Your home policy covers a shed. It was not written for a workshop.
Our Fraser Highway office in Surrey is the closest S&S counter, over the Golden Ears Bridge. Walk in without an appointment to go through the outbuildings, the equipment in them, the business run from the property and the vehicles that go with it. We are licensed to arrange insurance anywhere in the province, so a phone call works just as well.
Call 604-319-1000 Branch details and hours Build your fileWhere can I find an insurance broker near Maple Ridge?
Our nearest office is at 104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey, over the Golden Ears Bridge. Walk in during opening hours with no appointment to go through acreages and outbuildings, a business run from the property, tools and machinery, trucks and trailers, and anything another insurer has declined. Call 604-319-1000, or use our Delta branch if you need somewhere open in the evening or on a Sunday.
What we are asked for most here.
A lot of property out here does two jobs. Somebody lives at the front and works at the back, and the gap between those two is where the questions sit:
Outbuildings, shops and barns
Detached structures, what is stored in them, and the liability that comes with having them. Farm and acreage insurance.
A business run from the property
Stock in the garage, a client at the gate, and a home policy that was written for neither. Small business insurance.
Tools, machinery and equipment
In a detached shop, on a trailer, or left on a site over the weekend. Contractor insurance.
Trucks, trailers and equipment on the road
Owned units, hired units, and the person who takes their own vehicle to the supplier. Commercial vehicle and fleet insurance.
A suite, a cabin or a second house
Renting out part of the property changes the policy it needs, whoever the tenant is. Landlord insurance.
Declined or hard to place
Wood heat, an old oil tank, distance from a fire hall, a claims history. Bring us the letter. Been declined?
Where the home policy stops, and what picks it up.
One title, one driveway, and five quite different things sitting on it. A home policy handles some of them, was never asked to handle the rest.
One
The house
The part a home policy was actually written for, along with the people living in it.
Two
The attached garage
Treated as part of the house in most wordings. What is kept in it is a separate question from the structure.
Three
The detached shop or barn
A home policy will normally cover a detached structure, but to a limit, and for living rather than trading.
Four
What is inside it
Tools, machinery, materials and stock. This is where a home policy stops being the right contract.
Five
Anyone who comes for business
A customer, a supplier or a helper on the property changes the liability question entirely.
Where the home policy stops
One title, one driveway, and five quite different things sitting on it. A home policy handles some of them and was never asked to handle the rest.
The line is not the fence. It is whether the thing is there for living or for trading.
| Across one property | A home policy | A business policy |
|---|---|---|
| The houseThe house, and the people living in it, are what a home policy is written for. | A home policy: Usually answered here | A business policy: Not what this policy is built for |
| The attached garageAn attached garage is treated as part of the house in most wordings. What is kept inside it is a separate question from the structure itself. | A home policy: Usually answered here | A business policy: Not what this policy is built for |
| The detached shop or barnA detached shop or barn is usually covered by a home policy, but to a limit, and for living rather than trading. It is worth checking what that limit is and what it is allowed to be used for. | A home policy: Usually covered, but to a limit | A business policy: Usually covered, but to a limit |
| What is inside itTools, machinery, materials and stock are where a home policy stops being the right contract. That is what a business policy is built for. | A home policy: Not what this policy is built for | A business policy: Usually answered here |
| Anyone who comes for businessA customer, a supplier or a helper on the property changes the liability question entirely. A home policy is not written with business visitors in mind. | A home policy: Not what this policy is built for | A business policy: Usually answered here |
Most home policies put a limit on detached structures, and that limit is worked out as a share of the amount on the house. Yours will say what it is. These sentences say what each policy is built to do. They do not say a claim will be paid, and they do not say one will be refused. Your own wording decides.
Walk us round it on the phone. Ten minutes describing what is actually on the land settles more than any form does.
Three things that catch people out here.
Trading from the property
A home policy is written for living in a home, not for running a business from one, and a claim can turn on that. Running a business from home.
The wood stove and the paperwork
The stove is one question. The certificate for it is the one that decides the file. Wood stoves and WETT.
Tools in a building that is not the house
Where they are kept, how they are secured, and the limit that applies once they leave the yard. Tools and equipment theft.
General information only. What is covered is decided by the wording of the policy actually issued to you.
Getting to us from Maple Ridge.
104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey, over the Golden Ears Bridge. No appointment needed, and you do not have to come in at all if you would rather not.
Opening hours
Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:00, Saturday 10:00 to 17:00, closed Sunday.
Open later?
Our Delta office is open seven days a week, until 9pm Monday to Saturday and 8pm on Sunday.
Rather not drive
Call 604-319-1000 or send us what you need and choose how we reply.
From people with land and a trade on it.
I run a business from my property. Does my home policy cover the shop?
The building itself is normally covered as a detached structure, to a limit. What the policy was not written for is the trading: the stock, the tools, the machinery and anyone coming onto the land for business reasons. That part needs its own cover, and it is a change rather than a whole new arrangement.
Are my tools covered if they are in a detached outbuilding?
It depends on what they are for and how the building is secured. Tools kept for personal use sit differently from tools that earn a living. Tell us which it is and we will tell you what applies.
I have an acreage with a couple of outbuildings. Do I need a farm policy?
Not necessarily. What decides it is what happens on the land. Barns, livestock, equipment and produce sold at the gate point to a farm policy. A large garden and a garage do not. We will ask what is actually going on rather than guess from the lot size.
We are a long way from a fire hall. Does that matter?
Yes, and it is one of the first things an insurer looks at on a rural property, along with the water supply and the road access. It does not make a property uninsurable, it changes which markets will look at it.
Is there an insurance broker near Maple Ridge open on a Sunday?
Our Delta branch at 2-8195 120 St is open seven days a week, Sunday 10:00 to 20:00.
Do your brokers speak Punjabi?
Yes. Our team speaks Punjabi and Hindi, as well as English, Italian, Cantonese and Mandarin.
The guides that matter most on a property like this.
Working from the house
What a home policy was written for, and the point at which it stops being the right contract. Running a business from home.
Tools off the yard
What a policy asks of you in return, and where cover stops once they leave. Tools and equipment theft.
The car that is not yours
Somebody running an errand in their own vehicle, and where the business sits if it goes wrong. Non-owned auto liability.
How your buildings are valued
Two ways to value the same barn, and a wide gap between them at claim time. Replacement cost or actual cash value.
Water is the fussiest peril
Some water, not all of it, and the differences are larger than the word suggests. What water damage cover does.
What liability does not do
The exclusions people are most surprised by, in plain words. What general liability does not cover.
Why so much of this work runs through Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
The City of Pitt Meadows states that 78 per cent of the city is agricultural land, that it ranks sixth among British Columbia municipalities for agricultural production, and that it accounts for 20 per cent of the province’s blueberry production. Dairy, cranberries, nursery stock and greenhouse crops all sit alongside it.
Source: City of Pitt Meadows, agriculture. It opens in a new tab. The figures are the City’s, not ours.
When most of a municipality is farmland, most of its buildings are not houses. Barns, shops, packing sheds and equipment stores are the normal case here rather than the exception, and a policy written around a house and a garage was never the right shape for that.
Not sure what you are carrying and what you are not? Run the Risk Snapshot, or read the insurance guides.
Come in, or call us.
104A-19151 Fraser Hwy, Surrey. No appointment, no ticket, no call centre.
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