SANDY AND INSURANCE CHECKS

In todays Newsday, there is an article about how "a Cuomo administration official admitted Thursday the state "did not foresee" the problem of banks holding up insurance checks to Sandy victims in the immediate aftermath of last fall's superstorm."

If you have a mortgage, and your home has suffered severe damage or been destroyed, some or all of the payment checks from your insurance company will be made payable jointly to BOTH you and your mortgage company. This happens because your lender has a financial interest in the property that your insurer will honor/protect.

Until your mortgage company releases its claim on some or all of the funds, they will sit in your mortgage company’s account. This means that before you can begin to rebuild, you must first understand the process of how to get your mortgage lender to let go of your insurance proceeds.