BCAA Home Insurance Reviews

I have been a BCAA member for about a year and purchased their home insurance on the top of my condo insurance. I was away for about three months and my insurance expired in between. I am a first home buyer and I am new to the whole insurance system. I was not aware that insurance cancelled because of non-payment is a huge deal here in Canada. I simply thought this is something I purchase on a voluntary base and if I do not renew or make payment, it just expired. However, I called BCAA yesterday to buy a new home insurance(3 months after my insurance expired). Firstly, they treat me like some sort of criminal, asking me all kinds of personal questions. Then they just told me that they refuse to provide me insurance in the future (He even said, Permanently..) I was shocked by their attitude and how they made a decision based on a few questions.

During my absence, my house was occupied by a very close friend and my boyfriend only, my deductible limit is very high as well and I do not understand how a company could treat a member like this. I am just gonna cancel my membership and "permanently" I am gonna purchase anything from them anymore. (I am not even allowed to in this case..)

BCAA was awesome few years ago... when ClaimsPro was not the their 3rd party adjuster company. I don't recall being this frustrated when I had similar claim few years back (flooding that requires laminate flooring to be replaced throughout the house). Their contractor has found our main floor (which is our access to kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom) to be "unsafe" due to accident prone while the main floor and stairs are being replaced but they still find it "liveable". The policy states that they will cover living expense when "unfit for occupancy". Which becomes debatable... after numerous battles with both ClaimsPro and BCAA directly, they concluded that being unsafe is still fit for occupancy. I was advised to use my common sense that if construction site (house) is unsafe, to use my judgement to be cautious... even if I have small kids. They've stated that if I were to fix my damage on my own, I'd be careful not be in any sort of accident. Then I wondered isn't it the reason why we take insurance? So we have a peace of mind in not harming ourselves during claim renovation... hence the clause for 'additional living expense' for when 'unfit for occupancy'? This is really dumb. I'd like to formally complaint to BCAA and BBB for this part of the policy to be clarified. I don't understand the logic.

I have had home and car insurance with BCAA for a few years now. They claimed if you became a member, you would receive yearly discounts on home/car and also have full BCAA membership. My first year was okay after they kept raising the insurance amounts while they were discounting my BCAA membership to zero (so no actual discounts on insurance in any way). But I felt I had the security of BCAA and all that entails. I am currently on the roadside with my car that has broken down (new vehicle issue), I called BCAA roadside service - which is completely awful- on hold for 20 minutes, automated message talking about how everyone should use website vs. calling and talking to someone - that helps in an emergency. An agent comes on, I give info, she tells me my membership is not good for Roadside Assistance! I responded with what are you talking about? The agent that signed me up assured me that my discounted membership gave me all the benefits of BCAA including roadside. If I don't have that, the only thing you guys are good for...what does my membership get me? Agent response: discount off movies and some cheaper hotels. Don't be fooled, this company is one of the worst, their online, telephone services are junk. Customer service is absolutely the worst. And their policies are worthless. Work with a smaller company that needs and wants your business. Once these guys have your money, you're treated like a chump!

Last year I took out trip interrupt insurance and when I needed to use it, I got no help from BCAA and had to pay out of my pocket. So I now buy my medical and trip insurance elsewhere. You increased my house insurance by $200 and when I checked around, I found you were $200 higher than anyone else. So now I buy my home insurance elsewhere. Seems my membership premium has taken a big jump and I cancelled the RV coverage, but looks like I am still being charged for it. They claim to be a BC company but they have sold out your travel to Priceline, an American company and when I compare against going direct, I find they are the same price or much higher and they still list some items in U.S. Dollars. I bought a new car which has a five (5) year roadside coverage. The list goes on and as I said in the message I never received a reply to, I can’t think of one reason to keep my membership. Someone finally phoned me and the one comment that sticks out is "he wasn't concerned about me renewing my membership"! So after 10 years, I am not renewing.

My wife and I had our apartment damaged by water and were put into a new home for 7 months. Had a 3rd party insurance company (ClaimsPro) involved. BCAA was awful from the very beginning. No one ever contacted us directly, everything went thru ClaimsPro. Took months to get reimbursed. We would have to put down hundreds, even thousands of our own money and wait months to get it back, no matter how often we reached out to them. The customer service was terrible. Deadlines were never met. No matter how many complaints were made with the adjuster or the manager, nothing improved throughout the process. The claim is coming to an end in a couple weeks and I can't be happier to not have to deal with BCAA again.

Being a member of BCAA for many years, you have built trust in their insurance policies. Sure their home insurance premiums were very competitive 3 years ago as I was told by a competitive insurance broker in person. However, every year when I went to the BCAA office for home insurance renewal, the staff would assessed the policy for savings. Not true, the staff always found discrepancies in previous policies and increased the premiums. My last home insurance premium was just increased by $ 200.00. So if you are happy with current premium, renew the policy online and do not go in for an office renewal.

I used BCAA home insurance for over 20 years with one claim. The one claim involved faulty toilet tanks that cracked. When this happened BCAAs contractor quickly had this cleaned up and eventually repaired. No complaints there. However my reduced premiums immediately went to full price as I had made a claim despite them being part of a class action suit against the tank manufacturer. I was asked to take time to meet with their law firm and sign papers etc. On the second round of papers signing i asked if my premium payment discounts would be rebated as the company will get funds from this suit as the tank company was taking responsibility for the defect and I was told "No" .

Many years later we purchase rental and rural property which was deemed to high of risk even though we were loyal customers for over 20 yrs. I will never deal with them again. Coast Capitol has been very good and gladly accepted our business.

I have had BCAA home insurance since 2009.
Perhaps they used the old bait and switch technique getting me in with a low premium and each year increasing the premium for no reason other than them ripping me off.
They are now charging me over 50% more per year than they were in 2009, they have the same old excuses, that I don't believe. I have never had a claim.
My advise to you....stay away from BCAA home insurance, they willl increase your premium each year !!!