How much has your home insurance risen?

Leveraging, renting vs owning, making an investment or buying a home?
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Springbok
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Update: M-M came back with a reduced valuation of $412k. BUT, instead of the premium going down, it went UP by a significant amount! The only reason they gave me, was that the house was older than they had thought. It was built in 1968, but there had been a cottage on the property prior to that. The cottage framing was partly used but everything around it was new.

My experience has been that they offer what seems a very good overall insurance plan for affinity groups. But, at every opportunity, they bump up the insured value.

Anyone with TD Insurance would be well advised to run the above linked estimator and compare results with those used to determine premiums.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

Post by mpav »

I pulled the plug on my home insurance and after years now feel so good about my decision.

I was paying roughly 1000/annum, and truthfully no matter how many times I read the document really didnt understand what they would cover me for (so many caveats/expectations on the home owner).

I sock away the money, and take the risk on myself.

So big risk I may be in the hole 15M if my basement floods....but frankly I am diligent about my house, take good care of it so willingly to take it on.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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It's not the $15k losses that I'm worried about. I can deal with those, painful though they may be. Rather I insure for the "black swan" events that could devastate my lifestyle and retirement plans.

What if you have a fire and your house is either badly damaged or completely burns down? That could be the result of a careless moment in the kitchen (your fault), an electrical or fuel fault (potentially contentious), a lightning strike (act of god), etc.

Similarly what if someone else causes your home significant damage, e.g. their tree falls on your house or their car crashes into your house, etc. but they're unable to pay (perhaps because they too were without insurance)?

And what happens if someone slips and falls on your property, sustains serious, long-term injury, and comes after you for compensation?

P.S. I'm not sure why your premium is so high. Is the house particularly expensive? Do you live in an area that's particularly vulnerable to acts of criminals and/or acts of gods? If not, have you shopped around for better deals?
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Springbok
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Bylo Selhi wrote:It's not the $15k losses that I'm worried about. I can deal with those, painful though they may be. Rather I insure for the "black swan" events that could devastate my lifestyle and retirement plans.

What if you have a fire and your house is either badly damaged or completely burns down? That could be the result of a careless moment in the kitchen (your fault), an electrical or fuel fault (potentially contentious), a lightning strike (act of god), etc.

Similarly what if someone else causes your home significant damage, e.g. their tree falls on your house or their car crashes into your house, etc. but they're unable to pay (perhaps because they too were without insurance)?

And what happens if someone slips and falls on your property, sustains serious, long-term injury, and comes after you for compensation?

P.S. I'm not sure why your premium is so high. Is the house particularly expensive? Do you live in an area that's particularly vulnerable to acts of criminals and/or acts of gods? If not, have you shopped around for better deals?
Good points. I don't think I would go without home insurance. Our premium is also close to $1000. It depends on the rebuild value of the home and in part where you live. BUT, it is possible with some companies to choose a large deductible. We switched to State Farm (because they have real live people nearby we can deal with instead of a faceless call-center!). We chose a deductible of 1% of home rebuild value, but could have chosen something much higher. For example $20,000 or whatever. You have to weigh reduction of premium against chance of needing to make a claim.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Insurance was $823 in 2011. $847 in 2012. Reason for increase is cost to rebuild rising from $390K to $405K.

Cost includes 5% deductible earthquake coverage ($234). I thought that this would go way up this year after the Christchurch earthquake but that does not seem to have had an effect.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Insomniac wrote:Insurance was $823 in 2011. $847 in 2012. Reason for increase is cost to rebuild rising from $390K to $405K.

Cost includes 5% deductible earthquake coverage ($234). I thought that this would go way up this year after the Christchurch earthquake but that does not seem to have had an effect.
Just our of interest, what is the deductible on the main policy? - Is it 5%? If you did not have earthquake coverage, would your premium be $613 for $405k rebuild? If so that is low compared with most I have seen. Meloche Monnex wanted $999 (plus tax) for a house with about same rebuild cost and $500 deductible. It included no earthquake coverage but included about $120 for umbrella liability coverage.

Regarding liability, it is usually $1Million. But because homeowners have cars, boats etc., umbrella coverage is sometimes included in the homeowners policy to increase liability on all policies to $2Million. This can cost $120/yr or more.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Policy is $200 deductible, $2,000,000 liability.

The earthquake coverage is a separate listed "additional coverage" so I think that you can simply deduct it from the total cost if you don't want it. It was required when I had a mortgage. I don't have a mortgage any more, but they keep telling us that we are overdue for the "big one", so I pay.

I have a separate "Mariners Plus" policy for my boat which costs $110. The boat is a small runabout insured "all risks" for $5500. I believe that the cost of this insurance includes raising the liability on the house policy to $2,000,000.

I have been using the same broker for close to 25 years. He seems pretty good at keeping the cost down.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Insomniac wrote:Policy is $200 deductible, $2,000,000 liability.

The earthquake coverage is a separate listed "additional coverage" so I think that you can simply deduct it from the total cost if you don't want it. It was required when I had a mortgage. I don't have a mortgage any more, but they keep telling us that we are overdue for the "big one", so I pay.

I have a separate "Mariners Plus" policy for my boat which costs $110. The boat is a small runabout insured "all risks" for $5500. I believe that the cost of this insurance includes raising the liability on the house policy to $2,000,000.

I have been using the same broker for close to 25 years. He seems pretty good at keeping the cost down.

That seems like a good deal, considering the low deductible.

Could you share with us which insurance company your broker is using?
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Currently we are with Gore Mutual: http://www.goremutual.ca/en/
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Insomniac wrote:Currently we are with Gore Mutual: http://www.goremutual.ca/en/

Thanks Insomniac - I checked and Gore do have agents here. Filed the details away, we will see how things go with my new insurer (State Farm)
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Anyone recieve their renewal recently? 25% increase for me :shock:

Ofcourse it's becaue I've added an addition, I had a major claim last year, I run a fireworks manufacturing business in the basement, I've been late on my payments, and oh my house value tripled. What else can possibly explain a 25% increase?

Where's the insurnace guy that posts on here? What's the BS being dished out now? You want to recover the costs of the Alberta and Toronto floods in 6 months? Then what? Should I expect a 25% reduction next year?
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Maybe time to shop around... Or buy some insurance co shares!
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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HardWorker wrote:Anyone recieve their renewal recently? 25% increase for me :shock:
My renewal was effective July 30. Up 9.1%
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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My homeowner premium renewal effective Nov 1 will increase 27% from last year. I shopped around for a better price for my home and auto insurance, but even with the 27% premium increase it's still the lowest I can find.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Ours was up circa 5-10% year-over-year (Aug to July). That said, I had heard/read there was going to be a significant jump for policies renewing as of Nov 1.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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DavidR wrote:Maybe time to shop around... Or buy some insurance co shares!

I always do, and the broker I used is looking around as well. He couldn't believe that big of hike either. He said I'm likely being gouged extra because the company wants to pad the books before year's end.

I don't like it, but I understand say 3% inflation + 3% ripoff + 3% CEO slush fund, but that's nowhere near the 25% robbery.

And the "we pay divedends" cow manure is a favorite for insurnace companies, but can you please show me who guarantees a 25% ROI every year?

Between the fleecing of the Liberals and insurnace companies, will we be surprised when the NDP gets in power?
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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It must be the fireworks or the cow manure then...
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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House Ins 2013 = $984, 2012 = 961 (in central Halifax)
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Apartment contents & liability insurance - $491. No special riders. With CNS.

(Best quote from Kanetix = $169)
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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Has anyone ever dealt with Chieftan insurnace? Your thoughts please.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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HardWorker wrote:Has anyone ever dealt with Chieftan insurnace? Your thoughts please.
I've had my home insurance with them for close to a decade: they were the competitive quote at that time. I've left them when the discounts in combining home+auto at my auto insurer became even more significant.

No claims, no complaints.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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adrian2 wrote:
HardWorker wrote:Has anyone ever dealt with Chieftan insurnace? Your thoughts please.
I've had my home insurance with them for close to a decade: they were the competitive quote at that time. I've left them when the discounts in combining home+auto at my auto insurer became even more significant.

No claims, no complaints.
Thanks for the info. Chieftain is a little different because they have monthly policies insteead of yearly, so increases will likely come even quicker. And they also require an inspection, which I don't mind, as long as they're not crazy and pick on evrything.

And from calling around, it's seems like many companies are gearing up for big hikes to compensate for the discount they (supposedly) will give on auto insurance.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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HardWorker wrote:Thanks for the info. Chieftain is a little different because they have monthly policies insteead of yearly, so increases will likely come even quicker. And they also require an inspection, which I don't mind, as long as they're not crazy and pick on evrything.
Monthly vs. yearly is not a big deal. As for "inspection", in my case it was a "drive-by" -- nobody knocked on my door.
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Re: How much has your home insurance risen?

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My policy was $540, $570 last year now $703 so I phoned and asked what's up. We went through the series of questions again to update my information. Some Things that were once included in my policy were now not free. For example seniors content insurance if they were in a assisted living facility. Was free, now $10, not in that position so that was removed. She tweaked a couple of other areas and was able to lower it to $597 and a $17 discount for the remainder of this year. So not to bad.
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