Mold not covered
by Mom of three on Mar 31, 2017
1 out of 5 stars
Wawanesa is hands down the worst insurance company I have ever had the displeasure to deal with. I have had them for my home and auto for over 15yrs. I have had to sue them twice now to get them to follow-through on their obligations. I should have learned the first time, i know. First experience was a damaged window from a hail storm. It took them a year (no exaggeration) to send their adjuster back to look at it - then denied the claim. We sued, they settled in mediation. This time around, there isn't enough room to tell the whole story. House fire in my neighbors townhouse spread to my unit, which was just the start to the fun. After 2 months of no communication from my adjuster at all, and being thousands of dollars in debt paying for a hotel, while I waited in limbo, they finally started talking to me, but would take a 1 month or more between contacts. I was in debt $15K before they cut me my first cheque. Then the terrible contractor they hired flooded the entire house after 4 months of waiting for them to do any repairs, by freezing a pipe. Contractor wouldn't do anything until the insurnace company stepped in, so it took them 3 days to finally do anything while the basement basted in water and freezing temperatures. They opened a NEW claim and charged me another deductible. Took them nearly a year to fix all the mess. I finally sign off on what I think is a fully repaired house, to find flooding and seepage in the basement within a month, where I had never had it before. INSANE. So I call, and they tell me its unrelated and it will be a new claim, and probably won't be covered. They send a contractor to look and says the same thing. I hear nothing from them for more than a month and I'm forced to now have my lawyer send them a threatening letter. They finally respond and tell me they are denying the claim. So I get my own contractor in to fix the mess and low and behold, we find the dirty secrets. The insurance companies contractor had taken no permits out. They left all of the original lumber in the wall. They must have known there was an additional water issue, but rather than disclosing it or fixing it, they used electrical tape and taped a piece of poly over a crack in the foundation, i suppose hoping it would solve the problem. Completely disgusting. They continue to deny the claim, and in fact refuse to release a cheque for my missing and damaged contents until I'm willing to sign their proof-of-loss form, that clearly states that I will have no further claim to damages. Suit #2 now filed. I wouldn't wish these clowns on my worst enemy.
One of our house cats turned on a kitchen tap in the middle of the night .originally the policy we got in the mail was about 12 pages . After 3 months of runaround they canceled our insurance and denied the claim .and saying they don't cover damage from domestic animals and to look at page 50 on our policy. This company needs to be investigated. Stay away
This April we installed new kitchen faucets, unfortunately they were too easy to operate and we woke to a flooded 1st floor and basement after our cat hit the handle and it had run all nighr. We called our broker and they confirmed we were covered so we made a claim. Adjusters came with a contractor who said the whole kitchen needed replaced along with the hardwood floor. Adjusters said it would most likely be paid out and we'd hear from them in a week. A month goes by with nothing from Wawanesa, we call and call and finally they arrange to meet and take a statement. Claim I'll get a copy to review, lies. A week later we get a letter saying they deny coverage based on an inclusion in my policy which excludes damages by pets and they cancelled the policy. I read the policy and this inclusion they denied us on wasn't in my policy so I contacted the broker for another copy to confirm, it was exactly the same. Now my lawyer is handling it. They have sent him a 50 page policy they claim is our policy but we never saw this version! We will be taking them to court, this is fraud. They old bait and switch. Avoid Wawanesa like the plague, they are crooks.
We pay around fourty five hundred dollars for farm insurance and many people we know dont pay half that. We are now looking for a new insurance provider
i called them last summer 2015 because i have water in the basement and they just jump to conclusion that its coming to the wall without checking, i said the water is on the middle , the wall is not wet put the lady never stop until i said okey, i called someone to fixed it put blue skin changed the walls and patches cracks, now winter time i have lots of water and i called wawanesa again but they only said if in sewage it might be from the three and they forward my concern to adjuster and now the adjuster said you dont have damaged i said my rolled carpet and the most of the part is carpeted, but he said its waste of time going to my house and checked because nothing is damaged. he said i need to call someone to check my sewer, i said your pretty much selling insurance. they are arrogant and un-polite , waste of time talking and paying them . no service you can get from them. they just want to collect moneys period
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The adjuster is inexperienced. The people they send to the property seem to be elderly individuals that are a bit confused and they will try to deny any and every claim which comes to them. I had wind damage on my front gate. The elderly man they sent out to look at the gate says in an email to the adjuster that he checked wind speeds with Environment Canada on June 3, 2015 and there was not high winds but the problem is my gate broke on May 2, 2015 and the claim was made on May 3, 2015. The adjuster is so terrible that she didn't question this error in the report but agreed to it. Shows you how much they are looking out for their clients or how thoroughly they read and check their reports. The manager is further careless, calls us in to meet but goes out for coffee instead of meeting us. What a joke! Never use Wawanesa! They are terrible. If your broker says Wawanesa, stay away!!! Using Wawanesa would be equivalent to not having any insurance.
MY wife just took a call from Wawanesa, told her she had 1 day to prove the age of the roof shingles on our house or they wouldn't cover us for roof damage. Yes, we'll be looking for a new insurer.
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I am an single mom of three working 12 hour shifts to provide for my family. I have a older home with no concrete foundation..Just dirt under floor boards. The house was insured by wawanesa by the previous owners and now by myself and was insured with the house having h dirt foundation. I put 35000 into the house after purchasing. We repaired some floor joices that had sunk. I have never had the need to look under the the home again till a few weeks ago when I found the floor was bowing. I have found yellow mold fungi all over the floor boards and joices under the house. I took a sample with a kit and found it verified as "the house eating mold" There is no crawl space..Only about a foot between dirt and boards...I was told would be very expensive to fix. My 19 month old son has been to the er numerous times for lung infection symptoms or croup since he was born and him and I slept in the room directly above the mold fungi. I contacted McLean insurance who sent my claim to wawanesa after many arguments back and forth. I was told from the start that it likely wouldn't be covered as they don't cover water seepage and since water seepes through dirt that caused moisture hense making the wood damp and causing the mold fungi to grow. The adjuster came and took photos. Then a week went by. He returned with a contractor for his opinion. He stated it would be a lot of money to fix an take up to 6 months to complete. Another week went by and I heard nothing. I contacted he insurance reminding them that I have three small children in this house an we will need to make other living arrangements as I won't keep the kids in this house. Few more days went by then I get a call from the adjuster.... There are not covering my claim as they don't cover water seepage. I can not control how much water seepes through dirt. There has never been a flood up to the house. They insured the dirt the way it was under the floor an had no problem taking my payments for 6 years. Now that the same thing the insured has failed they will not cover it. I can't afford to fix the problem as it is extensive. It is looking as I will have to give our home back to the bank and look to rent...Which from what I have seen so far is around 1200 plus..That's a big difference from my small mortgage payment. I just can't believe there is nothing they are offering to help myself and my children with. I would not recommend his company especially if you have an older style home. They can give away free pizza an iPads but won't help there customers.