Intact to the Rescue
by Sharron Martens on Apr 28, 2017
5 out of 5 stars
Intact hired engineers to determine the extent of water damage to a family home. Their staff adjuster promised to send us copies of the reports then reneged when we didn't do exactly what they wanted. Eventually we got them, and found Intact's engineers made a bunch of bad assumptions to the huge benefit of their client. We pointed the problems out right away, provided them all kinds of evidence that they were wrong, hired another engineering company that did additional testing that proved they were wrong, and got an independent review that confirmed Intact's findings weren't proven....
It's been over two years since the incident and we've gotten practically nothing but deny, delay and defend tactics from Intact despite having already been out of pocket thousands of dollars to prove our claim.
I can't imagine that there could possibly be a worse insurance company than Intact.
Noticed that their overall rating seems to be skewed by multiple short, generic, positive reviews posted very quickly over the first couple months, with almost exclusively detailed, one star reviews in the years since. Something smells fishy to me.
Living in the Toronto area my parent's basement was flooded. We contacted Intact Ins. and they opened a case right away. It took them 5 months before they offered my parents any sort of compensation. They could not get a contractor to the house to clean up the sewer backup so the basement remained flooded for about a week and when it started to dry out the mould set in. Without visiting the house the claims adjuster said there was no reason my parents could not move back into the first floor of the house. The adjuster also said they were backed up with claims so they could not have the house repaired until February 2014. What was most upsetting was the adjuster said there was no reason they could not move back into the house at the beginning of August 2013 though they could not use a fan or air conditioning system just in case there was mould in the vents. Summer time, scorching hot, parents are in their late 70s. What is wrong with Intact's adjusters. Are their clients just a number and their health doesn't matter. I asked the adjuster if he had the vents cleaned and if a test was done on the house to determine if there was mould.
After lots of complaining and contacting the ombudsman's office, the adjuster was replaced. The house was finally fixed back to liveable conditions by May 2014. My parents are no longer with Intact
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INTACT commercials - your claims process starts when they get your phone call - but that does not mean they will help you or pay people. It just means they type it in the computer. Then you deal with the adjuster which is trying an experience from HELL! I had the absolute worst experience with this company and my neighbour across the street did too! Our basement flooded due to a water main break. We had top of the line coverage. Adjuster got mad at me and smashed my front door! Put a claim in for that and finally got paid one year later. Adjuster told me he did not like me, and promised to give me a hard time. He sent threatening letters that they were considering denying my claim. He offered me 1/7 the actual cost to repair the damage 2 months of the flood. I had already spent double hiring myown contractors to start repairs, not wanting to wait for the insurance company to take action. I had tenants.The fighting over coverage went on for nearly 6 months and finally I got a cheque for double what he first offered. I said this is not enough to cover all the invoices I submitted and complained to Intact Ombudsman. They did nothing. Then I reported unfair insurance practices, bad faith, to FSCO = Financial Services Commission of Ontario. This forced the matter into ARBITRATION! I recommend this to anyone not satisfied with money the insurance company is trying to get you to accept. Take the money they offer but do NOT sign a final release. Tell them you disagree with their calculation of your loss total. At arbitration, I got to present all the invoices for the actual repairs of the damage (not the adjuster's guesstimate) + lost rent. The whole process took about 9 months, but I finally got nearly everthing I asked for. INTACT gave my neighbour across the street a hard time. After his semi detached home was involved in a fire, it took twice as long for Intact to repair his house compared to the equally affected neighbour nest door. Fire was in January and the neighbour with CAA insurance was back in his house by August. The other neighbour with Intact is still waiting for drywall work to be completed. Estimated re-occupation could be 1 1/2 - 2 years because the approval during the claims process goes at a snails pace at Intact. INTACT SUCKS! Maybe their rate could be cheaper, but the attempts to deny coverage and delays in the claims process do not make it worth the savings! Go for a insurance company with a good reputation for claims processing - even if they charge more. I don't know how some insurance adjusters can look themselves in the mirror each morning after doing such horrible things to claimants - I know they get a bonus for paying out less. It's dirty money. I don't want to profit from other people's misery! SHAME on YOU INTACT Insurance Adjuster!
We had water damages a few days ago,they were very quick in sending someone to dry the place ,of course to their advantage to try and tell us that there is no more humidity. Then they send an estimator who claims he has done 6000 claims, acuses us of delibertely breaking the tile in the kitchen around a column that was pouring water galore. Writes down in his estimate ,take out the wood floor in the living room ,and just screw in the sub floor that squeaks, ReALLY !!! We had a contractor come and make an estimate ,and the claim is over 20k they estimated at 10k.Best par about it is that the clown that came to do the estimate is boasting how he had water damage at his house and his insurance company estimated 24 k .He boasted he did his own estimate and the damge was 48k .But he comes to our house and does to the clients he serves ,the same they tried to do with him.A real frustrated pr......k giving a hard time to the customers ,because he thinks he knows it all ,very unprofessional.
My mother and my in-laws both had the very unfortunate experience of having Intact insurance covering their homes, when they were flooded last summer.
Insurance is supposed to be for peace of mind, in case something goes wrong. Both my mother and my in-laws never missed any payments, and have been paying insurance for decades and decades with no claims. Then they experienced severe flooding this past summer. That's when the horrible problems began.
We all understood that there were probably thousands of homes flooded so everyone was trying to be very sympathetic. Nonetheless, BOTH sets of my relatives are STILL waiting for completion of the repairs (April '14) and the flooding happened 9 months ago (July).
Work didn't even begin until after Christmas. Work crews appear for a day or two and then disappear. The work is shoddy. The products (like the replacement carpeting) is very inferior. The assessments of the damage were unbelievably ridiculous. At my mother's house, I was walking around in water above my knees in her fully finished basement. Walls, doors, washing machine, dryer, gas fireplace insert, wash basin, shelving, the furnace - all was destroyed or damaged. Can you believe that the estimate for all repairs (including supplies) was $5,000. How ridiculous is that?? Then to keep within this absurd budget, corners are being cut left and right. The work crew keeps trying to foist left over materials onto my mom. Most recently, she found out that the replacement knobs on the doors had been allocated an amount of $1 (no this is NOT a typo). I don't have a clue where you get a replacement knob for $1 unless you are getting knobs from a demolition of another house. My mother's original knobs were fancy, relatively new and certainly were at least $30 to $40 to replace (conservatively). With my in-laws, though the bathroom in the basement was destroyed (the actual floor beneath the bathroom actually completely warped) the insurance company refused to repair the bathroom and told my in-laws they must pay extra. My in-laws (far too nice folks) agreed and despite that, the crew didn't let them select their own tiles. They just showed up with some tiles (seriously) and my kindly relatives let them install the times. (You'd better believe they wouldn't have gotten away with that with me.) My mother's crew tried the same thing - showing up with paint in a colour she hadn't chosen.
It is really unbelievable.
Because all of the neighbours are equally fed up, all these folks are just agreeing to anything in sheer desperation to finally wrap this trauma up, and to get their homes back and the crews out of their lives.
In the meantime, Intact Insurance posted a $100 million dollar profit in the last quarter of last year. They sure aren't suffering. They are making that profit on the backs of seniors like my in-laws (who are in their 90's for goodness sake) and my mother who is simultaneously fighting cancer while she tries to get her home back.
I have never seen anything so shameful and you'd better believe I shall never, ever insure with Intact after witnessing what my family has gone through.
Find someone else folks. Intact is really happy to take your money, but when the unthinkable happens, you'll be facing a terrible battle to get a fair settlement out of this insurance company.
I would have given hem a 0.5 star rating, but the Claim Exerience doesn't have a 0 star.
I have been with them 20+ years - never made a claim before. Tenant above my condo left window open, froze water pipes which burst and 1000+ liters of water entered my condo. My large furniture got hit and Intact said they would replace it.
Event though it's not my fault, Intact says that I have to pay $500 deductible because tenant had no insurance / fled the province so Intact can't find them (or so they say) and the owner of the condo above me is an intact customer - they don't sue themselves.
Have been waiting for 2 weeks now on an estimate for replacement cost of one couch, one cloth chair and bed. Gave them brand info and what I paid for them before as I have replacement cost insurance. All I get is a run around so they don't have to pay out. Not one expense has been paid as of yet and I am in a hotel on my dime - with mounting credit card bills coming due soon.
Had made a small claim with Co-Op and Wawanesa insurance 20+ years ago, which were dealt with immediately and quickly. Once this ordeal is over, will never deal with Intact again - regardless of the premiums I have to pay - Intact is cheap - but you get what you pay for and they have ZERO Service when you need them.
Not covering home after high river flood
If your in a disaster they will abandon you
I am presently going through a claim for water damage which I am responsible for and I live in a condo with another 31 Co owners. Intact is my insurance and they are giving my syndicate a real hard time to pay!!
Makes no sense I’m a valuable client and had never made a claim. I speak with them at intact and they act like they work for the police !!!
Disappointed
My condo unit was seriously damaged by a visitor of my tenant. A sprinkler was broken which resulted in a flood damaging a lot of other suites in the building. INTACT communicated seamlessly with the insurer and me. I’m very satisfied with their service. I’m in Vancouver BC.
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We had water damage in our basement and with all the bad publicity many insurance companies get weren't sure if we could get it satisfactorily resolved.
We found to our delight Intact was more than fair. Way to go Matthew who showed up at our door within 1 hour of our call and had our claim resolved within 24 hours!
Please note that our original contact was with another agent who went on vacation but handed the file to Matthew who did a great job for us!