An older building is not a bad risk. It is a different one.
Our Main Street office in Vancouver is the closest S&S counter to New Westminster, a straight run along Marine Drive. Walk in without an appointment to go through the building, the wiring, the heating, the tenants and anything another insurer has already said no to.
Call 604-324-5711 Branch details and hours Send us the letterWhere can I find an insurance broker near New Westminster?
Our nearest office to New Westminster is at 6607 Main St, Vancouver, a straight run along Marine Drive. Walk in during opening hours with no appointment to go through commercial property in an older building, shops and offices, strata units, rental buildings, and files another insurer has declined or refused to renew. Call 604-324-5711, 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 the building stock here went up before the rules that insurers now underwrite against. That is where the questions start:
Wiring, heating and what gets asked about
Knob and tube, aluminium, an old oil tank, a wood stove. Each one has an answer, and none of them is automatically a no. Older wiring and insurance.
Putting the building back
What it costs to rebuild a century old building is not what it costs to build a new one, and the limit has to reflect that. Commercial property insurance.
Shops, cafes and offices on the street
Contents, the limit written into the lease, and the certificate a landlord is waiting on. Small business insurance.
Strata units and the line down the middle
Where the corporation’s policy stops and yours begins, and the deductible that can land on you. Strata insurance.
Rental buildings and suites
Older apartment buildings, converted houses and basement suites, none of which a homeowner’s policy was written for. Landlord insurance.
Declined, cancelled or not renewed
Bring us the letter. We will read the file and tell you honestly whether we can place it. Been declined?
What an underwriter actually wants to know about an old building.
These are the questions an underwriter asks about an older building. None of it is personal, and each one has an answer.
One
The wiring
Knob and tube and aluminium are the two that come up. What matters is what is still live, what has been replaced, and who signed off on it.
Two
The heat
An oil tank in the ground, a wood stove without a certificate, or a furnace past its years. Each has a document that settles it.
Three
The plumbing
Galvanised and poly pipe age out. Water is the most expensive thing that happens to an old building, and insurers price it that way.
Four
The roof
Age, material and the last time it was done. This is the cheapest question on the list to answer well.
Five
The rebuild figure
Not the market value and not the assessment. What it would cost to put this particular building back, in the way the bylaws require.
Bring whatever paperwork you have, even if it is incomplete. Several of them can be settled by paperwork you may already have.
Three things that catch owners out here.
The oil tank nobody removed
Buried tanks outlive the furnaces they fed, and they surface at the worst moment, such as a sale. Oil tanks and insurance.
The wood stove without paperwork
The stove is one question. The certificate for it is the one that decides the file. Wood stoves and WETT.
A claim in the file
Past water damage follows a building rather than an owner, and it changes the conversation at renewal. Water damage history.
General information only. What is covered is decided by the wording of the policy actually issued to you.
Getting to us from New Westminster.
6607 Main St, Vancouver, a straight run west along Marine Drive. No appointment needed.
Opening hours
Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:30, Saturday 10:00 to 18:00.
Open later?
Our Delta office is open seven days a week, until 9pm Monday to Saturday and 8pm on Sunday.
Rather not come in?
Call 604-324-5711 or send us what you need and choose how we reply.
From owners of older buildings.
My building has knob and tube wiring. Can it be insured?
It is not an automatic no. What decides it is how much is still live, whether any of it has been replaced, and what an electrician is willing to put in writing. Send us what you have and we will tell you where it stands.
What does an insurer want to know about an older building?
Wiring, heat source, plumbing, roof, and what it would cost to rebuild. Those five come up again and again, and each has a document that answers it.
My insurer refused to renew. What happens now?
Bring us the letter. A non-renewal is a starting point, not a verdict, and the reason given points straight at what needs looking at. We will read the file and tell you honestly whether we can place it.
I own a unit in an older strata. What is mine to insure?
The corporation insures the building as the Strata Property Act and the bylaws define it. Yours covers your contents, your improvements, your liability, and the deductible that can be charged back to you.
Is there an insurance broker near New Westminster 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 in an older building.
Water is the fussiest peril
Some water, not all of it, and old plumbing meets the difference more than new plumbing does. What water damage cover does.
What it pays to put back
Actual cash value pays what it was worth on the day, not what it costs to build again. On an old building that gap is wide. Replacement cost or actual cash value.
The strata deductible
When the building’s policy pays, the deductible does not vanish. Who it lands on is set by the Act and the bylaws. Who pays the deductible.
Your lease wrote your policy
The limits, the wording and whoever has to be added, all decided before you signed. Read the clause properly.
Boilers, lifts and old plant
A property policy answers for the machine, not for what happens inside it. Older buildings are full of both. Why property skips the motor.
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 New Westminster.
The City describes itself as British Columbia’s oldest incorporated city, dating to 1859, and the province’s first capital. Its downtown was rebuilt from almost nothing: a fire on 10 and 11 September 1898 destroyed a third of the city and, by the City’s own account, all but two buildings downtown. The City’s heritage work identifies more than 75 heritage buildings in the downtown alone, most of them from before the Second World War.
Sources: City of New Westminster, heritage and its Downtown historical context statement. Each opens in a new tab. The figures are the City’s, not ours.
That history is the whole reason this page exists. A building put up in 1900 was built before the wiring, the plumbing, the sprinklers and the seismic rules that an underwriter now measures it against. It is not a worse building. It is a building that needs a broker willing to read the file rather than the postcode.
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.
6607 Main St, Vancouver. No appointment, no ticket, no call centre.
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