Using flood as an excuse
by Martyupnorth on Jul 31, 2014
2 out of 5 stars
Upon my renewal of my home insurance I was informed that any and all insurance regarding my roof regardless of claim type has been cancelled. I bought my house 4 years ago and it is 25 years old. In order to get my insurance reinstated I must either A) prove to them that the shingles are less than 7 years old, or B) re-do the roof and get an engineering inspection report citing the following: attic insulation R-rating, if the soffit is properly vented, photos and receipts for the new roof (shingles or steel), name of certified building engineer and that the framing can withstand the areas potential maximum snow load. Yikes! How am I supposed to do that in the middle of January? A little heads-up please! I get the feeling that once a house gets to being 25+ years old it automatically fails unless the policy owner submits proper receipts, photos and engineer reports on a regular basis. This will cost me over $1000 to do it to their satisfaction. I wonder what would happen if I put in a claim. My roof looks fine and should be good for at least 5 more years from what I see. I'm out...
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 have purchased all my insurance from TD Meloche Monnex since 1994. During that time I have paid $55,762.86 in premiums and have never had a claim. Last year I was shocked when my home insurance premiums went up by 43.8%. I called to complain and was simply told that overall insurance costs were going up because of recent bad weather, notably the flood in Calgary. I didn’t flood, but I understand that insurance is a concept whereby several people pool their resources to spread the risk. I argued at the time that TD Meloche was obviously insuring too many high risk individuals. I naively accepted the increase in premiums.
Now a year has gone by, and I just found out they want to increase my premiums by an additional 24.2%. This is outrageous, especially considering the fact that TD Bank is making over $1 billion/quarter in profits.
I really didn’t feel like they appreciated my business so I decided to shop around. Wow, am I ever glad I did. Everyone I called was cheaper than TD Meloche. I’m sure you’ll argue that I’m getting less coverage. Let me assure you that I spent at least one hour discussing each quote with the prospective insurers, making sure I was getting equivalent coverage.
I decided to give my business to ScotiaLife Financial. My new policy is 41% cheaper than TD Meloche. How is that possible? I can only conclude that TD is trying to take advantage of people by using the flood as an excuse, or they’re simply incompetent and insuring too many high risk clients. Either way I don’t want to do business with them anymore.
TD has managed to totally piss-off a loyal customer of 20 years.