How BC Wildfires Affect your Insurance

How BC Wildfires Affect your Insurance

This is a general communication to our insurance customers regarding existing and new insurance policies, and how they might be impacted by the current wildfire situation in British Columbia.

The evacuation package contains the following information, as well Insurance Claim Contact Information and an Evacuation Checklist.

Current Policies Including Upcoming Renewals

Firstly, if you already have current fire insurance on your home, personal property, farm, business, recreational vehicles, boats, seasonal and other residences, vehicles  and other property, then your fire insurance is set to protect you if they are damaged or lost as a result of a forest fire.

If you have been or are facing an evacuation order by civil authority, your personal home or farm policies generally offer coverage for additional and emergency expenses you incur to move to safety. Please keep all of your receipts.

In addition, if you have a current policy that is due for renewal, we can ensure you have continuous coverage throughout this catastrophic event.

You have your Integris Insurance broker on your side and standing by to assist you during these troubled and very stressful times. We are partners in this together.

New Fire Insurance

If you are seeking new Fire Insurance on any of your property, or are looking to add other property, or increase limits of your insurance, our ability to be able to place that coverage will primarily depend on if your property is  facing immediate or potential threat from an advancing fire.

Each Insurance company that we deal with has their own defined restrictions about whether we can arrange insurance in certain zones, but generally if your property is in imminent threat, we will likely be prevented from arranging any NEW coverage. This is standard in the insurance industry and helps to protect our Insurance companies from having to cover losses that are unreasonably foreseeable and surely to occur.

ICBC Autoplan & Comprehensive Vehicle Insurance

If residents are under evacuation alert or order, customers who do not already carry fire insurance on their vehicles may not add comprehensive or specified perils to the existing policy or take out a storage policy for vehicles being threatened by the fire.

You can however still buy collision and third party liability coverage and a new plate or temporary permit if needed, to help you move the vehicle to safety.

For your information and assistance, we are attaching a package that contains an Evacuation checklist that outlines some instructions about the evacuation you may face and then what to do once you are given the OK to return home. Insurance Evacuation Package

We always recommend being prepared to be able to show your Insurance Company proof of your property loss even for times when we are not facing catastrophic events.

Safety is always first and foremost of course, however, if you do have the time you may want to consider taking lots of photos, video, or even completing the attached home inventory worksheet which can be found on our website.

We will do our very best to keep you informed to the greatest extent possible and will have available to you communication that will hopefully suit all of your preferences such as:

New Integris Mortgage-holder

If you have arranged your mortgage with Integris, we may have a temporary solution for arranging fire insurance for you during the BC wildfire event regardless of your location. Policies can cover the dwelling, but does not extend to contents. Once things are back to normal, we can then look at placing a more traditional and broader insurance program on your behalf.

The evacuation package contains the following information, as well Insurance Claim Contact Information and an Evacuation Checklist.