarilytold all my neighbors but we for
the longest time we didn't getany money and now we've gotten
more than they have, at leastsome of them, most of them.
Some have gotten way more thanme, but we've gotten further.
So the next day we hired thepublic adjuster.
He came with a team.
All my neighbors were like whyare you moving your belongings
(08:30):
out into the street?
It looked like do you rememberhurricane ian, how the streets
were just lined with stuff.
That's what our neighborhoodlike was starting to look like I
saw it, but my, yeah, I mean Idrove past it, like me and my
wife.
Manny Febre (08:41):
We drove past it like probably a week after and
we're like it looks like a warzone like it truly did, and then
a week later it was.
Sean Febre (08:47):
It was completely 10 times worse.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know, butI'm saying like then milton
comes and now you have all thatflying debris yeah so.
Brittany Galvin (08:55):
but my neighbors were asking me like
why are you moving all thisstuff out?
Why are you doing this?
We started cutting out thewalls, drying the walls.
I I think we spent.
We had a $33,000 bill forremediation, but I think 10,000
of it was the first hurricane,so we had this team come out
that the public adjuster hiredand they had fans and
dehumidifiers and nobody in myneighborhood had that yet my
(09:17):
neighborhood.
And so they all thought I wascrazy.
They're like what are you doing?
I'm like I'm getting ahead ofthe game because your insurance
company is going to come outhere.
They're not going to cover moldand you're going to get mold if
you keep your walls up, becausenobody knows this.
But mold isn't covered in yourinsurance policy unless you pay
extra for it and it's notcovered if you didn't remediate
in time.
So all these people werewaiting like, well, we don't
(09:37):
know what we're going to do.
We're going to wait oninsurance.
I'm like, bitch, you betterfucking get those walls down
because if you get mold, they'renot going to cover it.
We ended up getting mold and wewere the first ones on our
street to take our walls out.
We had eight types of mold, butthen so we're drying out, right
, we're going through all this.
In the meantime, insurance hadstill not come out.
Two weeks goes by that wasSeptember 26th.
(10:00):
October 9th was the secondstorm.
Insurance had still not comeout.
Sean Febre (10:07):
So our flood flood insurance had still not come out
, homeowners did what do youmean come?
Brittany Galvin (10:09):
out.
They have to come to yourproperty.
Sean Febre (10:11):
Oh, like an inspector yeah.
Brittany Galvin (10:13):
Because they can't just take your word for it
.
They can't just come and takephotos of your home Like you
can't take your photos.
Sean Febre (10:18):
So an insurance adjuster hadn't come out yet
Right.
My public adjuster had but theinsurance adjuster, the adjuster
that works for the insurancecompany, had not come out yet.
Brittany Galvin (10:28):
Correct.
So this was a flood.
So a lot of people were onsocial media.
You probably saw people sayinglike giving advice oh, don't say
flood, say water.
That's actually inaccurate.
When it's a storm surge, youwant to say flood.
You have to say flood becausethe storm surge is what ruined
your house.
Milton is the one that broughtwind.
Helene didn't have wind, if youguys remember that.
(10:50):
I mean, for some parts of thesuburbs, milton had issues and
Helene had issues, but when itcame to wind but Helene, for us
it was all water.
In fact I was filming the wholething and I think it only
rained like twice.
I think there was probably onlylike two rainstorms during that
hurricane.
Manny Febre (11:05):
The Haleen one, yeah, it was all water.
Sean Febre (11:08):
Milton was wild in my neighborhood.
Brittany Galvin (11:10):
Yeah, milton was crazy.
Well, so the flood insurance isthe one that hadn't come out,
so they didn't look at any ofthe damage.
The homeowners came out, andthis is where the corruption
started.
Manny Febre (11:22):
It's flood, it's not.
Brittany Galvin (11:23):
And listen, I've got nothing against you if
you're a gay guy, so take my,take my next comment to light.
But this guy was like a 23 yearold gay guy parading around
with his iPad yeah, I'm going totake pictures of everything,
don't you worry, don't you worry.
And he's like there are peopleout there who have horrible
claims and they're fake.
And he was just going on and onlike shit, talking all of these
(11:45):
homeowners in front of me, andhere I am with a destroyed home
and he's like up on my roof andhe's like tapping the roof with
his foot.
He's like your roof is good.
No-transcript, you can't getcovered.
(12:15):
So good luck being a homeowner,right?
Unless you pay cash and don'tcover it.
Sean Febre (12:20):
I'm just curious which insurance company did you
have Universal?
Okay, you didn't have citizens.
Brittany Galvin (12:25):
No citizens has actually been paying people out
pretty well.
Sean Febre (12:28):
Cause.
I mean I had a hailstorm happenat my house.
Citizens came out, boom,replaced the roof, like in two
months.
Brittany Galvin (12:34):
Yeah, citizens has been doing really good for
my neighbors Universal, everyneighbor that has universal
screw.
Sean Febre (12:41):
There's a, I think, a law passed within the state of
florida that every home has tobe insured, regardless of the
individual and their insuranceclaims.
My insurance actually went downwhen I got my roof replaced.
Brittany Galvin (12:53):
Yeah, it does, yeah and now it used to be I
think it used to be that yourroof had to be replaced within
10 years of selling a home.
Now it's like four years.
I think, which you would knowthat more than me.
It's like four years, I think,which you would know that more
than me.
It's like four or five years,something like that.
They changed the law, so theroofs actually do bring the
claims down, but Was your roofgood though?
(13:13):
It was good in the beginning.
It was good after publicadjuster say public adjuster
said do what the what universalsays Cause, if you know, in the
beginning he was like do whatthey say, because we're not
worried about them.
Because, if you know, in thebeginning he was like do what
they say because we're notworried about them, we're just
worried about flood.
You, you legit, don't havedamage from wind.
A tree didn't fall on your home, your windows aren't blown out.
You flooded, so we need to goafter the flood insurance
(13:37):
company.
He's like so do what they say,so that you don't have two
claims.
And if it helps you in thefuture, I was like okay, so I
called to retract it.
Here's some of the corruption.
And they were like well, youknow, you won't get FEMA help if
you retract the claim.
I said what do you mean?
And they said you need to showa denial.
You cannot get FEMA if you areinsured and don't have a denial.
(13:58):
So I had to call this guy backChristian, christian Alessandro
was his name and I was like dude, I need, I can't retract it, I
need a denial.
He's like well, I can dosomething better for you, I can
deny it.
Based on that, you had nodamage and it's basically like a
retraction.
And I was so like in the midstof it.
I didn't really understand whathe was saying, but he spoke to
(14:21):
my public adjuster.
My public adjuster evenbelieved him that he had good
intentions.
Fema never helped to begin with, so I should have just
retracted it in total, but Iallowed them to send me a denial
stating that there was nodamage whatsoever from the wind,
which is going to help me inthe future.
So it's fine now at this point.
(14:41):
But fast forward to October 9th.
Milton came.
House was completely dry beforeMilton came.
All the dehumidifiers had beentaken out.
House was ready to beremediated.
It probably would have cost Idon't know a hundred grand or so
to put the house back together.
And Milton lifted the roof inmy closet on the entire back.
(15:02):
Second story Water came in fromthe entire side of the house.
Sean Febre (15:07):
I want to bash the public adjuster here, but it
kind of seems like you may havehired a public adjuster that
didn't know what they were doing.
Brittany Galvin (15:14):
Yeah, and these guys have really really good
experience.
But one of the things-.
Sean Febre (15:18):
And that's why you got to call Daryl James.
He's a former guest on our showwho was a public adjuster.
Yeah, call him, don't call myguy.
Brittany Galvin (15:27):
No, if my guy sees this, sorry, but he knows
I've actually yelled at themquite a bit.
Sorry, I keep kicking you.
Sean Febre (15:36):
So where were we?
Roof lifted off by your closetHurricane Milton.
Brittany Galvin (15:40):
So the roof lifted.
It didn't come completely off,it just lifted enough for water
to come through it.
During the storm we had 110mile an hour winds, um, no
flooding from the bottom, but itcame in the windows, it cracked
the foundation, it came inthrough the roof, came in
through my closet on the secondstory, so therefore it then went
in.
Between the first and thesecond story there's about this,
much of um flashings and whatdo they call them?
(16:03):
Faucet, the thingies that gothis way that you run air
conditioning through.
Manny Febre (16:08):
HVAC.
Brittany Galvin (16:10):
No, it's like in between the first and second
story.
It's just the thickness.
Manny Febre (16:12):
Yeah, okay.
Brittany Galvin (16:13):
So the water came in through there.
The soffits, I thinkSubflooring.
Sean Febre (16:17):
Subflooring okay.
Brittany Galvin (16:19):
It came through there and then it spread.
So now our entire ceiling onthe first floor was soaked,
water's dripping down, and weevacuated for the second one,
because the first one I was justso traumatized by.
So we go back in two days afterthe second storm and, uh, bless
you.
Sean Febre (16:39):
Oh, thanks, though it was a nice cough.
Manny Febre (16:42):
My coughs are very excruciating.
Brittany Galvin (16:45):
We came in and we're like, oh my God, so this
one is not.
I had to call Universal againbecause this was a wind claim.
So I put in another claim toUniversal.
Two weeks later I find out thatthey assigned me the same dude.
Christian Alessandro Guy comesout with his iPad a month after
that.
So, like by this time, by theway, flood had still not been
(17:09):
out to my house, like they stillhad not come to see the damage.
So now I'm thinking to myselfwhat's going to happen with
flood?
Are they going to deny meBecause now the second hurricane
hit and now I have a thirdclaim, and are they all just
going to fight with each other?
In the meantime, we have carsburning in our neighborhood.
The house across the streetburns down, like several houses,
(17:29):
a couple of streets, like thehouse.
Literally my neighbor's houseburned down.
Sean Febre (17:32):
Why did it burn down ?
Brittany Galvin (17:33):
Because when you have saltwater, this was
what they call category threeflood.
So category three flood is verydifferent than just like a
clear water beach flood, becauseit's in the bay and you have
saltwater, you have feces, youhave toxins, it's like boil,
it's all.
They call it black water.
So if you ever heard the termcategory three water black water
(17:53):
anything it touches has to go.
You cannot salvage it.
And so I was like what's goingto happen now with all of these
claims?
Are they just going to denyeverything?
And that's exactly where we'reat.
I mean, we'll fast forward tothat, but that's.
I'm being denied and they'refighting with each other, and
the flood insurance didn't getout there in time.
Manny Febre (18:17):
So and you got the same guy who came back out.
Brittany Galvin (18:20):
Yeah, and so the same guy gets back on the
roof with his same iPad makinghis same damn jokes about all
the homeowners and by this timeevery neighbor of mine is
homeless.
I'm cooking fucking hot dogs inmy front yard to feed people
because there were norestaurants around that.
They were all flooded.
The Chili's was flooded.
All the restaurants wereflooded.
The bars we went to wereflooded.
There was no hot food anywhere.
(18:42):
You could go inland, you couldgo over here, kerwood, or you
know Land O'Lakes or something,but we were all busy like trying
to clean our homes out day inand day out.
I had black water all over meevery day.
I wasn't going to drive 20minutes to get a lunch at
Hooters, you know.
So we, we actually I used mysocial media.
I love Hooters, but I lovemyself, but I use my social
(19:04):
media to raise money and I thinkwe raised about three or $4,000
and bought a bunch of food.
I got a bunch of people todonate and come in.
They donated their time to help.
Like, take that, we have theelderly, the sick, the people
who couldn't move their shit outof their house, they couldn't
take down the walls.
So you've got people coming inlike helping them cut walls, cut
drywall, pull, you know,dressers and beds out, and I'm
(19:27):
cooking them food every daywhile I'm going through this
myself.
So that's what we were goingthrough for a couple of weeks
and floods still hadn't come outand Christian Alessandro is up
there making jokes on my secondstory about how now I have
damage.
He's like oh, now you have, youhave tons of damage, you're
going to get, girl, you're goingto be fine.
Now, you're going to be, you'regoing to be approved.
Now FEMA still didn't do shit.
(19:48):
I applied for FEMA again, stilldenied on the first, denied now
on the second.
Deny, deny, deny, deny, likeall the way down.
Um, this is when I got my $750,though.
Manny Febre (19:58):
When we get back, we'll.
We'll keep going on the story.
Thank you for tuning in.
This is good.
Uh, make sure you like, commentand subscribe on all our social
media platforms.
We'll be right back withBrittany Galvin.
All right, guys, and we're backto happy hour, holidays.
And we're here with BrittanyGalvin, and we were just at the
point where this guy is standingon top of the roof now saying
that there's damage.
(20:18):
Yeah, so now what happens?
Britt?
Brittany Galvin (20:20):
So he tells us you know, now you have damage,
you didn't have it before,Remember tapping his foot.
And he's like so you do your,this is going to be smooth for
you.
And he tells my public adjuster, everything's fine.
Um, in the back of our minds,we know that flood still hasn't
been out.
So I'm like worried, um, thatwhatever he does is going to
mess with our flood becausethey're not going to overlap
(20:42):
rightfully.
So look, I'm not out theretrying to get money that you
know, extra money to go buymyself a Lamborghini or
something.
I only want what the damagesare and I want to rebuild.
This was my husband's dream home.
It's a great home.
We were never going to sell itIf we ever moved like our goals.
Our goal was to move toTennessee one day.
We were going to keep it as anAirbnb or rental and then
(21:03):
eventually come back, you know,and have it as investment
property.
So to us it was it was alwayssomething very special.
I just wanted enough to fix it.
And at this point I'm thinking,okay, he's saying we're good,
now this is good.
I went through so many fuckinghigh and lows, like one day I'd
be on my stories telling myfollowers.
He says we're going to be good.
(21:24):
I spoke to FEMA today, whateverit was, and then the next day
I'm like like, seriously, itjust all fell through.
So Christian Alessandro,sitting here telling us
everything's going to be great,which is he's from Universal,
he's directly from Universal.
So sometimes not to just to doa keynote here Sometimes your,
your adjuster from the insurancecompany doesn't actually work
for the insurance company, sothey hire third parties.
(21:46):
We were told after bothhurricanes I was told after both
hurricanes that they had to putout ads to hire over 500
adjusters and that's not FEMA.
Fema had ads for like 2000adjusters, so they were using
third parties to come in.
But the fact that Christianworked for Universal was
important to me and to my publicadjuster because he's like that
(22:08):
means he knows what he's doing.
The third party guys are guysthat they're hiring who don't
have jobs.
We're coming off the streetlike hasn't had a job for six
months, needs 23 bucks an hour,and he has no idea what he's
doing.
He's never done it before.
You know whatever.
So this guy we're like thinkingokay, we're good, um, and it
turns out what gosh, we waited,what was it?
(22:29):
What's today, the 14th?
Yeah, the 14th 14th of January,we got a denial from Universal.
We hadn't heard from them.
They wouldn't respond, Not tous, not to after Christian came
out, not to us, not to thepublic adjuster.
They wouldn't even answer ourcalls.
Nothing for months, like amonth and a half.
Maybe this was right beforeChristmas, December 23rd.
(22:53):
I want to say so.
Today's, the 14th December 23rdthe hurricane was October 9th,
December 23rd we finally got adenial letter from Universal.
They denied us outright, Saidthat For the roof or the flood.
For the.
Well, it wasn't just the roof,it's all the shit that came from
the roof being lifted.
You know you have eight typesof mold.
Now that our house had, thewhole ceilings had to be ripped
(23:15):
out the bottom.
So from the flood, helene, thebottom half, anything from like
four foot down, is what theywould cover.
So they actually don't coveryour.
These are just some tips andtricks.
They don't cover yourcountertops, your um, these are
just some tips and tricks.
They don't cover yourcountertops.
So if you ever get flooded andyou have to take out your
counters, your, your cabinets,save the fucking countertops,
cause they're not going to coverthem.
(23:35):
Anything that water did nottouch, they're not covering.
So we had saved all that.
The upper cabinets we hadn'tremoved.
The ceiling wasn't removed, theupper walls weren't removed.
None of the bathroom downstairswasn't removed because it was
terrazzo and it was tile.
So we were like, okay, that'sfine.
So after fast forward to Milton, all that came down $33,000 in
(23:58):
mold remediation, um, which wasfrom all that water being in
there.
You know, then all thatbathroom had to come down.
The walls upstairs now had tocome down, and my closet, the
wall had to come down.
The roof has to be replaced,the fencing was torn apart, the
pool cage was torn apart,anything that's connected to
your home by a bolt.
Another tip and trick alwaysconnect your shit by a bolt.
(24:19):
If you have a shed, put a slabunder it.
It'll be covered on insuranceif it's slab.
Sean Febre (24:25):
Because if it's not a permanent fixture, it's not
covered by insurance, correct?
Brittany Galvin (24:27):
So if your fence is permanently fixed to it
with like bolts, it'll getcovered.
Your pool cage, if it'spermanently fixed to the house,
it'll be covered.
So ours was supposed to becovered.
Complete denial.
All that's fucked up.
And he says or in the denialletter it says that the damage
was from the first hurricane,not the second, and that it's
covered under flood.
So now they're pointing fingersat my flood insurance company,
(24:52):
which is bankers.
They still hadn't even come tosee us.
Sean Febre (24:56):
So Universal is different than your flood
insurance company.
Yeah, it's a home insurance,really so?
No, home insurance companycovers flood as well.
Brittany Galvin (25:06):
I don't know if they do cover both, but you
have to have two separate ones.
Sean Febre (25:10):
Damn bro yeah.
Brittany Galvin (25:11):
So now Universal is denying it, saying
that it was the first hurricane.
Well, remember, we got a denialon the first hurricane because
they said there was no damage.
So what do you mean?
The damage is from the firsthurricane.
So I did what I do and I gotmouthy and I started talking
about it on social media a lot.
I was already talking about ita lot, but I started like really
(25:34):
calling out Where's your publicadjuster?
Sean Febre (25:36):
at this point I'm yelling at him a lot.
Brittany Galvin (25:41):
He's calling the insurance company.
But you know, a couple ofthings happened during that time
too, like during all this, thepublic at one point, the public
adjuster, the flood still hadn'tcome to see us.
They didn't come till a monthafter.
And I'm like calling up mypublic adjuster and I'm like
dude.
So we're backtracking now.
I'm like dude, all my neighborshave gotten some kind of
advanced check 30,000, 40,000,50,000.
(26:04):
One had gotten like 70,000.
We had nothing.
So even though I was the firstone remember the beginning of
the story, it was the first onewith my walls ripped down, it
was the first one with my claimout there we're the only ones
sitting there without rebuildingour house.
Literally day after day, thestreets are lined like it's a
war zone.
The shit is piled up five, sixfeet tall on all those streets
(26:25):
and our house is the only onethat absolutely nothing is being
done.
Streets and our house is theonly one that absolutely nothing
is being done.
I am, I am bringing incontractor after contractor.
I had probably 15 or 20 people.
I had come in and quote us.
Um, I was lining all that up onmy own.
I felt like I had to be doingsomething, but the public
adjuster was like well, I can'tget ahold of your flood
insurance.
I can't get ahold of them andat that point we weren't
(26:47):
approved for homeowners so itwasn't under that.
So I decided to call my floodor my, even though public
adjusters say homeowners are notallowed to talk to insurance
companies, if you hire us, Iwent rogue.
I was like fuck this.
So I called the insurancecompany and to prove your point,
I got 10 grand out of the umuniversal, out of the bankers,
(27:09):
out of the flood who hadn't evenseen us yet.
Because after telling the ladymy story, I just on her
voicemail every day.
At 5 am I was leaving hervoicemail and I was like I swear
my husband was like you'recrazy, you're gonna get.
like my public adjuster was likeplease, don't say anything
stupid please.
And I'm like what am I gonnasay?
That's untrue.
Like we're sitting here withouta home and we have three kids
(27:29):
in three different schools.
Like he's still having to work.
I'm getting paid to work, butmy job knows I'm not doing shit.
So it's only a matter of daysbefore I get fired and I'm just
like freaking out.
And so I got 10 grand out ofthem and they didn't.
So then I wanted to fire thembut I couldn't.
I'm glad I didn't now fastforward, but that kind of shit
(27:50):
happened a lot.
That happened a lot Like Icalled the insurance company
over and over and over again andwould get things out of them
that they the public adjusterclaimed that they couldn't get.
Sean Febre (28:00):
I think you may need a new career in public
adjustment.
Brittany Galvin (28:04):
Well, I actually it's funny you say that
I actually have like a goal.
I was telling all my likefollowers, um, that this time
next year I want to have somesort of guide built on, like how
to survive a disaster andlosing everything overnight,
like the how-to that nobodytells you, kind of like that
book of like, um, when you getpregnant, what was what's that?
(28:25):
That book that?
Sean Febre (28:26):
I've never had a kid , so every, every wife has it.
It's like the book um is forthe Pregnant whatever?
Brittany Galvin (28:31):
No, I don't know, Like all the things that
your mother didn't tell you.
Sean Febre (28:35):
Whatever you didn't read the baby book.
You didn't read the damn book.
Manny Febre (28:40):
I watched the YouTube videos.
Brittany Galvin (28:43):
What of the?
Manny Febre (28:43):
baby coming out.
Brittany Galvin (28:46):
But yeah, I want to have like a guide for
people of things that theydidn't tell you about, things
that you only find out whenyou're going through it.
And the problem is through thiswhole process is everybody has
an expectation that things areso black and white.
They have an expectation youhave insurance, you're going to
have coverage.
You call this person, you'regoing to get an answer.
You take these steps, you'regoing to get your money.
(29:09):
Maybe it's not what you want,but you're going to and that is
not at all how any of it worksyou FEMA we haven't even gotten
to fucking FEMA yet.
They are a whole nother world.
Sean Febre (29:18):
So the real question is was it worth it buying a
house on the intercoastal inTampa Bay?
Brittany Galvin (29:23):
Absolutely not.
No no, I'll never do it again.
We're actually moving away fromit.
We're going to find water.
We're compromising, my husbandand I.
We're going to find water, butit's going to be like a
spring-fed ski lake, where thehouse is built up a little
higher, even though lakes don'trise If it rains, let's just say
the world is ending and it'sgoing to rain.
Sean Febre (29:42):
Who says lakes don't rise?
Brittany Galvin (29:43):
I mean they don't rise from a surge.
Sean Febre (29:45):
Oh okay, oh okay, well yeah yeah, they don't rise
from a rainfall?
Brittany Galvin (29:49):
they sure do yeah but you're an idiot if you
buy a lake house 10 feet fromthe lake.
You know?
We looked at a house like thatI know we're not buying that
fucking house.
Nope, my husband's over herehe's here, just you know
laughing at me um, but we'regonna compromise.
We're gonna find a, you know, ahouse that we can still have
(30:12):
water, but we're far enough awayfrom it and it's not gonna be
surgeable water, that's even aword yeah I will never live on
the coast ever again in my lifebecause the hurricanes don't
stop.
Manny Febre (30:20):
I mean, we had, we had one of the worst ones this
year or 2024, but it doesn'tmean next year can't be worse,
you know, oh yeah climate.
Sean Febre (30:27):
yeah, Climate change and all that nonsense.
Brittany Galvin (30:31):
Really You're going to go there, no, no, I was
making fun of them.
Sean Febre (30:34):
No, oh, okay, like this isn't climate change.
Brittany Galvin (30:37):
Look at the skies.
They're spraying so much shitit's only going to get worse.
Have you seen that?
Because I've seen a lot of it,it's only going to.
Sean Febre (30:45):
In the sky they are cloud seeding.
Manny Febre (30:47):
That is what they're doing.
Sean Febre (30:48):
I was driving back from Blue Ridge Mountains,
georgia, and I see about 10planes and my wife's like what's
that up there?
Is that a UFO?
I'm like no, that's just abunch of motherfucking planes
flying around cloud seeding andwe don't even know what
chemicals they're putting inthere.
First of all, who approved it?
Who approved it?
Because me, as a taxpayer, Ididn't approve that shit.
(31:09):
Did the state of Floridaapprove it?
Because Florida was also doingit.
My boy, ronnie D, you got tofigure that shit out, man.
Brittany Galvin (31:16):
Yeah, and they're well aware of it.
I mean states like Tennessee,and Texas banned it.
So if it's such a conspiracytheory, then why do we have
states actually banning?
Manny Febre (31:24):
it.
Brittany Galvin (31:24):
You know why is it a known thing?
It's a law that it's banned inTennessee.
Sean Febre (31:28):
Because Bill Gates is behind it.
Brittany Galvin (31:34):
You know so, and regardless who is behind it
and what, like buying a home onthe water when these storms are
just going to get worse andworse, they're bringing these
storms in these ways.
They can't control them oncethey start, and that's their
problem.
Manny Febre (31:42):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (31:42):
They start them , they cause them.
Yes, mother nature, if you'rewatching, you think I'm crazy.
Mother nature is there.
Is global warming.
Like is the earth warming up?
Yeah, but don't say that it'sfrom just a natural occurrence,
like we are feeding it.
How old was?
Sean Febre (31:58):
your house.
Brittany Galvin (31:59):
The house was built in 62, I think but we had
just dumped 160 grand into it.
Sean Febre (32:05):
Sure, sure, sure, sure, uh, the rest of the homes
on that street.
What was the average age ofthose?
Brittany Galvin (32:10):
homes, the same .
Sean Febre (32:11):
Yeah.
So now, like, what we get noware the building standards where
they're saying, hey, now theseintercoastal homes need to be
built on concrete stilts.
The first floor can't behabitable, it has to be the
second and third.
So I mean there's a lot of waysaround combating storm surge.
But I mean you said it yourself1962, right.
(32:32):
I mean that's quite a bit of anold house.
Brittany Galvin (32:33):
Yeah, I mean, and that's.
There's a lot like.
I don't know how much time wehave today.
We might have to end up doing apart two.
Sean Febre (32:38):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (32:38):
But I mean, there's a lot that we're going,
yeah, eight minutes.
Eight minutes.
That's all we have.
Oh, we're that I've learned inthis insurance nightmare.
You know one of the things I'lltalk.
You just brought it up, solet's talk about it for a minute
.
Fast forward to the fact thatwe didn't think we were going to
sell it.
So now we've sold the home,sold it.
(32:59):
I was like as is.
I got to the point where Icouldn't handle the trauma
anymore.
I couldn't handle every daywalking and seeing a broken
house fighting these insurancecompanies and seeing a broken
house fighting these insurancecompanies, like not knowing what
our future was going to hold,the ups and downs.
Because all of that aside, allthese people fixing their homes
right now are going to be fucked.
Manny Febre (33:16):
Yeah, if you're fixing it the same way.
I mean, it's not just that,it's not just that.
Brittany Galvin (33:21):
It's the 50% rule.
Oh yeah, our area was declaredwhen you talk about raising a
house.
Our area was declared, so ourneighborhood and some of the
areas around us were declared.
I forget what they call it likeemergency something, but based
on the county.
We all got letters on our doorand they were taped up on our
door.
People were walking around, thecounty was walking around
taping them up.
(33:41):
And it was saying that in ourneighborhood we have to abide by
the 50% rule.
So if you permit and if youhave enough damage that it is
more than 50 percent of yourdwelling.
So it's not 50 percent of whatthe house is worth.
Manny Febre (33:55):
It's not 50 percent of everything.
Brittany Galvin (33:57):
You have to tear it down or raise it up, and
it has to be raised 12 feet.
Guess what insurance doesn'tcover Raising your fucking house
, so it doesn't matter.
If you even get the money tofix it, then you've got to spend
400K.
If you're lucky you'll findsomeone for 200.
Let's just be conservative.
Then you have to lift yourhouse for 200 to 400K and you
have to pay for it, or tear itdown and rebuild.
(34:19):
Have you looked at the cost ofrebuilding a home today?
It's like 250.
Sean Febre (34:22):
190 a square.
Brittany Galvin (34:23):
Oh no, Tell me where you found that.
It's like 250 a square.
So good luck.
You know building another homeon the land, or you could do
where you make the first story.
You know a garage.
Manny Febre (34:37):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (34:37):
Build on the second, but I had a foundation
in it.
When I tell you I've hadeverybody come out because I was
like trying to get shit done, Ihad an engineer and a
foundation company come out andwhat they have to do is they
have to drill in to the cornersof your home, dig down deep and
pour it.
Yeah, that alone is anotherhundred plus grand.
So you have to do that in orderto build the foundation for it
(34:58):
to withstand the second story.
So I do have some neighborsthat are doing that.
The one that burned down isgetting a brand new house that
you know.
To our conversation earlier,her house burned down, the, at
least if you to throw an atleast out there, at least she's
going to have no fight withinsurance.
Manny Febre (35:12):
Yeah, cause it's completely.
Brittany Galvin (35:14):
Actually, I take that back.
Flood is fighting her becauseshe had damage from the flood,
so now does she get that money,or is insurance going to take
over on the fire?
Regardless, though, she'sgetting a brand new home.
Manny Febre (35:23):
Well, she still got flooded I mean from the first
hurricane Right.
So she deserves that moneybecause it took out her equity,
yeah.
Brittany Galvin (35:29):
So you've got some people like tearing down
altogether.
You've got some lifting somecrazy ass people.
I don't know where they come upwith that money.
You know 400 grand to lifttheir house.
You've got some doing that andyou've got some, like me, that
decided I'm out, I'm out, soldas is, I'm out.
So an investor bought our home.
Manny Febre (35:52):
Besides many trades of saying that.
Brittany Galvin (35:53):
Brittany could be a public adjuster.
She could also be a realtor.
I posted that shit on Facebookon my social media, got that
shit sold.
Yeah, you know what, and we lostsome equity.
But what you told me was reallyimportant, though.
You said that you did the mathand the research and, based on
the coastal and intercoastalhomes, what we were seeing was
that, by selling them as isversus fixing them and selling
(36:15):
them, it was only about a 20%difference.
So if I was going to sell myhome for 1.1 million, for
example, and I had to fix it,and insurance is playing these
games, so who knows how long I'mgoing to pay a mortgage and sit
in a house like this, pay 10grand a month to live in an
Airbnb or live in an RV.
People are trying to killthemselves living in these.
Sean Febre (36:34):
RVs with each other.
Brittany Galvin (36:36):
Um, all my neighbors are in RVs.
You do all that.
You fix it up.
Let's just say you get 200grand, 250 grand to fix it up,
and then you could sell it.
I couldn't sell it for 1.1.
I could probably sell it for850.
Manny Febre (36:49):
Yeah, because the market also dropped too, you
know, like the market adjustment.
I mean we've seen a 20, 30%,you know decrease in values you
know, so I mean it wasn't a goodtime for that either.
Brittany Galvin (36:59):
So if I did all that and went through all that
trauma to fix it up, and I gotthat amount of money to fix it
up and I sell it for 850 versusif I fight, the insurance
companies on the back end moveon with our lives, find a way to
survive, maybe get 200 out ofit not 250, but I could sell it
for 655.
Why the fuck wouldn't I?
Sean Febre (37:17):
It's the same amount of money, or even break even.
Brittany Galvin (37:19):
Or break even, get me out of this situation.
Yeah, you know.
So that's what my husband and Idecided to do.
We were like we are out, we'redone.
This is not.
We're still stressed, we'restill homeless right now, but we
are, as you know, activelylooking and we will rebuild.
Sean Febre (37:34):
Can you?
Brittany Galvin (37:34):
tell us about your husband.
Yeah, what do you want to?
Sean Febre (37:37):
know what does he do for a living Makes me happy.
Brittany Galvin (37:45):
He's a professional gambler the slot
machine I probably shouldn'ttell you what he does, because
all the comments I've made andall the cursing I make, but he's
a first responder, as you know.
Sean Febre (37:55):
That's right, bg.
We won't say his name though.
Manny Febre (37:59):
We'll just say Be Sleazy.
Sean Febre (38:01):
Be Sleazy, but I know, yeah, I mean we got three
minutes here All right.
Manny Febre (38:07):
Well, brittany, do you have anything you want to
tell the audience, just likesome, you know, like little
nugget of advice or anything youwant to?
Brittany Galvin (38:14):
end it with yeah, I mean there's a lot of
nuggets.
Um, I definitely think we needto have a part two, because we
need to go into FEMA and I kept.
I wish I brought the book tokind of just like show you a
physical.
But I went to Walgreens when wehad nothing and, um, we had
nothing and we had just losteverything.
And I bought a little likejournal and I just started
writing everything down Everyperson I spoke to, every policy
(38:35):
number, every time I called, thetime that I called, who I
called, I kept like a record ofeverything.
It kept every receipt foreverything I purchased,
everything I bought, any moving,like anything we saved.
Just I had this journal that Iput everything and I think
that's really important forpeople to do.
Like anything we saved.
Just I had this journal that Iput everything and I think
that's really important forpeople to do.
Um, I think that we would havebeen better off had I canvassed
my house ahead of time.
(38:55):
I know this sounds crazy, butserial numbers on all of your
stuff should be written, shouldbe written down when you buy it
when you water heaters microwaveeverything, your vacuum,
everything.
Because I had to make aspreadsheet.
That took me well over a month.
I was killing myself over itlike literally every day, all
day, all night.
I'm up on the spreadsheet onthe computer trying to google
(39:18):
based off of pictures of ourrubble.
You know, and I also said I'mgoing to come up with that.
I don't want someone to stealmy idea I'll know if you do.
But I want like an app where,as you buy things, you can put
in what you buy and scan it, andit registers in the app of all
your belongings where it camefrom, serial number, how much it
costs.
So that way, if you ever have adisaster, you just open up your
(39:40):
app and you can hand it to yourinsurance company.
Oh, that's brilliant.
Manny Febre (39:44):
Damn it.
Sign an NDA.
Brittany Galvin (39:46):
All you guys out there, seriously, I'll know,
but I think that something likethat is really important too.
I also think like it's okay toget a rental, like it's okay you
don't have to live with family,you don't have to live with
people right away.
We've moved five times sincethe hurricane.
Sean Febre (40:02):
If you have the financial means to do so.
Brittany Galvin (40:04):
Yeah, if you have the financial means to do
so, it's okay.
A lot of people are like, oh I,I was that person like I need
to save the money, I need tosave it, but for your marriage
sake and for your children, youneed that, you need your privacy
and I.
That's just like.
It's not a nugget per se, it'sjust some advice yeah all the
people going through the fires.
It's okay, you're gonna, you'regonna be with people right away,
but in the end, um, it's okayto spend a little money to have
(40:26):
your privacy, because you'regoing to go through a lot of
grief and you're going to gothrough a lot of emotions and
shit's going to be really hardand you need your space.
Like I think that's reallyimportant.
Manny Febre (40:35):
Yeah, I mean, and another thing is 30 seconds, all
right.
Well, we really appreciateBrittany coming on.
Thank you so much.
We'll definitely have a parttwo to continue educating
everybody, because thesehurricanes are not going to stop
in our area, I mean, they'regoing to continue to come and we
need to be prepared.
You need to know what to dowhen something like this happens
Especially on FEMA.
Yeah, on FEMA.
I mean they're-.
Brittany Galvin (40:54):
I'm harping on that because there's a lot there
we didn't talk about.
Sean Febre (40:56):
And I can't wait for January 20th.
Brittany Galvin (40:59):
What are we at?
How many days do we have?
Six days, six days, six days.
Manny Febre (41:03):
Yeah, thanks for watching Happy Hour.
Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, your go-to
podcast for business,entrepreneurship and life
stories.
I'm your co-host every singleweek.
Manny Fabre, we got Sean Fabre,my co-host, and in studio today
we got Brittany Galvin.
Social influencer, does it all.
She's a hustler, a mega hustler, and we're looking at what's
(00:22):
going on in California now withthe wildfire and everything that
they're about to go through.
And we in Florida went throughthe hurricanes not only Florida,
but many other states wentthrough this two hurricanes that
were very vicious and youreally don't know how to start
once that hurricane has hit yourhouse.
And Brittany went through thewhole process and she's going to
(00:43):
fill in.
Kind of, give us a little tipsand tricks or secrets on how to
really battle these insurancecompanies and get what you
deserve.
So, brittany, how did thatwhole situation come down to you
having to really battle theinsurance companies?
Or let's just start from whereyou would think would be the
most helpful for aninexperienced homeowner who, you
(01:04):
know, feels like oh, I haveinsurance, everything's going to
be okay.
Well, it's not that easy.
Brittany Galvin (01:09):
Yeah, um, and thanks for having me, guys again
.
Manny Febre (01:12):
Yeah, absolutely Nice to be back so and
unfortunate circumstances.
Brittany Galvin (01:15):
but, um, you know, I guess we could just
start from the fact that, likeI'm we we talked about I'm born
and raised here, have a home.
Like, I've always had insurancebecause my husband's um, you
guys know my husband it was hisdream to live on the water, so
we purchased this home and, ofcourse, we pay a significant
amount for flood insurance inaddition to homeowner's
insurance.
So, when you live anywhere in aflood zone our zone was a which
(01:39):
is like the worst you can getin Florida Um, you have to pay a
significant amount because,should you ever have something,
you know, a hurricane or stormsurge, which is the lesser of
the two, that what you think youwould.
You kind of sit back and you'relike, okay, I have homeowners
and flood, I pay a ridiculousamount, but if anything ever
happens, everything here iscovered and I'm unfortunately
(02:00):
learning that it's not that cutand dry and it's not that easy.
Manny Febre (02:04):
I think the crazy thing too, Britt, is that a lot
of people didn't expect Heleneto have any effects on us really
, because it was so far away.
Brittany Galvin (02:12):
Yeah.
Manny Febre (02:13):
And that one was the one that actually did the
most damage to everybody.
Brittany Galvin (02:16):
Yeah, helene brought in.
In my neighborhood alone thereare 960 homes and we live in the
Bay.
So people who are watching thisthat aren't in Tampa you have.
You know everyone thinks it'sjust the coast, clear water,
treasure Island, st Pete.
But realistically, if you havelittle like bays, if you have
little you know avenues that goin to like intercoastal, yeah
(02:37):
like intercoastal.
That's what the word I'mlooking for.
The water goes in there and hasnowhere to go.
At least, at least I just toldyou not to say at least.
Before we started this.
I just told him not to say atleast, but at least.
Like on the coast, the water,you know it's the waves and
you've got titles and this andthat, but the water doesn't get
stuck.
When it goes into theintercoastals and you've got
(02:57):
just wind and hurricane pushingon it, that water literally has
nowhere to go but up.
So for us, our neighborhood,the 960 homes, every single one
of them flooded.
The least amount was six inchesand that was in the very center
of the neighborhood.
That was in what they call likenew Baycrest.
So they were built 30 yearsafter our home.
I have a 5.1 elevation.
(03:18):
I think legally now to build ahouse it has to be like 12 feet.
Yeah, 12 feet, so I was like wayunder what the legal amount and
coded amount was Gosh, sorry, Ikeep hitting that.
So the water came in and we gotanywhere from the six inches to
five and a half feet in ourhomes.
So our home specifically had 24inches was the minimum in the
(03:39):
front of the home, it was 24inches, on the back it was five
and a half feet.
So we got a significant amountof water in the home.
And so, you know, although Iwas losing it, we were home when
it happened and although,although I was losing everything
, like in my mind, I was like,okay, we have insurance for this
, like we're going to be okay.
I was trying to be positive,like we're going to be.
I was actually laughing, likewhen not laughing because I was
(04:01):
probably some kind of hysteriahappening but during the storm I
was like we're going to be fine, we have insurance, I'm going
to call insurance.
Actually, 3 o'clock that morningI messaged my insurance agent
and I was like our house justflooded.
We had escaped, we got rescuedand left, but I was like our
house is underwater, so what doI do?
And she immediately told mecontact FEMA, which later I
(04:27):
found out you couldn't do at thetime, which we'll explain,
contact your homeowners andcontact your flood.
So I did.
I went online and I did a claimfor all three of them at three
o'clock in the morning and I wasexpecting to get a phone call
like the next morning, and itdidn't happen that way at all.
Manny Febre (04:43):
Do you think it was just because of the abundance
of claims that were coming in atthe same time?
I mean, I feel like noteverybody jumped on it like you
did at 3 in the morning, but Ifelt like maybe that morning
people were starting to call.
Sean Febre (04:54):
Or did FEMA just not give a fuck?
Brittany Galvin (04:57):
I feel it depends on what you think I mean
.
Some call me a conspiracytheorist.
Sean Febre (05:01):
I mean we can look at North Carolina, and in North
Carolina FEMA gave whateverybody like 750 bucks and say
, hey, good luck.
And then not only that, though,California wildfires that are
going on right now.
Joe Biden just signed somethingthat I gave him $770.
You lose your entire home.
They'll send billions over toUkraine, but as soon as
something happens heredomestically, FEMA is
(05:23):
unavailable.
All funds ran out.
And FEMA actually redirectedfunds to help illegal immigrants
.
If I'm not mistaken, they did.
Brittany Galvin (05:30):
Yeah, and they put them up in places.
I don't think FEMA gives a fuckunder this administration.
When they gave us the $750, itwas, I remember, because we're
kind of going off track here,but it was during the second
storm, it was October 9th orOctober 10th that it hit my bank
account the $750.
, and I just like laughed at it.
I was like I should just donatethis to a bum because what is
(05:51):
that going to do for?
Me, but I think they don't givea fuck.
I truly think they don't.
Sean Febre (05:57):
I think that they are so At least with this
current administration.
Brittany Galvin (06:00):
They are so backwards, they are not put
together and it's kind of likeyou know, we talked about the
vaccine injury stuff with me andwe talked about VAERS being so
unorganized and everybody thinksyou have protections to report
something and they're going tolearn from it and save you.
People think that about FEMAand I'm telling they don't have
their shit together at all.
It's five and a half plus hours, six hours, to even get
(06:23):
somebody on the phone and thenwhen you get them, if you get
them on the phone that day, somepeople are on hold forever and
if you even get them on thephone, you spend 30 seconds on
the phone with them and theycan't answer anything and you
get off the phone.
It was the most asinine thingever, like I'm actually lucky
that I even got in touch withFEMA.
Still to this day, fema hasn'tpaid more than $6,000 for me.
(06:45):
We lost like over three $400,000minimum.
Our first claim was 260 for thehomeowners and the flood
insurance was about 250.
So actually I didn't even addthat up yet, it's like 500 grand
.
Sean Febre (06:58):
So so, if I'm not mistaken, you also hired a
public adjuster.
Yeah, and did they actuallyhelp?
Yeah, so we could actually help.
Brittany Galvin (07:05):
Yeah, so we can back up to that now.
So I called at three in themorning all of the insurance
companies and I realized veryquickly I think I just thought
to myself I'm so used to beingscrewed over by the government
that I was like this isn't goingto go my way.
So I immediately called mycousin, who's a home builder
down in Cape Coral.
They went through Hurricane Iana couple of years ago and I was
like I need a public adjuster,or I didn't even know what it
(07:28):
was called.
I was like what's that thing,that person that like fights for
you, yeah, and she's like it'sa public adjuster, I'm like, no,
I need a private adjuster.
She's like no it's called apublic adjuster.
And so I did.
I immediately called who shetold me to call.
He drove over from the othercoast that morning.
He was there on day two of thehurricane with his team.
(07:49):
So all my neighbors at thispoint are like why are you
hiring a public adjuster?
You have to give up 10% of yourclaim.
And I'm like, and you're goingto get 50% less than me, you
know.
So to give up that 10%, I'mgoing to fight it from the very
beginning.
We could talk about later on,like how there are pros and cons
to what I did versus what theydid, but I still think that
(08:10):
having them from the verybeginning has worked in my favor
, because I haven't necessarilytold all my neighbors but we for
the longest time we didn't getany money and now we've gotten
more than they have, at leastsome of them, most of them.
Some have gotten way more thanme, but we've gotten further.
So the next day we hired thepublic adjuster.
He came with a team.
All my neighbors were like whyare you moving your belongings
(08:30):
out into the street?
It looked like do you rememberhurricane ian, how the streets
were just lined with stuff.
That's what our neighborhoodlike was starting to look like I
saw it, but my, yeah, I mean Idrove past it, like me and my
wife.
Manny Febre (08:41):
We drove past it like probably a week after and
we're like it looks like a warzone like it truly did, and then
a week later it was.
Sean Febre (08:47):
It was completely 10 times worse.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know, butI'm saying like then milton
comes and now you have all thatflying debris yeah so.
Brittany Galvin (08:55):
but my neighbors were asking me like
why are you moving all thisstuff out?
Why are you doing this?
We started cutting out thewalls, drying the walls.
I I think we spent.
We had a $33,000 bill forremediation, but I think 10,000
of it was the first hurricane,so we had this team come out
that the public adjuster hiredand they had fans and
dehumidifiers and nobody in myneighborhood had that yet my
(09:17):
neighborhood.
And so they all thought I wascrazy.
They're like what are you doing?
I'm like I'm getting ahead ofthe game because your insurance
company is going to come outhere.
They're not going to cover moldand you're going to get mold if
you keep your walls up, becausenobody knows this.
But mold isn't covered in yourinsurance policy unless you pay
extra for it and it's notcovered if you didn't remediate
in time.
So all these people werewaiting like, well, we don't
(09:37):
know what we're going to do.
We're going to wait oninsurance.
I'm like, bitch, you betterfucking get those walls down
because if you get mold, they'renot going to cover it.
We ended up getting mold and wewere the first ones on our
street to take our walls out.
We had eight types of mold, butthen so we're drying out, right
, we're going through all this.
In the meantime, insurance hadstill not come out.
Two weeks goes by that wasSeptember 26th.
(10:00):
October 9th was the secondstorm.
Insurance had still not comeout.
Sean Febre (10:07):
So our flood flood insurance had still not come out
, homeowners did what do youmean come?
Brittany Galvin (10:09):
out.
They have to come to yourproperty.
Sean Febre (10:11):
Oh, like an inspector yeah.
Brittany Galvin (10:13):
Because they can't just take your word for it
.
They can't just come and takephotos of your home Like you
can't take your photos.
Sean Febre (10:18):
So an insurance adjuster hadn't come out yet
Right.
My public adjuster had but theinsurance adjuster, the adjuster
that works for the insurancecompany, had not come out yet.
Brittany Galvin (10:28):
Correct.
So this was a flood.
So a lot of people were onsocial media.
You probably saw people sayinglike giving advice oh, don't say
flood, say water.
That's actually inaccurate.
When it's a storm surge, youwant to say flood.
You have to say flood becausethe storm surge is what ruined
your house.
Milton is the one that broughtwind.
Helene didn't have wind, if youguys remember that.
(10:50):
I mean, for some parts of thesuburbs, milton had issues and
Helene had issues, but when itcame to wind but Helene, for us
it was all water.
In fact I was filming the wholething and I think it only
rained like twice.
I think there was probably onlylike two rainstorms during that
hurricane.
Manny Febre (11:05):
The Haleen one, yeah, it was all water.
Sean Febre (11:08):
Milton was wild in my neighborhood.
Brittany Galvin (11:10):
Yeah, milton was crazy.
Well, so the flood insurance isthe one that hadn't come out,
so they didn't look at any ofthe damage.
The homeowners came out, andthis is where the corruption
started.
Manny Febre (11:22):
It's flood, it's not.
Brittany Galvin (11:23):
And listen, I've got nothing against you if
you're a gay guy, so take my,take my next comment to light.
But this guy was like a 23 yearold gay guy parading around
with his iPad yeah, I'm going totake pictures of everything,
don't you worry, don't you worry.
And he's like there are peopleout there who have horrible
claims and they're fake.
And he was just going on and onlike shit, talking all of these
(11:45):
homeowners in front of me, andhere I am with a destroyed home
and he's like up on my roof andhe's like tapping the roof with
his foot.
He's like your roof is good.
No-transcript, you can't getcovered.
(12:15):
So good luck being a homeowner,right?
Unless you pay cash and don'tcover it.
Sean Febre (12:20):
I'm just curious which insurance company did you
have Universal?
Okay, you didn't have citizens.
Brittany Galvin (12:25):
No citizens has actually been paying people out
pretty well.
Sean Febre (12:28):
Cause.
I mean I had a hailstorm happenat my house.
Citizens came out, boom,replaced the roof, like in two
months.
Brittany Galvin (12:34):
Yeah, citizens has been doing really good for
my neighbors Universal, everyneighbor that has universal
screw.
Sean Febre (12:41):
There's a, I think, a law passed within the state of
florida that every home has tobe insured, regardless of the
individual and their insuranceclaims.
My insurance actually went downwhen I got my roof replaced.
Brittany Galvin (12:53):
Yeah, it does, yeah and now it used to be I
think it used to be that yourroof had to be replaced within
10 years of selling a home.
Now it's like four years.
I think, which you would knowthat more than me.
It's like four years, I think,which you would know that more
than me.
It's like four or five years,something like that.
They changed the law, so theroofs actually do bring the
claims down, but Was your roofgood though?
(13:13):
It was good in the beginning.
It was good after publicadjuster say public adjuster
said do what the what universalsays Cause, if you know, in the
beginning he was like do whatthey say, because we're not
worried about them.
Because, if you know, in thebeginning he was like do what
they say because we're notworried about them, we're just
worried about flood.
You, you legit, don't havedamage from wind.
A tree didn't fall on your home, your windows aren't blown out.
You flooded, so we need to goafter the flood insurance
(13:37):
company.
He's like so do what they say,so that you don't have two
claims.
And if it helps you in thefuture, I was like okay, so I
called to retract it.
Here's some of the corruption.
And they were like well, youknow, you won't get FEMA help if
you retract the claim.
I said what do you mean?
And they said you need to showa denial.
You cannot get FEMA if you areinsured and don't have a denial.
(13:58):
So I had to call this guy backChristian, christian Alessandro
was his name and I was like dude, I need, I can't retract it, I
need a denial.
He's like well, I can dosomething better for you, I can
deny it.
Based on that, you had nodamage and it's basically like a
retraction.
And I was so like in the midstof it.
I didn't really understand whathe was saying, but he spoke to
(14:21):
my public adjuster.
My public adjuster evenbelieved him that he had good
intentions.
Fema never helped to begin with, so I should have just
retracted it in total, but Iallowed them to send me a denial
stating that there was nodamage whatsoever from the wind,
which is going to help me inthe future.
So it's fine now at this point.
(14:41):
But fast forward to October 9th.
Milton came.
House was completely dry beforeMilton came.
All the dehumidifiers had beentaken out.
House was ready to beremediated.
It probably would have cost Idon't know a hundred grand or so
to put the house back together.
And Milton lifted the roof inmy closet on the entire back.
(15:02):
Second story Water came in fromthe entire side of the house.
Sean Febre (15:07):
I want to bash the public adjuster here, but it
kind of seems like you may havehired a public adjuster that
didn't know what they were doing.
Brittany Galvin (15:14):
Yeah, and these guys have really really good
experience.
But one of the things-.
Sean Febre (15:18):
And that's why you got to call Daryl James.
He's a former guest on our showwho was a public adjuster.
Yeah, call him, don't call myguy.
Brittany Galvin (15:27):
No, if my guy sees this, sorry, but he knows
I've actually yelled at themquite a bit.
Sorry, I keep kicking you.
Sean Febre (15:36):
So where were we?
Roof lifted off by your closetHurricane Milton.
Brittany Galvin (15:40):
So the roof lifted.
It didn't come completely off,it just lifted enough for water
to come through it.
During the storm we had 110mile an hour winds, um, no
flooding from the bottom, but itcame in the windows, it cracked
the foundation, it came inthrough the roof, came in
through my closet on the secondstory, so therefore it then went
in.
Between the first and thesecond story there's about this,
much of um flashings and whatdo they call them?
(16:03):
Faucet, the thingies that gothis way that you run air
conditioning through.
Manny Febre (16:08):
HVAC.
Brittany Galvin (16:10):
No, it's like in between the first and second
story.
It's just the thickness.
Manny Febre (16:12):
Yeah, okay.
Brittany Galvin (16:13):
So the water came in through there.
The soffits, I thinkSubflooring.
Sean Febre (16:17):
Subflooring okay.
Brittany Galvin (16:19):
It came through there and then it spread.
So now our entire ceiling onthe first floor was soaked,
water's dripping down, and weevacuated for the second one,
because the first one I was justso traumatized by.
So we go back in two days afterthe second storm and, uh, bless
you.
Sean Febre (16:39):
Oh, thanks, though it was a nice cough.
Manny Febre (16:42):
My coughs are very excruciating.
Brittany Galvin (16:45):
We came in and we're like, oh my God, so this
one is not.
I had to call Universal againbecause this was a wind claim.
So I put in another claim toUniversal.
Two weeks later I find out thatthey assigned me the same dude.
Christian Alessandro Guy comesout with his iPad a month after
that.
So, like by this time, by theway, flood had still not been
(17:09):
out to my house, like they stillhad not come to see the damage.
So now I'm thinking to myselfwhat's going to happen with
flood?
Are they going to deny meBecause now the second hurricane
hit and now I have a thirdclaim, and are they all just
going to fight with each other?
In the meantime, we have carsburning in our neighborhood.
The house across the streetburns down, like several houses,
(17:29):
a couple of streets, like thehouse.
Literally my neighbor's houseburned down.
Sean Febre (17:32):
Why did it burn down ?
Brittany Galvin (17:33):
Because when you have saltwater, this was
what they call category threeflood.
So category three flood is verydifferent than just like a
clear water beach flood, becauseit's in the bay and you have
saltwater, you have feces, youhave toxins, it's like boil,
it's all.
They call it black water.
So if you ever heard the termcategory three water black water
(17:53):
anything it touches has to go.
You cannot salvage it.
And so I was like what's goingto happen now with all of these
claims?
Are they just going to denyeverything?
And that's exactly where we'reat.
I mean, we'll fast forward tothat, but that's.
I'm being denied and they'refighting with each other, and
the flood insurance didn't getout there in time.
Manny Febre (18:17):
So and you got the same guy who came back out.
Brittany Galvin (18:20):
Yeah, and so the same guy gets back on the
roof with his same iPad makinghis same damn jokes about all
the homeowners and by this timeevery neighbor of mine is
homeless.
I'm cooking fucking hot dogs inmy front yard to feed people
because there were norestaurants around that.
They were all flooded.
The Chili's was flooded.
All the restaurants wereflooded.
The bars we went to wereflooded.
There was no hot food anywhere.
(18:42):
You could go inland, you couldgo over here, kerwood, or you
know Land O'Lakes or something,but we were all busy like trying
to clean our homes out day inand day out.
I had black water all over meevery day.
I wasn't going to drive 20minutes to get a lunch at
Hooters, you know.
So we, we actually I used mysocial media.
I love Hooters, but I lovemyself, but I use my social
(19:04):
media to raise money and I thinkwe raised about three or $4,000
and bought a bunch of food.
I got a bunch of people todonate and come in.
They donated their time to help.
Like, take that, we have theelderly, the sick, the people
who couldn't move their shit outof their house, they couldn't
take down the walls.
So you've got people coming inlike helping them cut walls, cut
drywall, pull, you know,dressers and beds out, and I'm
(19:27):
cooking them food every daywhile I'm going through this
myself.
So that's what we were goingthrough for a couple of weeks
and floods still hadn't come outand Christian Alessandro is up
there making jokes on my secondstory about how now I have
damage.
He's like oh, now you have, youhave tons of damage, you're
going to get, girl, you're goingto be fine.
Now, you're going to be, you'regoing to be approved.
Now FEMA still didn't do shit.
(19:48):
I applied for FEMA again, stilldenied on the first, denied now
on the second.
Deny, deny, deny, deny, likeall the way down.
Um, this is when I got my $750,though.
Manny Febre (19:58):
When we get back, we'll.
We'll keep going on the story.
Thank you for tuning in.
This is good.
Uh, make sure you like, commentand subscribe on all our social
media platforms.
We'll be right back withBrittany Galvin.
All right, guys, and we're backto happy hour, holidays.
And we're here with BrittanyGalvin, and we were just at the
point where this guy is standingon top of the roof now saying
that there's damage.
(20:18):
Yeah, so now what happens?
Britt?
Brittany Galvin (20:20):
So he tells us you know, now you have damage,
you didn't have it before,Remember tapping his foot.
And he's like so you do your,this is going to be smooth for
you.
And he tells my public adjuster, everything's fine.
Um, in the back of our minds,we know that flood still hasn't
been out.
So I'm like worried, um, thatwhatever he does is going to
mess with our flood becausethey're not going to overlap
(20:42):
rightfully.
So look, I'm not out theretrying to get money that you
know, extra money to go buymyself a Lamborghini or
something.
I only want what the damagesare and I want to rebuild.
This was my husband's dream home.
It's a great home.
We were never going to sell itIf we ever moved like our goals.
Our goal was to move toTennessee one day.
We were going to keep it as anAirbnb or rental and then
(21:03):
eventually come back, you know,and have it as investment
property.
So to us it was it was alwayssomething very special.
I just wanted enough to fix it.
And at this point I'm thinking,okay, he's saying we're good,
now this is good.
I went through so many fuckinghigh and lows, like one day I'd
be on my stories telling myfollowers.
He says we're going to be good.
(21:24):
I spoke to FEMA today, whateverit was, and then the next day
I'm like like, seriously, itjust all fell through.
So Christian Alessandro,sitting here telling us
everything's going to be great,which is he's from Universal,
he's directly from Universal.
So sometimes not to just to doa keynote here Sometimes your,
your adjuster from the insurancecompany doesn't actually work
for the insurance company, sothey hire third parties.
(21:46):
We were told after bothhurricanes I was told after both
hurricanes that they had to putout ads to hire over 500
adjusters and that's not FEMA.
Fema had ads for like 2000adjusters, so they were using
third parties to come in.
But the fact that Christianworked for Universal was
important to me and to my publicadjuster because he's like that
(22:08):
means he knows what he's doing.
The third party guys are guysthat they're hiring who don't
have jobs.
We're coming off the streetlike hasn't had a job for six
months, needs 23 bucks an hour,and he has no idea what he's
doing.
He's never done it before.
You know whatever.
So this guy we're like thinkingokay, we're good, um, and it
turns out what gosh, we waited,what was it?
(22:29):
What's today, the 14th?
Yeah, the 14th 14th of January,we got a denial from Universal.
We hadn't heard from them.
They wouldn't respond, Not tous, not to after Christian came
out, not to us, not to thepublic adjuster.
They wouldn't even answer ourcalls.
Nothing for months, like amonth and a half.
Maybe this was right beforeChristmas, December 23rd.
(22:53):
I want to say so.
Today's, the 14th December 23rdthe hurricane was October 9th,
December 23rd we finally got adenial letter from Universal.
They denied us outright, Saidthat For the roof or the flood.
For the.
Well, it wasn't just the roof,it's all the shit that came from
the roof being lifted.
You know you have eight typesof mold.
Now that our house had, thewhole ceilings had to be ripped
(23:15):
out the bottom.
So from the flood, helene, thebottom half, anything from like
four foot down, is what theywould cover.
So they actually don't coveryour.
These are just some tips andtricks.
They don't cover yourcountertops, your um, these are
just some tips and tricks.
They don't cover yourcountertops.
So if you ever get flooded andyou have to take out your
counters, your, your cabinets,save the fucking countertops,
cause they're not going to coverthem.
(23:35):
Anything that water did nottouch, they're not covering.
So we had saved all that.
The upper cabinets we hadn'tremoved.
The ceiling wasn't removed, theupper walls weren't removed.
None of the bathroom downstairswasn't removed because it was
terrazzo and it was tile.
So we were like, okay, that'sfine.
So after fast forward to Milton, all that came down $33,000 in
(23:58):
mold remediation, um, which wasfrom all that water being in
there.
You know, then all thatbathroom had to come down.
The walls upstairs now had tocome down, and my closet, the
wall had to come down.
The roof has to be replaced,the fencing was torn apart, the
pool cage was torn apart,anything that's connected to
your home by a bolt.
Another tip and trick alwaysconnect your shit by a bolt.
(24:19):
If you have a shed, put a slabunder it.
It'll be covered on insuranceif it's slab.
Sean Febre (24:25):
Because if it's not a permanent fixture, it's not
covered by insurance, correct?
Brittany Galvin (24:27):
So if your fence is permanently fixed to it
with like bolts, it'll getcovered.
Your pool cage, if it'spermanently fixed to the house,
it'll be covered.
So ours was supposed to becovered.
Complete denial.
All that's fucked up.
And he says or in the denialletter it says that the damage
was from the first hurricane,not the second, and that it's
covered under flood.
So now they're pointing fingersat my flood insurance company,
(24:52):
which is bankers.
They still hadn't even come tosee us.
Sean Febre (24:56):
So Universal is different than your flood
insurance company.
Yeah, it's a home insurance,really so?
No, home insurance companycovers flood as well.
Brittany Galvin (25:06):
I don't know if they do cover both, but you
have to have two separate ones.
Sean Febre (25:10):
Damn bro yeah.
Brittany Galvin (25:11):
So now Universal is denying it, saying
that it was the first hurricane.
Well, remember, we got a denialon the first hurricane because
they said there was no damage.
So what do you mean?
The damage is from the firsthurricane.
So I did what I do and I gotmouthy and I started talking
about it on social media a lot.
I was already talking about ita lot, but I started like really
(25:34):
calling out Where's your publicadjuster?
Sean Febre (25:36):
at this point I'm yelling at him a lot.
Brittany Galvin (25:41):
He's calling the insurance company.
But you know, a couple ofthings happened during that time
too, like during all this, thepublic at one point, the public
adjuster, the flood still hadn'tcome to see us.
They didn't come till a monthafter.
And I'm like calling up mypublic adjuster and I'm like
dude.
So we're backtracking now.
I'm like dude, all my neighborshave gotten some kind of
advanced check 30,000, 40,000,50,000.
(26:04):
One had gotten like 70,000.
We had nothing.
So even though I was the firstone remember the beginning of
the story, it was the first onewith my walls ripped down, it
was the first one with my claimout there we're the only ones
sitting there without rebuildingour house.
Literally day after day, thestreets are lined like it's a
war zone.
The shit is piled up five, sixfeet tall on all those streets
(26:25):
and our house is the only onethat absolutely nothing is being
done.
Streets and our house is theonly one that absolutely nothing
is being done.
I am, I am bringing incontractor after contractor.
I had probably 15 or 20 people.
I had come in and quote us.
Um, I was lining all that up onmy own.
I felt like I had to be doingsomething, but the public
adjuster was like well, I can'tget ahold of your flood
insurance.
I can't get ahold of them andat that point we weren't
(26:47):
approved for homeowners so itwasn't under that.
So I decided to call my floodor my, even though public
adjusters say homeowners are notallowed to talk to insurance
companies, if you hire us, Iwent rogue.
I was like fuck this.
So I called the insurancecompany and to prove your point,
I got 10 grand out of the umuniversal, out of the bankers,
(27:09):
out of the flood who hadn't evenseen us yet.
Because after telling the ladymy story, I just on her
voicemail every day.
At 5 am I was leaving hervoicemail and I was like I swear
my husband was like you'recrazy, you're gonna get.
like my public adjuster was likeplease, don't say anything
stupid please.
And I'm like what am I gonnasay?
That's untrue.
Like we're sitting here withouta home and we have three kids
(27:29):
in three different schools.
Like he's still having to work.
I'm getting paid to work, butmy job knows I'm not doing shit.
So it's only a matter of daysbefore I get fired and I'm just
like freaking out.
And so I got 10 grand out ofthem and they didn't.
So then I wanted to fire thembut I couldn't.
I'm glad I didn't now fastforward, but that kind of shit
(27:50):
happened a lot.
That happened a lot Like Icalled the insurance company
over and over and over again andwould get things out of them
that they the public adjusterclaimed that they couldn't get.
Sean Febre (28:00):
I think you may need a new career in public
adjustment.
Brittany Galvin (28:04):
Well, I actually it's funny you say that
I actually have like a goal.
I was telling all my likefollowers, um, that this time
next year I want to have somesort of guide built on, like how
to survive a disaster andlosing everything overnight,
like the how-to that nobodytells you, kind of like that
book of like, um, when you getpregnant, what was what's that?
(28:25):
That book that?
Sean Febre (28:26):
I've never had a kid , so every, every wife has it.
It's like the book um is forthe Pregnant whatever?
Brittany Galvin (28:31):
No, I don't know, Like all the things that
your mother didn't tell you.
Sean Febre (28:35):
Whatever you didn't read the baby book.
You didn't read the damn book.
Manny Febre (28:40):
I watched the YouTube videos.
Brittany Galvin (28:43):
What of the?
Manny Febre (28:43):
baby coming out.
Brittany Galvin (28:46):
But yeah, I want to have like a guide for
people of things that theydidn't tell you about, things
that you only find out whenyou're going through it.
And the problem is through thiswhole process is everybody has
an expectation that things areso black and white.
They have an expectation youhave insurance, you're going to
have coverage.
You call this person, you'regoing to get an answer.
You take these steps, you'regoing to get your money.
(29:09):
Maybe it's not what you want,but you're going to and that is
not at all how any of it worksyou FEMA we haven't even gotten
to fucking FEMA yet.
They are a whole nother world.
Sean Febre (29:18):
So the real question is was it worth it buying a
house on the intercoastal inTampa Bay?
Brittany Galvin (29:23):
Absolutely not.
No no, I'll never do it again.
We're actually moving away fromit.
We're going to find water.
We're compromising, my husbandand I.
We're going to find water, butit's going to be like a
spring-fed ski lake, where thehouse is built up a little
higher, even though lakes don'trise If it rains, let's just say
the world is ending and it'sgoing to rain.
Sean Febre (29:42):
Who says lakes don't rise?
Brittany Galvin (29:43):
I mean they don't rise from a surge.
Sean Febre (29:45):
Oh okay, oh okay, well yeah yeah, they don't rise
from a rainfall?
Brittany Galvin (29:49):
they sure do yeah but you're an idiot if you
buy a lake house 10 feet fromthe lake.
You know?
We looked at a house like thatI know we're not buying that
fucking house.
Nope, my husband's over herehe's here, just you know
laughing at me um, but we'regonna compromise.
We're gonna find a, you know, ahouse that we can still have
(30:12):
water, but we're far enough awayfrom it and it's not gonna be
surgeable water, that's even aword yeah I will never live on
the coast ever again in my lifebecause the hurricanes don't
stop.
Manny Febre (30:20):
I mean, we had, we had one of the worst ones this
year or 2024, but it doesn'tmean next year can't be worse,
you know, oh yeah climate.
Sean Febre (30:27):
yeah, Climate change and all that nonsense.
Brittany Galvin (30:31):
Really You're going to go there, no, no, I was
making fun of them.
Sean Febre (30:34):
No, oh, okay, like this isn't climate change.
Brittany Galvin (30:37):
Look at the skies.
They're spraying so much shitit's only going to get worse.
Have you seen that?
Because I've seen a lot of it,it's only going to.
Sean Febre (30:45):
In the sky they are cloud seeding.
Manny Febre (30:47):
That is what they're doing.
Sean Febre (30:48):
I was driving back from Blue Ridge Mountains,
georgia, and I see about 10planes and my wife's like what's
that up there?
Is that a UFO?
I'm like no, that's just abunch of motherfucking planes
flying around cloud seeding andwe don't even know what
chemicals they're putting inthere.
First of all, who approved it?
Who approved it?
Because me, as a taxpayer, Ididn't approve that shit.
(31:09):
Did the state of Floridaapprove it?
Because Florida was also doingit.
My boy, ronnie D, you got tofigure that shit out, man.
Brittany Galvin (31:16):
Yeah, and they're well aware of it.
I mean states like Tennessee,and Texas banned it.
So if it's such a conspiracytheory, then why do we have
states actually banning?
Manny Febre (31:24):
it.
Brittany Galvin (31:24):
You know why is it a known thing?
It's a law that it's banned inTennessee.
Sean Febre (31:28):
Because Bill Gates is behind it.
Brittany Galvin (31:34):
You know so, and regardless who is behind it
and what, like buying a home onthe water when these storms are
just going to get worse andworse, they're bringing these
storms in these ways.
They can't control them oncethey start, and that's their
problem.
Manny Febre (31:42):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (31:42):
They start them , they cause them.
Yes, mother nature, if you'rewatching, you think I'm crazy.
Mother nature is there.
Is global warming.
Like is the earth warming up?
Yeah, but don't say that it'sfrom just a natural occurrence,
like we are feeding it.
How old was?
Sean Febre (31:58):
your house.
Brittany Galvin (31:59):
The house was built in 62, I think but we had
just dumped 160 grand into it.
Sean Febre (32:05):
Sure, sure, sure, sure, uh, the rest of the homes
on that street.
What was the average age ofthose?
Brittany Galvin (32:10):
homes, the same .
Sean Febre (32:11):
Yeah.
So now, like, what we get noware the building standards where
they're saying, hey, now theseintercoastal homes need to be
built on concrete stilts.
The first floor can't behabitable, it has to be the
second and third.
So I mean there's a lot of waysaround combating storm surge.
But I mean you said it yourself1962, right.
(32:32):
I mean that's quite a bit of anold house.
Brittany Galvin (32:33):
Yeah, I mean, and that's.
There's a lot like.
I don't know how much time wehave today.
We might have to end up doing apart two.
Sean Febre (32:38):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (32:38):
But I mean, there's a lot that we're going,
yeah, eight minutes.
Eight minutes.
That's all we have.
Oh, we're that I've learned inthis insurance nightmare.
You know one of the things I'lltalk.
You just brought it up, solet's talk about it for a minute
.
Fast forward to the fact thatwe didn't think we were going to
sell it.
So now we've sold the home,sold it.
(32:59):
I was like as is.
I got to the point where Icouldn't handle the trauma
anymore.
I couldn't handle every daywalking and seeing a broken
house fighting these insurancecompanies and seeing a broken
house fighting these insurancecompanies, like not knowing what
our future was going to hold,the ups and downs.
Because all of that aside, allthese people fixing their homes
right now are going to be fucked.
Manny Febre (33:16):
Yeah, if you're fixing it the same way.
I mean, it's not just that,it's not just that.
Brittany Galvin (33:21):
It's the 50% rule.
Oh yeah, our area was declaredwhen you talk about raising a
house.
Our area was declared, so ourneighborhood and some of the
areas around us were declared.
I forget what they call it likeemergency something, but based
on the county.
We all got letters on our doorand they were taped up on our
door.
People were walking around, thecounty was walking around
taping them up.
(33:41):
And it was saying that in ourneighborhood we have to abide by
the 50% rule.
So if you permit and if youhave enough damage that it is
more than 50 percent of yourdwelling.
So it's not 50 percent of whatthe house is worth.
Manny Febre (33:55):
It's not 50 percent of everything.
Brittany Galvin (33:57):
You have to tear it down or raise it up, and
it has to be raised 12 feet.
Guess what insurance doesn'tcover Raising your fucking house
, so it doesn't matter.
If you even get the money tofix it, then you've got to spend
400K.
If you're lucky you'll findsomeone for 200.
Let's just be conservative.
Then you have to lift yourhouse for 200 to 400K and you
have to pay for it, or tear itdown and rebuild.
(34:19):
Have you looked at the cost ofrebuilding a home today?
It's like 250.
Sean Febre (34:22):
190 a square.
Brittany Galvin (34:23):
Oh no, Tell me where you found that.
It's like 250 a square.
So good luck.
You know building another homeon the land, or you could do
where you make the first story.
You know a garage.
Manny Febre (34:37):
Yeah.
Brittany Galvin (34:37):
Build on the second, but I had a foundation
in it.
When I tell you I've hadeverybody come out because I was
like trying to get shit done, Ihad an engineer and a
foundation company come out andwhat they have to do is they
have to drill in to the cornersof your home, dig down deep and
pour it.
Yeah, that alone is anotherhundred plus grand.
So you have to do that in orderto build the foundation for it
(34:58):
to withstand the second story.
So I do have some neighborsthat are doing that.
The one that burned down isgetting a brand new house that
you know.
To our conversation earlier,her house burned down, the, at
least if you to throw an atleast out there, at least she's
going to have no fight withinsurance.
Manny Febre (35:12):
Yeah, cause it's completely.
Brittany Galvin (35:14):
Actually, I take that back.
Flood is fighting her becauseshe had damage from the flood,
so now does she get that money,or is insurance going to take
over on the fire?
Regardless, though, she'sgetting a brand new home.
Manny Febre (35:23):
Well, she still got flooded I mean from the first
hurricane Right.
So she deserves that moneybecause it took out her equity,
yeah.
Brittany Galvin (35:29):
So you've got some people like tearing down
altogether.
You've got some lifting somecrazy ass people.
I don't know where they come upwith that money.
You know 400 grand to lifttheir house.
You've got some doing that andyou've got some, like me, that
decided I'm out, I'm out, soldas is, I'm out.
So an investor bought our home.
Manny Febre (35:52):
Besides many trades of saying that.
Brittany Galvin (35:53):
Brittany could be a public adjuster.
She could also be a realtor.
I posted that shit on Facebookon my social media, got that
shit sold.
Yeah, you know what, and we lostsome equity.
But what you told me was reallyimportant, though.
You said that you did the mathand the research and, based on
the coastal and intercoastalhomes, what we were seeing was
that, by selling them as isversus fixing them and selling
(36:15):
them, it was only about a 20%difference.
So if I was going to sell myhome for 1.1 million, for
example, and I had to fix it,and insurance is playing these
games, so who knows how long I'mgoing to pay a mortgage and sit
in a house like this, pay 10grand a month to live in an
Airbnb or live in an RV.
People are trying to killthemselves living in these.
Sean Febre (36:34):
RVs with each other.
Brittany Galvin (36:36):
Um, all my neighbors are in RVs.
You do all that.
You fix it up.
Let's just say you get 200grand, 250 grand to fix it up,
and then you could sell it.
I couldn't sell it for 1.1.
I could probably sell it for850.
Manny Febre (36:49):
Yeah, because the market also dropped too, you
know, like the market adjustment.
I mean we've seen a 20, 30%,you know decrease in values you
know, so I mean it wasn't a goodtime for that either.
Brittany Galvin (36:59):
So if I did all that and went through all that
trauma to fix it up, and I gotthat amount of money to fix it
up and I sell it for 850 versusif I fight, the insurance
companies on the back end moveon with our lives, find a way to
survive, maybe get 200 out ofit not 250, but I could sell it
for 655.
Why the fuck wouldn't I?
Sean Febre (37:17):
It's the same amount of money, or even break even.
Brittany Galvin (37:19):
Or break even, get me out of this situation.
Yeah, you know.
So that's what my husband and Idecided to do.
We were like we are out, we'redone.
This is not.
We're still stressed, we'restill homeless right now, but we
are, as you know, activelylooking and we will rebuild.
Sean Febre (37:34):
Can you?
Brittany Galvin (37:34):
tell us about your husband.
Yeah, what do you want to?
Sean Febre (37:37):
know what does he do for a living Makes me happy.
Brittany Galvin (37:45):
He's a professional gambler the slot
machine I probably shouldn'ttell you what he does, because
all the comments I've made andall the cursing I make, but he's
a first responder, as you know.
Sean Febre (37:55):
That's right, bg.
We won't say his name though.
Manny Febre (37:59):
We'll just say Be Sleazy.
Sean Febre (38:01):
Be Sleazy, but I know, yeah, I mean we got three
minutes here All right.
Manny Febre (38:07):
Well, brittany, do you have anything you want to
tell the audience, just likesome, you know, like little
nugget of advice or anything youwant to?
Brittany Galvin (38:14):
end it with yeah, I mean there's a lot of
nuggets.
Um, I definitely think we needto have a part two, because we
need to go into FEMA and I kept.
I wish I brought the book tokind of just like show you a
physical.
But I went to Walgreens when wehad nothing and, um, we had
nothing and we had just losteverything.
And I bought a little likejournal and I just started
writing everything down Everyperson I spoke to, every policy
(38:35):
number, every time I called, thetime that I called, who I
called, I kept like a record ofeverything.
It kept every receipt foreverything I purchased,
everything I bought, any moving,like anything we saved.
Just I had this journal that Iput everything and I think
that's really important forpeople to do.
Like anything we saved.
Just I had this journal that Iput everything and I think
that's really important forpeople to do.
Um, I think that we would havebeen better off had I canvassed
my house ahead of time.
(38:55):
I know this sounds crazy, butserial numbers on all of your
stuff should be written, shouldbe written down when you buy it
when you water heaters microwaveeverything, your vacuum,
everything.
Because I had to make aspreadsheet.
That took me well over a month.
I was killing myself over itlike literally every day, all
day, all night.
I'm up on the spreadsheet onthe computer trying to google
(39:18):
based off of pictures of ourrubble.
You know, and I also said I'mgoing to come up with that.
I don't want someone to stealmy idea I'll know if you do.
But I want like an app where,as you buy things, you can put
in what you buy and scan it, andit registers in the app of all
your belongings where it camefrom, serial number, how much it
costs.
So that way, if you ever have adisaster, you just open up your
(39:40):
app and you can hand it to yourinsurance company.
Oh, that's brilliant.
Manny Febre (39:44):
Damn it.
Sign an NDA.
Brittany Galvin (39:46):
All you guys out there, seriously, I'll know,
but I think that something likethat is really important too.
I also think like it's okay toget a rental, like it's okay you
don't have to live with family,you don't have to live with
people right away.
We've moved five times sincethe hurricane.
Sean Febre (40:02):
If you have the financial means to do so.
Brittany Galvin (40:04):
Yeah, if you have the financial means to do
so, it's okay.
A lot of people are like, oh I,I was that person like I need
to save the money, I need tosave it, but for your marriage
sake and for your children, youneed that, you need your privacy
and I.
That's just like.
It's not a nugget per se, it'sjust some advice yeah all the
people going through the fires.
It's okay, you're gonna, you'regonna be with people right away,
but in the end, um, it's okayto spend a little money to have
(40:26):
your privacy, because you'regoing to go through a lot of
grief and you're going to gothrough a lot of emotions and
shit's going to be really hardand you need your space.
Like I think that's reallyimportant.
Manny Febre (40:35):
Yeah, I mean, and another thing is 30 seconds, all
right.
Well, we really appreciateBrittany coming on.
Thank you so much.
We'll definitely have a parttwo to continue educating
everybody, because thesehurricanes are not going to stop
in our area, I mean, they'regoing to continue to come and we
need to be prepared.
You need to know what to dowhen something like this happens
Especially on FEMA.
Yeah, on FEMA.
I mean they're-.
Brittany Galvin (40:54):
I'm harping on that because there's a lot there
we didn't talk about.
Sean Febre (40:56):
And I can't wait for January 20th.
Brittany Galvin (40:59):
What are we at?
How many days do we have?
Six days, six days, six days.
Manny Febre (41:03):
Yeah, thanks for watching Happy Hour.
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