People should update home insurance for fire season
Posted August 16, 2011 12:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC may be seeing the slowest start to the fire season in a decade, but homeowners should still be prepared to protect their investment, according to an expert.
Chief Underwriter for Canadian Direct Insurance Karen Hopkins-Lee says the big takeaway from the disastrous 2003 BC fire season was the number of homes that were under-insured.
“We were seeing a lot of under-insurance in that particular situation. What people thought were the values going in ended up being significantly more when the homes were repaired or replaced.”
Hopkins-Lee adds it was a lesson learned again this year by the 7,000 people of Slave Lake, Alberta. Total losses in Slave Lake are estimated at $700 million.
She has this advice for other homeowners.
“Make sure your agent or adviser is fully aware of the details of your home and that you’re insuring your home to its replacement value, not market value, [but] what it would cost to rebuild your home today.”
Hopkins-Lee says too often homeowners do renovations or other improvements without telling their insurance company. She says people can help reduce their fire risk by keeping dead plants or trees at least 10 metres away from their homes.
