Flood Services Canada (www.FloodServices.ca), a leading quick-response company for water damage remediation, is increasingly troubled by changes to the insurance industry that are leaving Canadians with limited coverage and lesser payments than they would have received only a few years ago. The company is speaking out now so that property owners can be properly informed and are not caught unaware if they suffer fire or water damage.
“People have a lot on their plate and staying up to date on their insurance contracts tends not to be high on the priority list,” acknowledges Chad Vanvari, the owner of Flood Services Canada. “But it allows insurers to slip bits of language into policy booklets, and then send those on to the customer who may not read the document cover to cover.”
According to Vanvari, many of these changes involve inserting language into the “exclusions” section of a policy that widens the forms of damage that will not be covered. Certain forms of accidents, like fire or flood origins and similar conditions, would previously have been covered but no longer are—often unbeknownst to the homeowner.
“Similar effects are happening with insurance payout terms, as well,” says Vanvari. “We are seeing an increase in higher deductibles and lower caps on homeowner policies. The capped amounts on some policies are insufficient to properly restore damaged property.”
A home could suffer the same type of fire damage in 2010 and today, and the 2010 one would see a higher insurance even if it were the same policy.
“This can place homeowners in a bind when they find out that they aren’t getting the amount of funds they expected to make necessary repairs,” laments Vanvari.
Other than taking sensible precautions against fire and flood, the only recourse available to affected homeowners is to get remediation work done as soon as possible following fire or water damage. This way, costly damage can be minimized and potentially save property that would otherwise have to be written off.
Flood Services Canada is made up of several quick-response teams that are leaders in flood remediation, mould removal, and other loss prevention techniques. Its specialties include fire, flood, and sewage backup remediation and clean-up.
