So What's The Plan Now?

It has been 3 weeks since The Great Flood and that Saturday of September 26, made us re-think about our plans for the dream house. We were supposed to move next year, after my eldest son graduates from elementary so he can start his high school here. But after this, we have lost the peace of mind that owning this house give us.


So what's the plan now?



It has been 3 weeks since and we have been there every Sunday to clean up. We are almost done and only half of the back needs to be shoveled. We don't have water and electricity yet, and we haven't checked the wiring's yet. We only boarded up the broken windows and walls. There are no more things to loot anyway so we are just keeping the house as it is, until after we hear from the insurance claim I filed last week.

We have no concrete plans yet. We are in a wait and see mode, cleaning the mud and hoping to move on. I don't want to sell this house because aside from the financial investment, we already have some emotional investments here. Of course, we lost some or most of it. Though friends are always here to give us hope, we are still undecided. But we don't want to decide just yet. So we have continued our amortizations, and did not apply for the three months moratorium.

So let's just wait and see on whether we will still build this dream house.

How to Claim Insurance from Pag-Ibig for Typhoon Ondoy

I heard this first on TV and from the news, I saw this part of an article:

Insurance claim

Members whose houses are currently mortgaged with Pag-IBIG may also file for non-life insurance claim covering the difference of the estimated cost of repairs and the proceeds from the non-life insurance claim, provided it does not exceed P150,000.

Like its regular housing loan program, the pieces of property should be covered by appropriate titles issued by the Register of Deeds “free from all liens and encumbrances” and should be in the name of the borrower.

Members can avail of the rehabilitation loan within 60 days starting October 5, 2009. For any inquiry on the new program, they can visit any Pag-IBIG branch or call the Pag-IBIG hotline at 724-4244.

Of course, I had to find out if I qualify for an insurance claim. I have been paying for this housing loan for 5 years now and have even qualified for their good payor program. My only problem would be on the title since it is still on process until now.
I called the hotline and was told to submit the following documents at the Pag-Ibig office at the Atrium Building in Makati, Room 314:
1. Barangay clearance or certification
2. Pictures of the damaged property (at least 12 pictures)
3. Bill of materials

From my developer, aside from the above, I was told to get these forms from them and submit to Pag-Ibig also:
4. Insurance application form
5. Sworn Statement-notarized
6. Architect Estimate

I think the architect estimate will include the Bill of materials as well. I will secure these documents within the week and submit to Pag-Ibig as soon as possible. If I can claim some form of insurance, it will be a big help at this time.

Pag-Ibig office is open from 8am-5pm, from Mondays to Saturdays.

Pictures of Ondoy's Wrath On My House

Ten days after Typhoon Ondoy ravaged Metro Manila and Rizal, we went to Dela Costa Homes 5 in Montalban, Rizal to see how badly our dream house has been damaged. And to say the least, it was indeed ravaged.

Here are the pictures of how my house is now.

The saddest thing is we were also looted. You can see in the picture below that the gas stove was not washed away by the flood, but was taken after.






You may wonder why my husband is still smiling in the picture below despite the damage to his beloved house? It's because we are both thankful that we were not in Montalban when it happened. This is our weekend home and we were supposed to come home that weekend. I can't remember now why we didn't go, but I will always be thankful to have been spared of the experience. I can't help but shudder at how I would manage with 3 kids and without my husband (he works on Saturdays).

This is just a house. Home will always be where we are together as a family. And even though Ondoy washed away our very high hopes and dreams for this house, we will not be deterred. We will somehow find a way to build our dream house.