A city solicitor of Windsor has announced that the municipality is not responsible for covering the hundreds of insurance claims related to a severe flooding event last year.

Record-breaking rainfall on September 29 led to thousands of filled-in basements and extensive water damage.

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Solicitor Shelby Askin Hager explained that because the city’s storm water system was working properly that day, the municipality cannot be held liable for the 401 insurance claims it has received. She also noted that although most of the claims the city has received came from homeowners’ insurance companies, the city is still not responsible for making the payouts.

“We certainly reviewed over and over the systems that we have, and the processes that we have confirmed that everything was functioning as it was intended to function,” Hager told CBC.

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Hager described the storm event as “overwhelming,” which exonerates the city from any responsibility to pay the claims.

The hundreds of claims the city has received will be included in a year-end risk management report that Windsor’s council will review on Monday. The report recommends that the city pay for the claims it is responsible for using what is left from the overall budget surplus, instead of from a reserve fund.

Over the past five years, Windsor’s sewer-related claims have gone down; Hager credits this improvement to the city’s basement flooding protection program.


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