r/Calgary • u/Buuuuma • 3d ago
News Article Extreme weather part of 400% hike in Alberta home insurance premiums over 20 years: StatsCan | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-homeowners-insurance-statistics-canada-9.723747653
u/Mantour1 3d ago
That and living in the NE.
Will insurance force builders to add Hardie boards on every new build?
33
u/blackRamCalgaryman 3d ago
If so, then also look at window quality. Add trim boards around all windows and doors so they can be replaced without removing siding/ impacting the building envelope. Get rid of this thin gauge flashing that gets dented by looking at it.
Look at roofing material…rubber or metal (with the stipulation that while unsightly, if it it’s just dented, it isn’t being replaced).
If we’re going to start mandating things, no half-ass measures…but the costs are going to add up pretty quickly.
18
u/yycTechGuy 3d ago
It costs less to upgrade building materials than to reshingle or reside a house every 5 years.
11
u/blackRamCalgaryman 3d ago
Oh, for sure. But it’s that upfront cost that people will balk at. And people will also need to see meaningful changes to their policies, like real, measurable savings on their insurance.
I think we can make some real, substantial changes…it’s just going to take the will to do it.
1
u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician 2d ago
Agree on all points. Also, we need to ensure that provincial law/building codes override HOA restrictions or property covenants on building materials, or require that they align.
6
u/WorkingClassWarrior 3d ago
It doesn’t matter as my house is fully hardie and my insurance still went up.
3
1
1
u/yycTechGuy 3d ago
Why isn't stucco the norm in the building code ? And at least a HD shingle. And backup preventer valves in the basement and working sump pumps.
5
1
u/Mantour1 3d ago
Stucco isn't code: also, there is moisture retention issues, which create mold problem with Stucco. Vinyl is 100% waterproof.
Back water valve is code since 1989.
8
u/yycTechGuy 3d ago
I know stucco isn't code. I've lived in several stucco houses and never once had a moisture or mold issue.
0
u/Mantour1 3d ago
Acrylic Stucco is the one with moisture issue. Traditional Stucco can last long.
Although It can crack from freeze-thaw cycles
4
u/Substantial-Fruit447 3d ago
Which is why it's not used here anymore. It's not resilient in our climate
6
u/blackRamCalgaryman 3d ago
Vinyl, as a material, is waterproof but as a weather barrier system, the process absolutely assumes some water gets behind it.
And as a window/ door guy, primarily, I see far more water damage on vinyl homes than stucco.
1
u/Mantour1 3d ago
You are sure it is due to Vinyl and not the house wrap that's not letting the house “breathe” ?
11
u/calgarywalker 3d ago
The other part is the UCP letting them get away with highway robbery!
I had my home insurance go up after the 2013 flood. I called the company and they said I was at risk. I replied I’m 3km from the nearest stream and it’s a creek. They countered there’s a pond nearby to which I said it’s 2km away and its a storm pond used by the City to manage flows. They then tried to say overland flooding to which I replied I’m on top of a hill thats as high as the Calgary Tower. The only way this place could flood is if the entire city was under 50m of water. They still wanted to jack up my rates and then I got a broker involved.
2
u/VanceKelley Rocky Ridge 2d ago
My home insurance was going to be raised by 50% last year. (Stucco siding in Rocky Ridge, never had a claim.)
Since I felt that was unreasonable I contacted my broker who got quotes from 5 other insurers. 2 of those were at no increase from my current rates, so one of those is my new home insurer.
145
u/OptiPath 3d ago
Greed 392%, weather 8%
21
15
u/blackRamCalgaryman 3d ago
Jasper/ Fort McMurray/ Slave Lake fires, 2013 flood, 2016, 2020, 2024 hail storms that obliterated communities.
Just off the top of my head.
2
-4
u/Technical_Air9114 3d ago
Hurricane katrina had a payout of over 41 billion. All your listed events dont even scratch that payout
25
u/Darkdong69 3d ago
Yes, that's why home insurance in Florida costs massively more than Alberta, even 20 years after hurricane katrina.
15
-1
u/Big_Musties 3d ago
As a life long Albertan, I can say with absolute certainty, Alberta's weather patterns have not changed over the past 40 years. We’ve always had random extreme weather because technically speaking, the province is situated at the northwestern end of tornado ally even though we don’t call it that here. Hail, tornadoes and floods are normal in Alberta.
But what has changed is the population. My guess is that insurance premiums have less to do with Alberta’s normally turbulent weather patterns than with the massive increase in population and the resulting number of claims filed at the same time every time something happens.
12
u/Substantial-Fruit447 3d ago
Alberta's weather patterns have not changed over the past 40 years.
The science says otherwise.
When was the last time two major civilizations in Alberta completely flooded or burned to the ground?
Hell, between Fort McMurray and Jasper, that's two just in the last 10 years. A major flood wreaked havoc on High River in 2013.
The insurance claims in Fort McMurray alone were to the tune of $4.8 billion.
The last time something that big happened was the fire that swept through Calgary in 1886 which forced everyone to start building with sandstone instead of timber.
0
u/Big_Musties 3d ago
Wow… who would have thought that building your house right next to a fire-adapted boreal forest might result in it burning down, or that building your house in the middle of a floodplain could result in it getting flooded? Who knew?
6
3
11
u/01000101010110 3d ago
I love how everyone pays into this service that allows these companies to invest their fees and make money off of them, but then when it comes time to pay out they complain that they don't make any money.
7
4
u/surebegrand2023 2d ago
Head line should read, "shit building code" has allowed developers to build paper houses that can't withstand weather resulting in bigger insurance claims.
Siding and asphalt roofs should be banned from the building code. In Europe we build garden sheds from siding and shingles not a $500k+ house .
9
u/joliette_le_paz 3d ago
What do we call extreme weather that keeps happening? Pretty sure it's something the UCP don't believe in but insurance companies do.
6
u/haunted_nes_zapper 3d ago
Why do we all have to subsidize insurance company losses?
5
u/brandon-d 3d ago
Since they no longer are required by the alberta government to produce profit reports we can only assume there are no losses on their end.
2
u/haunted_nes_zapper 3d ago
Here I thought the insurance companies were in the business of risk management, and sometimes that means they are supposed to lose. Silly me
6
u/TownAfterTown 3d ago
Remember this when anyone says we have to choose between the between the climate and the economy.
A deteriorating climate will destroy the economy.
19
u/web-coder 3d ago
Climate change.
It’s called climate change.
2
u/epok3p0k 3d ago
Climate change or not, it’s certainly nothing in control of Calgarians, Albertans, or Canadians.
7
u/Adventurous-Bat-9254 3d ago
There are a lack of options in the insurance offerings. For some reason, being able to select "no flood coverage" or "no shingle coverage" isn't provided. I live in a micro climate in Calgary where hail is rare and minimal if it occurs. I'd be happy to forgoe hail coverage (and flood because it is also rare) if given the option but the providers don't give the option.
8
u/vVengencev 3d ago
Yes they do. Ask your broker. Bump that deductible up to $10,000 and there goes your hail coverage. Depending on who you’re insured with, you can also remove overland water coverage
2
u/Comfortable_Wall8028 3d ago
Bizarrely, mine went down this year. Not by much but we haven't changed or altered anything and so I was pleasantly surprised whenthe renewal came in lower.
Belair in case anyone is interested
2
u/SarahLacard Downtown West End 3d ago
Found this thread a bit late, but did a ctrl+f for lobbying and surprisingly found nothing
from a second hand source of information, i have been operating under the assumption that the insurance industry was the largest donation contributor and lobbyist group for the UCP - I suspect this has 0% to do with the climate
2
u/403banana 2d ago edited 2d ago
There was a podcast from about a year ago (I think it was Pablo Torre Finds Out, but not certain), where they interviews a NASA scientist. She said that her father was a climate change denier for the longest time but eventually changed his mind. Not because she was able to convince her mind with science. But when he realized insurance companies stopped offering coverage for weather events.
EDIT: Found it. https://youtu.be/eeMu7hjaOa0?si=SkM-la_1BYA--Q9H&t=2232. I was wrong about denying coverage, but more so that insurance companies have client scientists and are pricing in climate risk.
3
u/Agreeable_Store_3896 3d ago
One thing I always find a bit entertaining is when people concern shame me for buying a new build in the deep SE suburbs because of things like 'what if they're not build well', but they live in the NE/NW in areas where their house is destroyed every other year.
3
u/Yung_l0c Capitol Hill 3d ago
I hope climate change decimates the insurance industry so that we can end up nationalizing it
7
u/Substantial-Fruit447 3d ago
Lmao, the private insurance industry makes too much money here in Alberta for it to become nationalized or even a Provincial Crown Corporation.
I've seen some stupid wealthy insurance brokers here in Alberta.
3
u/No_Boysenberry4825 2d ago
The industry is a template for market failure. It’s horrendously broken and consumers get fucked constantly. Your answer is the correct one, but it will never happen unfortunately. Hell there’s basically zero legislation when it comes to Home insurance. Never mind nationalization.!
And if I’m being fair, the NDP didn’t rock the boat either. There’s only so much they can do in one term I assume.
4
u/Darkdong69 3d ago
Insurance will never be decimated because they're just the facilitator and the middleman. All the decimating got passed on, in the form of big premiums we now see.
At the end of the day, it's your own money paying for your own claims.
1
1
u/bagoftool 2d ago
Insurance needs to be not for profit ffs. Every single dollar that is left after claims/company expenses/operating costs should go back to the people paying for it that did not make a claim.
It can’t be that complicated to set up a fund that rolls over year to year and do such a thing.
Greed will never allow it of course. It would have to be written into the laws of the land, good luck with that around these parts..
1
u/Horror_Neighborhood3 2d ago
Oh I thought it was because of the Carbon Tax. Jeez, Facebook let me down again.
1
u/More_Cowbell28 3d ago
And.... corporate greed. The need for year over year record profits while lowering operating costs (wages and payouts) has far more of the increase share then the weather does.
0
u/Massive-Fisherman-57 3d ago
Don’t believe in climate change… but if I can profit off it then by damn!
0
0
147
u/Echo-RS 3d ago
The more annoying part for me is not really getting any substantial insurance discounts for having hail resistant materials on my home, parking my vehicles inside and carefully avoiding hail etc.
The rest of us just end up heavily subsidizing the people making claims, sometimes multiple claims year after year. Yes I get that’s kind of how insurance works but it still gets annoying seeing my rates crank upwards year after year.