Home insurance from people you can walk in and talk to.
Buying, renewing, or told your policy will not be renewed. We handle all three. If you are closing on a home and your lender needs proof of insurance, say so first and we will treat it as the deadline it is.
Get home insurance See what’s coveredBuilding at rebuild cost, contents, liability and living expenses
Homeowners, condo owners and anyone buying a home
The address, the age of the home, and your closing date if you have one
What does home insurance actually cover?
Four things. The building itself, at what it would cost to rebuild (not what you paid for it. Your belongings inside. Your liability if someone is hurt on your property or you cause damage elsewhere. And the cost of living somewhere else while your home is repaired. Everything after that, earthquake, overland water, sewer backup, high-value items) is a choice you should make deliberately rather than discover later.
If the rebuild figure was set years ago, the shortfall is yours to find while you are also paying to live somewhere else. And a strata deductible assessed against your unit can arrive as a bill for tens of thousands of dollars. The Insurance Bureau of Canada separates the three numbers people mix up: “The replacement value of your home may differ from the market value and municipal tax assessment value.” Insure to rebuild. The same page lists overland flood and sewer backup as add-ons rather than standard cover. Read IBC on types of home insurance coverage (opens in a new tab).
Cover for how you actually live.
Homeowners
Detached, duplex and townhouse, building, contents, liability and additional living expenses.
Tenants
Your belongings and your liability. Often required by a landlord.
Earthquake
Optional, and a real decision on this coast. We will explain the deductible before you choose.
Overland water & sewer backup
Flooding from outside and backup from below, separate covers that are not automatic.
Higher-value homes and contents
Larger properties, jewellery, art and collections that standard limits do not reach.
Older homes
Knob-and-tube wiring, older roofs and plumbing, where many online quotes stop and we keep going.
Secondary and seasonal homes
Cabins, vacation properties and homes left empty for stretches of the year.
The strata deductible is the bill nobody expects.
If you own a condo in BC, this is the single most useful thing on this page. When a loss starts in your unit (a burst hose, an overflowing tub) your strata’s insurance may pay for the building damage, and then charge you its deductible. Those deductibles are frequently in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Your policy can cover it
Strata deductible assessment coverage exists for exactly this. The limit should match your building’s actual deductible, not a default figure.
Check it when the strata renews
Building deductibles have risen sharply. A limit set three years ago may now cover a fraction of it.
Bring us your strata documents
We will read them and tell you what number you need. It is a five-minute conversation that has saved people a great deal.
Declined, cancelled, or told to fix something first?
That is ordinary work here, not a special favour.
Homes get declined for reasons that have nothing to do with the owner. Older wiring. A roof past a certain age. Wildfire exposure. A claim on the file. A period when the house sat empty. Or an insurer simply leaving a whole class of property.
Send us the letter. We read the actual reason, tell you honestly whether we can place it, and tell you what would make it easier, sometimes an inspection or a repair changes the answer entirely.
How this can play out.
A condo owner’s washing machine hose fails while they are at work. The building’s insurance pays for the damage to three units, then assesses its deductible against them. That bill is why strata deductible coverage exists.
What your lender needs, and when.
Tell us the closing date
Early. It is the only date that matters, and everything else works backwards from it.
Send the details
The address, the age of the home, and the listing if you have it, that answers most of our questions.
We arrange the binder
Your lender needs proof of insurance in place before funds are released. That is the document we send.
We fine-tune after
Once you are in, we adjust contents, deductibles and optional covers properly, without the deadline pressure.
The house rules hiding in a home policy.
A home policy is a set of promises with conditions attached. Break a condition without knowing it exists and the promise can go quiet exactly when you need it. Three worth knowing about.
Going away in winter
Most wordings expect the heat left on and someone checking the house during the cold months, or the water shut off and drained. A burst pipe found two weeks later is the claim this condition exists for.
The thirty-day quiet period
Once a home sits empty for about thirty days, cover starts to narrow, usually water first and then more. A vacancy permit keeps the policy honest while the house waits.
Changes the insurer never heard about
A new suite, a home business, a wood stove installed over the winter: each one changes the risk the policy was priced on. Told early, they are routine. Discovered at claim time, they are the argument.
Renting out a room by the night
Home-sharing is business activity, and most home policies exclude it unless it is declared. One hosted booking that goes wrong can leave both the loss and the lawsuit outside the policy.
None of these make a home hard to insure. They make it worth a ten-minute conversation, so the policy matches the way you actually live.
What homeowners ask us.
Should I insure my home for what I paid for it?
No, for what it would cost to rebuild it. Those are very different numbers, especially in the Lower Mainland where land makes up much of the purchase price. Insuring to market value usually means paying for cover you cannot use.
Do I need earthquake cover in BC?
It is optional, and it is a genuine decision rather than an upsell. The important part is understanding the deductible, which is a percentage of the sum insured and therefore a large number. We will show you what it means in dollars before you decide.
Is flooding covered?
Not automatically. Water damage splits into several separate covers (overland water, sewer backup, and sudden internal escape of water) and they are not all included by default. This is worth checking on your current policy today.
My home has knob-and-tube wiring. Can I get insurance?
Often yes, though fewer insurers will write it and some will ask for an electrical inspection. An online quote often stops here. Send us the details and we will tell you what the market will look at.
Will making a claim raise my premium?
It can, depending on the claim and your history. For a very small loss it is worth a conversation before you file, call us and we will talk it through honestly, including when not claiming may serve you better.
How fast can I get proof of insurance for my lender?
Tell us the closing date as early as you can. Binders for home purchases are routine work here, and we will tell you straight away whether your date is achievable rather than leaving you to find out the week before.
The questions behind the questions.
Buying, renewing, or stuck?
Tell us the address and the date you need cover by. Or walk into any branch, no appointment. Send us the address, the age of the home, and your closing date if you have one.
CLOSING SOON? SAY SO FIRST. WE TREAT IT AS THE DEADLINE IT IS
Renting rather than owning? Tenant insurance covers your things and your liability.
Property sitting empty, being renovated or part of an estate? vacant property insurance.