’60 Minutes’ Homeowners Ask Court to Force DFS to Divulge Heritage Probe Info

If Florida property insurance companies and regulators hoped a complaint about altered adjusters’ reports would quietly fade away, a lawsuit by a homeowner at the heart of the controversy has brought new attention to the matter.

North Port homeowners Jeffrey and Virginia Rapkin, made famous by their appearance on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program in 2024, have asked a court to force the Florida Department of Financial Services to divulge records relating to its investigation into allegations that Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. had inappropriately doctored field adjusters’ reports after Hurricane Ian.

“Respondent (DFS) has refused to allow petitioner access to the requested records and petitioner now prays this court will issue an order requiring Respondent to produce the requested records,” reads the petition filed in Leon County Circuit Court.

The Rapkins, whose home was damaged in Ian’s winds and rain in September 2022, were interviewed by 60 Minutes in the same episode in which independent adjuster Jordan Lee alleged that Heritage had slashed his damage estimates on the home—while keeping Lee’s name on a revised report sent to the Rapkins. The revised report misleadingly made it look like the field adjuster had signed off on a 93% reduction in estimated damage to the two-story home, the adjuster said.

Lee and two other independent adjusters had gone public with their concerns in late 2022 at a Florida House of Representatives’ committee meeting, charging that a number of insurers had engaged in the deceptive alteration practice. They asked DFS to investigate and turned over hundreds of pages in documentation.

Heritage partly denied the allegations but said desk adjusters’ names had been inadvertently left off the revised damage reports. While more than 4,100 Ian claims had been revised downward, another 2,583 claimed amounts were revised upward, Heritage leadership said at the time.

Still, the adjusters charged fraudulent behavior and wanted more action by DFS. The Rapkins filed suit against Heritage in 2023, arguing breach of contract for offering so little on the claim. The Rapkins also filed a complaint with DFS in early 2023, but have heard little from regulators, they said in court filings. As part of their litigation, the family in July 2025 made a public records request, asking DFS to release all records pertaining to the Heritage investigation.

“Though DFS has received Plaintiffs’ public records request on several different occasions, as of 09/07/2025, there has been no response,” the lawsuit versus DFS reads.

The records are important to the claim lawsuit and should be considered public under Florida’s vaunted open-records laws, the plaintiffs argued. “Respondent has refused to allow Petitioner access to the requested records and Petitioner now prays this Court will issue an order requiring Respondent to produce the requested public records,” the complaint reads.

Lee and fellow whistleblower adjuster Ben Mandell asked to intervene in the case. Mandell’s motion argued that the outcome could determine the fate of his own public records request about similar DFS investigations into two other insurers, Florida Peninsula and Edison Insurance.

Until now, the adjusters had declined to publicly name other carriers that had allegedly followed the practice of altering damage estimates. Mandell’s motion to intervene, filed by attorney Shane Smith of the well-known Merlin Law Group, claims he was terminated from his field adjusting work by Florida Peninsula, after he raised questions about “unusual behavior” by the carrier, including claims not processed and desk adjusters “gutting” his inspection and damage reports.

“After he realized what was happening to his reports, he grew uncomfortable, spoke up to his manager and was fired on October 25, 2022,” reads Mandell’s motion to intervene in the Rapkin action.

Florida Peninsula and Edison have also asked the court to allow them to participate in the DFS case. The two carriers and Heritage argue that the DFS records contain trade secrets that should not be revealed, per statute and longstanding court precedent. Heritage in October asked the court to bar DFS from releasing the information.

Lee and Mandell and other independent adjusters said they have heard little from the Department of Financial Services about the investigation, and no one has been prosecuted. This fall, an investigator with DFS told Mandell and adjuster Mark Vinson that after three years of consideration, the department has concluded that no statutory framework exists that would allow the state to bring fraud charges against insurers who may have altered reports, the adjusters said.

Heritage also filed suit against Lee early last year, alleging libel and defamation from his “60 Minutes” interview. Lee has countersued.

Meanwhile, the Rapkins’ suit against Heritage, still pending, and their legal action against DFS outline a grim picture of the troubles the family has faced after their home’s roof and structure were damaged in the 2022 hurricane. Jeffrey Rapkin, a family law attorney, is representing himself and his wife in the DFS action. His complaint argues that much of the metal roof was ripped off but Heritage was slow to act on the claim, was slow to send someone to protect the home with a tarp, and that the tarp lasted only a month.

The family tried living in the home, which was damp and moldy, with no running water. The family members became sick and their dog died after respiratory problems. Eventually, after months of frustration, they were forced to move out and sell the house to pay off the mortgage.

“Heritage Insurance Company has engaged in typical ‘War of Attrition’ litigation tactics,” the recent complaint alleges.

Heritage has denied wrongdoing. DFS also has denied some of the Rapkin’s allegations but said in its Dec. 22 answer to the lawsuit that Heritage has the burden to prove that the requested records are trade secrets and are protected from disclosure.