Home Insurance is Hard to Get These Days
By Sara Golling
Today I heard some rumours to the effect that insurance companies are no longer insuring homes in BC against damage or loss by fire. That sounded extreme, so I phoned our local insurance company and began asking questions. Here’s what I learned:
If you have home insurance now, your home is insured against all losses listed in your policy.
If you are in the process of purchasing a property and you do not have insurance on it yet, you may have difficulty finding insurance for it. If it is within 25 kilometers of a current fire, you will not get insurance. If it is in an area without fire hydrants, you are very unlikely to find a company that will sell you insurance at this time.
This restriction on house insurance sales is, I am assured, temporary and how long it continues depends on our weather and fire conditions. It is something you should be aware of before signing a contract for purchase and sale of a property; you should check with an insurance broker before signing on the dotted line, to see whether you will be able to find satisfactory insurance on it — unless you are willing to self-insure, which simply means accepting any losses you may suffer.
Meanwhile, out in the Pacific Ocean, a long-lasting high-pressure ridge is partially responsible for our current weather. Meteorologists are calling it “the ridiculously resistant ridge” because it has sat there, rather like Mount Everest, without changing, for a much longer time than any high-pressure ridge is expected to remain without shifting and fading. I rather doubt it will be influenced by rain dances or songs, but performing them may make us feel a bit better about our fire hazard levels.
Risks for Rosslanders to be careful about include the heat from mountain bike brakes. Yes, they get hot enough to start fires in dry grass — it has happened. Please be careful about dropping your bike, or even riding through dry leaves and grass, when you’ve used the brakes recently.
And do we really have to mention smoking? I hope not.
