Water damage claim.
by Shammy on Jan 20, 2020
5 out of 5 stars
I have had two claims with Intact. First was when my car was broken into and all of my music gear was stolen. The cost was substantial with a $3200 guitar, $2200 amplifier, $1000 microphone and a lot more for accessories. My auto insurance (comprehensive) had to take care of the smashed rear window, but minus the deductible, Intact cut a check for the rest, asking only for quotes for replacement. For most, I was able to provide receipts and those values were covered. For my guitar, I showed online prices in Canada from music shops and that was covered as well, all with the amount for sales tax and GST. The adjuster was polite, stayed in contact and the whole process was over with very quickly. The 2nd was a water damage claim. When replacing my carpets, I was installing new carpet rack strips where the old ones were but had to put the nails in the concrete sun-floor about an inch from the holes left by the old ones. On the LAST strip, the nail hit a water line, sending a stream of water up like a fountain. In my condo, the water shut off valve was hard to get to, with my hand too big to reach between the wall stud and another pipe between the opening and the valve. By the time I forced my hand through by dislocating three fingers at the top knuckle, my hall was under inches of water and the two suites below me were just disaster areas. I have done everything from building condos from the foundation up to roofing, flooring/tiling, carpentry, drywall, electrical and owner's side plumbing. What I found when the subflooring was chipped away to repair the water line was that it was left free-floating when the sun floor was poured and was only less than a 1/4 of an inch under the floor. The nails for carpet tack strips are 5/16" long, with just the tip puncturing the line. How the original installers never hit the line is beyond me, but at that exact spot, it crossed the line where the strips are and was raised just enough in that spot to create that flukey situation. I described this scenario because Intact could have been total assholes, looking for negligence to skirt their involvement. Instead, they went to bat for me. They sent crews and an adjuster immediately, said they would cover the costs of food, hotel, pay me for any work I did, cut me a $1000 check for the condo's $10k deductible I had to pay a thousand of, reimbursed me for the ruined carpet and underlay I just installed and compensated me and my son for each hour we had to move things around and get the house back to normal. They even calculated an amount for my inconvenience that covered my $1000 deductible. All funds were paid quickly and they kept my file open until everything was settled just in case there were any further out of pocket costs. The crews and plumber were paid directly as well. So, in both experiences, I have very little to complain about. One minor disagreement on value, but a far cry from getting ripped off by them. Remember, out of millions of consumers, only a few with bad experiences are usually motivated to post their experiences, usually out of spite. If everyone with good experiences posted, the few with complaints would be lost in the shuffle. My previous insurance company was terrible and their lack of value to me led to the switch to Intact, where I have been very pleased by their rates (in comparison of course), customer service and their follow-through during both claims. My second claim adjuster was brand new to the business and offering her a little patience didn't hurt while she consulted her way through the job and in the end, she did fantastically. The first was just pro all the way through.
Intact helped me alot during my hard time. I had water damage at home and right after my call insurance guys came. They fixed my house and also pay for my accomodation. Its worth to get that insurance.
Canadians pay, on average, approximately $20 per month in tenants insurance. Do you rent or plan to rent a property and want to reduce insurance costs? We will help you get a cheap tenant insurance quote today.
Have dealt with my broker for many years. I had house & car insurance with Intact for a few. Rates kept going up and Aug 2016 had a flat roof drain blocked with debris and heavy rain caused a back-up of water with fell into my kitchen ceiling & dining room wall. Intact was quick to open the claim but no-one came for several days. They, through the evaluator, sent the worst contractor possible. The painting had to be done 3 times in a couple areas but the final repair was only a passable quality- not what Intact claims. The job which would normally be 2-3 weeks maximum was done in 11-12 weeks - wow. Now my renewal is up and my house insurance cost was $1362 last year and has skyrocketed to $1822 this year - increase of 34%. The total damage to the house was $9123, but because there was hardwood floor water damage also and there was no room in the house to store the furniture, so I accepted a cheque of over $2200 and the contractor was paid the balance. I did not have the subcontractor re-do the floor & refinish. Thank God I didn't have the incompetent sub complete the floor refinish. Intact hires the cheapest worst contractors to save money for themselves but jacks the renewal price after. Intact never again - do not go with them either for a house or car insurance. They "seem" okay until there is a claim but then - pow
I had been with ING for years and years and actually had my claim with them. I had a break-in and the adjustor was there within an hour and worked with me to get necessary items quickly. The break-in didn't even leave any shoes or cleaning supplies - they cleaned the place out. A few years later I had a flood from a really quick thaw. All work done quickly and professionally.
Rates went up when they changed to Intact, and I haven't been as happy with the service, but only minor things like trying to get policy information by phone - no claims with them.
However, I do see that all the reviews were very good until 2012, when they dropped like a rocket. What on earth happened? New management?
Secure and Certified
Your information privacy and security is very important to us. We use the same 256-bit encryption and data security levels as all major banks. Our practices are monitored and verified by VeriSign and Digicert.
Independent
InsurEye is not owned by any bank, insurance company, insurance brokerage or any other financial services institution. We collect, validate, and analyze insurance experiences of real consumers.
Insightful
We aspire to equip you with insights, data and knowledge to help in making informed decisions around personal finance, insurance quotes, and other important matters. We are always open for your comments.
I had a sink water supply line burst on October 5th, 2019. Despite being home at the time and catching it fairly quickly, the water ran down through the main floor below and then into the basement. After dealing with the emergency, walls were opened up and dried for about a week. We continued living in our home (family of 4) with only 1 working bathroom until Dec 1st when we moved out to a local hotel for 7 weeks. I had a local restoration company deal with the emergency and demo and then I took the "payout" option to hire my own contractors to put everything back together. I was very happy with Intact and my claims representative was fantastic. I recommend patience initially as it takes time for everything to get sorted out. Once things got going, it went very smoothly. I also recommend paying a bit extra in your policy to have "Claims Advantage" which protects your first claim from increases. Glad we had that!