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Do Home Insurance Companies Determine Fault After You Make An Insurance Claim?

No one ever looks forward to making a home insurance claim with their insurance company, ever. Unfortunately, bad things happen to Canadian homes on a regular basis and submitting a claim with your insurer to cover the damages is standard procedure. But what if the property damage was caused because you left a pot on the burner that caught fire, or because your dishwasher leaked and damaged your floor? Are you then at fault and more importantly, will the claim be rejected under your home insurance policy? The question of fault when making a home insurance claim can cause anxiety for many people, but this should not be the case as fault isn’t really a significant factor when making a claim under a standard home insurance policy. In this blog we will look at the home insurance claims process so that you can better understand what insurance companies actually determine as ‘fault’ after making a home insurance claim.  

 

What Does Home Insurance Cover?

Before we get into the topic of fault, it is important to understand what a home insurance policy actually covers. As is the case in Canada, a home insurance policy covers the following four main things: 

  • Structural damage.

  • Personal property damage.

  • Detached structure damage.

  • Liability.

Your home insurance policy is designed to cover you for specific damages that can happen regularly to your property, such as fire, and it can exclude you coverage for other unlikely damages, such as a tornado, unless you buy additional coverage under your policy. For example, if your toaster caught on fire and damaged your kitchen, you will be covered for damages under your policy without being deemed at fault. So, unless you are found to purposefully cause the damage after your insurer makes an investigation, your insurance company will cover the damages to your home as outlined in your policy. 

Is Fault A Factor For Insurance Companies When Making A Home Insurance Claim?

Unlike a car insurance claim, determining fault after you make a home insurance claim is not the same, and there is a good reason for that. For example, let's say that you were rear-ended by a car when you were fully stopped at an intersection. You then make a claim with your insurer, and the driver that hit you will be deemed at fault for the collison, resulting in them having to pay their deductible as well as having their premiums go up. 

In the case of home insurance claims, fault is not that easily attributable since most of the claims homeowners make are as a result of accidents. The majority of the cases that result in fault are due to personal liability issues when, for example, someone gets hurt on your property due to your negligence. 

What is crucial for homeowners to understand is that home insurance companies are not intent on attributing fault for the common accidents that happen in a home, such as a fire or a flooded bathroom. What they are interested in, however, is what type of damage your property sustained, and based on this, you can expect to have to pay out your deductible and see your premiums go up. 

Hopefully, with this information in mind, you can rest assured that your home insurance policy will provide you coverage for accidents that you may have caused to your property without attributing fault to you. 

Contact us today so that we can find insurance policies that will provide the best protection for your home and all your other unique insurance needs at very competitive rates.