While insurance brokers typically provide a great deal of help for clients, one family is speaking out about an unfortunate experience where their broker-client interaction inadvertently led to more harm than good.
 
The Muzzeralls, who live in Wirral, N.B., thought it would be wise to inform their home insurance broker of eight years that their house was struck by lightning, thinking this would serve as a precaution against any permanent damage that may have been sustained by the structure, reports CBC News.
 
They now ‘regret’ that action, as it caused an ensuing insurance nightmare for the homeowners, who never even filed a claim from the incident.
 
The family believes that the problems arose once an adjuster was sent to assess the residence for damages. After that evaluation, the Muzzeralls soon received notice that their upcoming renewal would be denied unless they made certain adjustments to their home.
 
In addition, they were warned that their premiums would rise because the house was located more than 13 kilometers away from a fire station. When Jennifer Muzzerall told the insurer that The Hoyt Fire Hall – rated highly by the Fire Underwriters Survey – is seven kilometers away, it rebuffed her.
 
"I said, 'Well it's a volunteer fire department.' And she said, 'Is there people there all the time?,’” Muzzerall told CBC News. The insurer ended up excluding the fire department, contending that it didn’t qualify as a “real fire hall.”
 
Finally, the company then sent a letter that saying it would not renew the Muzzeralls’ coverage, no matter what actions they took to ameliorate these conditions.
 
Although a GoToInsure broker tried to frantically find new homeowners’ policies for the family, they were consistently denied for reasons similar to those outlined in their prior insurer’s letters. Eventually, after “two weeks of scrambling,” they were able to obtain coverage.