For the past 17 months, the owner of Serenity Bay Cottages in Matlacha has been trying to rebuild. However, it has not been an easy road because the owner says she hasn’t received any money from insurance for the Hurricane Ian damage.
Parts of the property are frozen in time with some areas still showing Ian damage.
“This is like, drowning us,” said Sharon Ihlefeld, the owner.
She and her husband have put in close to $65,000 into rebuilding.
“Just to keep the mortgage running here with no income, we’ve gone through, you know, all of our savings, totally pillaged the college fund for our daughter,” Ihlefeld explained.
They have also borrowed money from friends, put their house on the market and her dad even chipped in.
Ihlefeld says her insurance company, Lloyd’s of London, has not paid her claim since she filed it, which was shortly after the storm. She hired an attorney about two months later.
The attorney had been going back and forth with the company, trying to get them to pay before resorting the court route.