Home Insurance - any suggestions on who to use or who to stay far far far away from?

[RW99]

Best of luck, I feel it's the same as other industries like cell phones and cable. Any one of them can make you have a bad experience. But I would say don't take anything you read here as fact, some info in here is just wrong. Either pick one with a good price, or the one with good service. Its hard for any one company to deliver both consistently.

[macker]

Originally Posted by RW99

Best of luck, I feel it's the same as other industries like cell phones and cable. Any one of them can make you have a bad experience. But I would say don't take anything you read here as fact, some info in here is just wrong. Either pick one with a good price, or the one with good service. Its hard for any one company to deliver both consistently.

Care to expand on this statement?

[RW99]

Originally Posted by macker

Care to expand on this statement?

Not really worth it getting into an disagreement over anything specific. Much like in my example, there are opinions based on experience and perceptions that play a lot in these threads.

Best example I can give is that you say you had $5,000 cash stolen out of your car and your insurance will only give you $1000. The policy does say that there is a limit of $1000 for coverage on cash. But because policies can be hard to read and/or the client chooses not to read it, client feels we should cover any amount of money, etc, the client will think it's the insurance company's fault. So the client will tell everyone how bad the insurance company is, talk about going to the media, etc, believing they were wronged. It's an unfortunate cycle that will never go away.

And on the other side, sitting here going though each of the company's policies, their interpretation of them and how they train their staff to handle the claims just wouldn't work either.

I posted after you, but it was not directed at you in case it was read that way

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by RW99

Not really worth it getting into an disagreement over anything specific. Much like in my example, there are opinions based on experience and perceptions that play a lot in these threads.

Best example I can give is that you say you had $5,000 cash stolen out of your car and your insurance will only give you $1000. The policy does say that there is a limit of $1000 for coverage on cash. But because policies can be hard to read and/or the client chooses not to read it, client feels we should cover any amount of money, etc, the client will think it's the insurance company's fault. So the client will tell everyone how bad the insurance company is, talk about going to the media, etc, believing they were wronged. It's an unfortunate cycle that will never go away.

And on the other side, sitting here going though each of the company's policies, their interpretation of them and how they train their staff to handle the claims just wouldn't work either.

I posted after you, but it was not directed at you in case it was read that way

The insuance industry often doesn't understand the insurance industry....

[macker]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

The insuance industry often doesn't understand the insurance industry....

Thankfully there is Errors and Omissions insurance

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Looking to move away from TD, seeing as how they are going to chop my sewer backup to 15K. Am able to get $40K coverage with quite a few other underwriters. I have 3 quotes that more or less average out to be the same. Anyone have good or bad stories about the following underwriters? (home & auto)

- Dominion (the cheapest, recently acquired by Travellers)
-Aviva
- RSA (Royal Sun Alliance)

[CaptainYooh]

Same here. But I've been told everybody else is doing the same thing. Also, their rates have gone up 25%.

[WCan_Kid]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Looking to move away from TD, seeing as how they are going to chop my sewer backup to 15K. Am able to get $40K coverage with quite a few other underwriters. I have 3 quotes that more or less average out to be the same. Anyone have good or bad stories about the following underwriters? (home & auto)

- Dominion (the cheapest, recently acquired by Travellers)
-Aviva
- RSA (Royal Sun Alliance)

I've been with Dominion for years and have always been happy, but we do go through an awesome broker so I don't if it's their office or Dominion themselves. Have had a couple of various claims (water damage, stolen bikes, stolen sleds) that left me pleasantly surprised at the end.

[flamefan74]

Originally Posted by WCan_Kid

I've been with Dominion for years and have always been happy, but we do go through an awesome broker so I don't if it's their office or Dominion themselves. Have had a couple of various claims (water damage, stolen bikes, stolen sleds) that left me pleasantly surprised at the end.

+1 for Dominion. I have been with them for about 8 years. Have had a couple claims (vehicle, house roof) and have been surprised as well. It's an insurance company so I know I'm being screwed, but they make me feel better about it!

My renewal package should be here any day, I'll see how badly they screw me on increases.

[kevman]

Well at least TD gave you 15k for your sewer back up. I'm with the Dominion and they gave me 0k for my sewer back up because it was a "result of the flood".

My neighbour to the west was covered with TD. My neighbour to the east was covered with Peace Hills. My tenant in the basement was covered with TD. Dominion gave me a friendly worded denial letter that offered help by telling me to clean up ASAP because future claims could be denied as a result of inadequate clean up.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Flamenspiel

I would not recommend the Personal Insurance out of Toronto. They tend to decline coverage for the most frivolous reasons. Typically they have low rates but very tough when it comes to claims.

This. Plus we are finding our adjuster is very difficult to get ahold of.

I get that there are lots of claims going on in southern Alberta, but not returning phone calls for 2 weeks is a bit ridiculous.

Our claim itself was just approved. All of our surrounding neighbours already have some or all of their hail damage fixed already.

We were with Wawanesa previously, and found their claims service to be excellent.

[stampsx2]

Also have td and so far the auto side has gone well. They frustrating part is they won't tell you what your new rate would be if you make a claim. Something about a formula.

I was thinking of trying intact after some people had no hassle with them after the flood but after reading this thread, i'm not so sure.

[killer_carlson]

I had a family member move insurance away from Dominion after seeing how they tried to treat an insurable loss from a tenant who trashed a rental. Rates were cheap, but when it came time to lay a claim they took the position of deny, deny, deny.

[macker]

Originally Posted by WCan_Kid

I've been with Dominion for years and have always been happy, but we do go through an awesome broker so I don't if it's their office or Dominion themselves. Have had a couple of various claims (water damage, stolen bikes, stolen sleds) that left me pleasantly surprised at the end.

One unique thing about Dominion is that they have no limit for bikes and they don't need to be insured or scheduled separately. Most companies have a $1,000 or $500 limit on bikes so when you factor in the deductible there is basically no coverage. Take into account that this is worldwide coverage it is very valuable piece of mind for something that is often stolen and an average decent bike is $2,000 to $3,000.

[Flames in 07]

Have Aviva, made an approx 70k claim this year, went reasonably smoothly.

[troutman]

Longest thread title ever?

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by macker

One unique thing about Dominion is that they have no limit for bikes and they don't need to be insured or scheduled separately. Most companies have a $1,000 or $500 limit on bikes so when you factor in the deductible there is basically no coverage. Take into account that this is worldwide coverage it is very valuable piece of mind for something that is often stolen and an average decent bike is $2,000 to $3,000.

Same with Wawanesa......

[Brannigans Law]

Whats everyones experience with AMA for home insurance? I got a really reasonable quote from them.

[Mr.Coffee]

lol... a reasonable quote from AMA. Good one.

[Brannigans Law]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

lol... a reasonable quote from AMA. Good one.

I'm serious I got a quote from RBC, TD, A+, CDI, and AMA. AMA was the lowest. For reals.