Ocoee couple burdened with repair, medical bills following flooded home

It’s been more than a month, yet a couple is still plagued with the aftermath of a flooding incident that occurred in their Ocoee home on Sept. 24.

The couple’s home in the Lake Olympic Townhomes neighborhood flooded with sewage water after a malfunction at a nearby lift station, causing extensive damage and costly repairs the couple cannot afford. 

“My husband, Alex, got up to go to the bathroom, and then he heard the sound of water and turned on the light to find out the toilet had overflowed and all this water had come in,” Irene Simon, 75, recalled. “We had no idea where it was coming from, but we later found out it was coming from the lift station.”

Irene and Alex, 83, had to hire a water-restoration company to remove all the water following the incident at a cost of more than $6,700, Irene said. The couple now has hired a company to replace all the damaged carpeting, baseboards and drywall for another $6,000.

The couple first filed a claim with their own insurance company, Security First, but were informed they weren’t covered for water damage from sewage backups. 

“We have no coverage for all this damage that they did,” Irene Simon said. 

The couple then requested that the city of Ocoee take responsibility for the damage to their home, to no avail. After two weeks, the Simons hired a lawyer to assist them.

“The city of Ocoee hasn’t done anything,” she said. “We haven’t heard from their insurance company; we haven’t heard from the contractor’s insurance company; we haven’t heard from anybody – nobody. And three weeks have gone by, and in the meantime, I developed a staph infection in my calf area for sludging through all that water and Alex got an infection in his hand, so we were both hospitalized.”

The couple’s lawyer, Eric Ludwig, explained that the delay was because the city of Ocoee’s insurance provider has denied liability for the damage to the home and added that the liability lies with the company who was contracted by Ocoee to perform some maintenance work on the lift station, GML Coatings Inc.

“The couple was billed over $6,700 from the restoration company that comes in and soaks up the water and tries to clean things and dry everything all out,” Ludwig said. “And that bill has been tendered to the city and the contractor, but neither one of them has responded with regard to it, other than the phone call from the president of the contractor last Friday evening, who since then has gone silent.”

As his attempts to have the couple reimbursed for the repair bills have been met with silence, Ludwig believes the couple may have to file a lawsuit.

“The city’s insurance company has taken the position that the contractor has to fix it, and they’re not going to pay,” Ludwig said. “Given the fact that everyone has taken the position that nobody is responsible, we might end up having to sue them. I was hopeful from the phone call with the contractor that somebody would step up and try to do something, but now everyone has gone silent.”

A representative from the city of Ocoee said no one from the city could comment on the issue.