Hurricane Ian victim waiting for repairs after Florida insurer's insolvency

NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) -- We're well into this year's hurricane season and some Tampa Bay homes still have nothing but a thin layer of shrink-wrap on their roof to keep out the elements.

Nearly 10 months after Hurricane Ian, the question is, when will these homeowners get the help they need?

Many storm victims said they're facing the same roadblock.

8 On Your Side found Florida's insurance companies have closed nearly 200,000 claims, without payment.

Now, we're taking a deeper look into one North Port resident's case.

Hurricane Ian left the town of North Port, devastated. Streets were flooded. Manufactured homes were leveled. The wind from the Category 4 storm ripped off parts of roofs.

On one street, white shrink-wrap still covers about half a dozen homes, including Craig Lipaj's.

"Basically, I just want to be treated fairly, I don't want anything more, I don't want nothing less," Lipaj said.

Craig shared photos taken in the aftermath of the storm. They show tiles missing, some shifted and others crashed through the lanai and landed into the pool.

Lipaj said the insurance company's adjuster inspected his home for 10 minutes.

The estimate showed he found $2,735 worth of damage -- well below Lipaj's $7,000 hurricane deductible.

"What did you get from the insurance company?" asked Investigator Mahsa Saeidi.

"Nothing," Lipaj said. "It's not repairable and that was obvious to the three roofers that came out and looked at it."

Lipaj got a public adjuster.

They found $221,866 worth of damage -- 70 times more than the insurance company.

"To me, it's like, this is ridiculous, this is ridiculous," Lipaj said. "Both ridiculous, I'm just being honest."

Lipaj was gearing up for a fight. That's when his insurer, United Property & Casualty, went broke.

Lipaj's claim is now being handled by the state, through the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, or FIGA.

8 On Your Side reached out to FIGA to learn more about this claim, and thousands of others.

Lipaj doesn't know when his roof will be fixed but he says it'll cost thousands and that's why he had insurance.

"I was a Nationwide insurance agent in Ohio for 38 years," Lipaj said. "I knew how insurance was supposed to work and this is not how it's supposed to work."

"It's just not me, it's thousands of people and a lot of people just walk away after a while and they just say give up," he said.

The Executive Director of FIGA tells 8 On Your Side FIGA has received more than 20,000 claims from UPC and about a third of them have been "successfully resolved."

FIGA is investigating the rest and actively trying to negotiate settlements.