One insurer is vowing to be more diligent with follow-up phone calls, reinstating a Nova Scotia woman’s home insurance after initially denying a flood claim.
But the real issue at hand, many in the industry would argue, is the need to push ahead on flood mitigation in urban areas.
“The longer we wait on climate mitigation measures, the more we will pay in losses,” says Peter Hoppe, head of Geo Risk Research/Corporate Climate Centre with
Munich Re. “We need to tell the taxpayer that we need to spend more now, or we will be paying much, much more 10 to 20 years from now. As parents, we need to see this as an investment for a better future for our children.”
A recent report on the city of Edmonton, Alta., shows that $2.4 billion will be needed to upgrade sewers in 150 older neighbourhoods.
In the case of Lower Sackville resident Jean Gorton, she got a letter from RBC Insurance stating her insurance had been cancelled after her basement had flooded for the 10th time in five years.
In a statement from RBC, the policy had been cancelled because her oil tank was not inspected, according to
CBC News.
It was the second claim Gorton had filed for the 10 flood events.
According to Gorton, she had told an RBC Insurance representative in a phone conversation in September that the tank was inspected in 2011.
RBC Insurance was supposed to call her back, but the Lower Sackville resident said she never got that call. (continued.)
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It was following a call from
CBC News to RBC Insurance that the insurer contacted Gorton to tell her that the coverage had been reinstated.
In an email from RBC, spokeswoman Catherine Hudon said that RBC reviewed Gorton's file and had reinstated her coverage. RBC also admitted it could have done more to notify Gorton of the information needed to continue her coverage.
RBC has ordered a home inspection of the most recent damage, and has vowed to pay for it and will determine what repairs are needed to continue the coverage.
Gorton says that she has already paid more than $40,000 out of her own pocket for the repeated flood damage to her home, and has asked the Halifax Regional Municipality to remedy her flooding woes.
According to Gorton, the public utility has told her that it is not their problem.
The repeated flooding at Gorton’s home speaks to the larger issue of flood mitigation that insurers have been sounding the alarm bell across Canada.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, flooding is now the leading cause of property damage across the country, costing insurers about $1.7 billion per year.
Jonathan Turner, chief financial officer for
Swiss Re Canada, told
Insurance Business that there is an urgent need to address disaster mitigation now.
“Given the urgency of the situation and the very real threat to our communities and to society,” says Turner, “now is the time to turn talk into action and implement the National Disaster Mitigation Strategy – before the next big storm, fire or quake.”
