When COVID was at its peak several years ago, many people had to make do with what they could get, even if it meant less ideal options. One Florida couple decided to get married back in 2021, but during that time, doing a courthouse wedding wasn’t really possible. Fortunately, an Estrella Insurance business claiming it “certified marriages” was able to help provide a certificate; only the main issue was that it wasn’t even legal.
“I just found out that I am not legally married,” the distraught couple’s wife explained on r/legaladvice. She says that she and her spouse moved to Texas this year. But when they were doing paperwork to get a state license, they realized that the auto insurance back in Florida gave them a “Certificate to be Married,” not actual marriage certificates. “We did sign documents and even had to have witnesses sign. They took those documents and didn’t tell us that we needed to do anything else,” she recalled.
Estrella Insurance Customer Service Refused to Provide English-Speaking Help
Unfortunately, the .gov website doesn’t recognize their marriage as legal, according to the wife. In other words, neither the Florida nor the Texas government sees the pair as a wedded couple, which is quite the pickle to say the least. Undoubtedly, the two want to get through all the legalities and live on with their lives, considering they already have had a child and all. Yet, the Florida Estrella Insurance has really put a legal roadblock into their relationship that they were not prepared for. What’s worse is that the auto insurance is of little help in resolving this whole ordeal.
“Trying to talk to them to change vehicle insurance is close to impossible. They refuse to speak English, they will hang up without doing anything, and have even put me and another company (group call) on hold for so long that the agent from the other company had to get their manager involved. They are a real problem but I only found that out this year,” the wife explained.
The wife tried her best in her Reddit post to get a grip on exactly what happened regarding her “fake marriage,” but as one person bluntly put it, “In other words, you were scammed.” Hopefully, the local courthouse and city hall can help the couple sort things out, but their story underscores an important lesson: Be very careful when entrusting your legal marriage to a non-governmental institution.
