A growing number of New York and New Jersey homeowners whose homes were damaged during Sandy have become suspicious that engineering reports made after the storm have been altered to reduce insurance payouts, the New York Times reports.
The Times says that lawyers have found 500 instances where engineering damage reports, used by insurance companies to determine whether to pay out on damage claims, were doctored in the storm's aftermath. The news comes as both FEMA and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have began investigating the alleged alterations and a federal judge tasked with hearing claims has ordered all drafts of the documents to be made available to the courts.
The Times reports that several homeowners on Long Island, in New York City and in New Jersey all had damages that appeared to have been from the 2012 storm, but had flood insurance claims rejected following an engineering report.
In one case, a Brooklyn couple told the Times that the firm hired by their insurer said cracks in their home’s foundation had been caused by flooding, though the engineer preparing the report told them otherwise. The engineer later said in a court affidavit that the “false report issued ... in my name, is a forgery," the Times reports.
The insurer later told that couple their claim would be denied unless they found another engineer. When they did, that engineer agreed with the insurance company. The couple is now named among the plaintiffs in a number of civil suits related to the alleged altered reports, the Times reports.
Engineering and insurance companies denied the claims of changed reports, telling the Times there isn’t any motivation to change the reports because the money paid for storm damages comes from FEMA funds.
They said that even if some reports were fraudulently changed, they would still only account for about 1 percent of all claims in the Garden and Empire states.
