Square One Insurance Home Insurance Reviews

My tenants experienced water damage from a dishwater leak. The bottom of the kitchen wall needed to be replaced as it was wet despite emergency cleaning. Square One/All Perils Claims told me not to do anything until they decided what was covered. Almost a month later, they denied my claim because of "mould growth" inside the kitchen wall, which somehow they had seen when they visited the suite 4 days after the incident. After 3 weeks had passed, the project escalated as there needed to be mould remediation and the entire wall had to be replaced along with the kitchen cabinets. I also had to prorate rent for my tenants who moved out as the kitchen became unusable during the repairs.

My claim was wrongly denied because Square One/All Perils Claims conducted a flawed and inaccurate assessment. The insurance's contractor did not do any assessment (e.g., no thermal camera to assess water damage, did not open up the walls, did not look behind the kitchen cabinets) but decided somehow there was mould INSIDE the kitchen walls without having seen it. Moreover, the contractor stated that this mould was not from the dishwasher leak but "had been there from other previous leaks." He lied as there was no way to determine this. However, it was not surprising to find mould once the kitchen wall was opened up during the repairs 3 weeks after the incident as these were ideal conditions for mould growth (mould grows after 48 to 72 hours in damp dark spaces). It is my opinion that Square One/All Perils Claims knew the high likelihood of mould growth in this situation and delayed their decision making to make sure that mould would grow in the 3 weeks.

After 4 months of going back and forth, I settled with Square One for half of the project costs. They offered me a settlement "on good faith." My only option was to take them to small claims court, which was not feasible for me as I work full-time on Vancouver Island. I am also so completely worn down by this process, that I needed to settle the matter for my own emotional wellbeing. However, I am greatly dissatisfied with their service, the inefficiencies in handling my claim, and the lack of accurate evidence they provided. I hold Square One and All Perils Claims entirely responsible for the full extent of the damages. My claim was initially denied given a poorly conducted and grossly inaccurate assessment. Insurance must cover all damages, not just part of the damages, especially if damages were aggravated by the length of time taken to deal with the matter. If this had been dealt with in a timely and efficient manner, there would have been no mould growth and my tenants would not have had to move out for an extended period of time. This issue has caused me and my tenants significant stress. I have also spent a considerable amount of my personal time coordinating services to ensure that the repairs were expedited, especially as the 3 weeks following the water damage incident were wasted waiting for their decision.

If you carefully read these reviews, you will see that most of them refer to customers valuing the lower deductibles compared to what is offered by other providers. Reviews also refer to the "great" customer service offered by this company when convincing people to buy their insurance. There are NO reviews of big claims being positively resolved. Although going through insurance providers will likely always be a stressful experience, stay away from this small company who will do whatever it takes not to pay up when it counts.

Hi There, I wanted to reach you in regards to Square One Insurance. About a month ago I had something strange happen to me that never in my life thought an insurance company would do. My wife and I received an email from Square One with my policy number and account information to my gmail account, they notified my wife that her payment did not go through and that they would take the payment again on September 4th. We had no idea that the payment did not go through as we do not use email to discuss insurance matters, I have auto insurance with another provider and if a payment did not go through they would call and either leave a message or speak to someone. The issue I have with Square One is that they are sending an email about my insurance policy via unsecured email, which I never requested. After Square One sent this message to me instead of calling or leaving a message the very next day they tried to take payment again and then they sent me another email saying to me personally that your policy will be cancelled by September 4th for failed payment, and within this 2- week period they also sent my entire policy and personal information about my property through my annual renewal not once but twice to my wife and me to the same unsecured gmail account. So I decided to call them to better understand why they would send my information about my policy number and payment information via public email. The response I received from the billing support team is: "It is an internal policy and our system automatically sends out emails to notify customers". So, then I asked them about what the email stated that the payment failed and that they were going to take payment again September 4th, he told me that the message is just an automated message and we do not follow that information because we have our own internal policy. Finally, I spoke to them about the emails that they have been sending me on the renewal email and the fact that I did not sign up for auto-renew, he told me that their internal systems automatically renew and that they can only take it off manually and they would need to send another unsecured email with this confirmation. So then I asked him what happens if we do not respond to the renewal and let it go or pay for the renewal by the anniversary date. He then said that they would cancel the policy and then negatively impact my credit rating for nonpayment. Here is the list of concerns I have. The one that really angers me is the fact that Square One is creating their own internal policies on when they collect money and total disregard to their customer and then telling me that the information in the email is false because they do not follow it as a policy. So you are basically telling me that Square One is a gangster that threatens their customers by sending automated messages about their policy through unsecured email and we don't care because internally we decided that this is what we want to do. My next point around Privacy and Security of my personal information at no point did your team try to help me understand how they were going to address my issue with it, instead, they used their gangster policies that they created internally to tell me that it is their internal systems and basically telling me to myself. After I emailed the help team that we have moved our policy and to remove us from your email system and all files, I asked them not to contact us via email and we did not want any courteous call. Again the team lead in their customer service ignored the email that I sent her to stop all communication via email. Again they sent two more emails with my policy number telling me that my policy will be cancelled as per my request, and then they called us again and I told them we are not renewing our policy please do not call or email us again we have paid our invoice on September 4th as the emails have stated any future communications to be sent via registered mail like every insurance company in Canada does. The public needs to know and I am on Social media to warn other Canadians about choosing the right insurance company and demand that they explain how their customer privacy is being handled. I am posting online about how online companies like Square One are high risk to deal with as they do not handle your personal information with care or have respect for your privacy. I demanded a response from Square One on how they are going to correct this problem and the response I received from Ombudsmen from the Mutual Fire insurance the parent company of Square One was - "We take privacy very seriously", which is not the case and given the fact that I filed the complaint on September 6th, she responded a month later blowing me off on October 9th goes to show you that Insurance companies like this are really not serious about you as a customer.

After giving all of my personal information, including that we sell eggs to friends and family, we were told that we aren't eligible for insurance at all because we have "commercial farm activity". I asked to have the information I submitted removed from their database and they refused. Waste of time. Don't give them your info!

I had insurance with them for a year with no problem. After the year they sent me a new policy, even though I had not requested it. I called Square One because it seemed strange to send me a complete policy and not just a notice of renewal, they told me to ignore the renewal if I didn't want to continue with the policy.

Of course 2 weeks later Square One illegally withdrew the funds from my bank account without notifying me. I found out when I bounced a cheque. They agreed they made a mistake, but have not issued me a refund. I called my bank and after 30 mins they said I would have to go to the branch to fill out some forms, which are not available online, then it could take weeks to investigate and get a refund.

Square One is using NEGATIVE OPTION BILLING PRACTICES that are illegal in BC. How do they get away with this?!

In this time of financial hardship for many during the global COVID-19 pandemic, isn't it nice to see so many company's showing genuine support and solidarity? Now I know it is often remarked that insurance companies have no moral compass, and Square One is no different. Changing my account from manageable monthly payments to suddenly taking my whole year's payment upfront. Thanks for helping screw up people's personal cashflow during this difficult time...

I never had any claims but each year my premium goes up 10-15%. Don't get fooled by easy setup and an initially lower price! Add horror stories from their claim center and their own fake reviews on Google and you get the picture of the value you'd be getting.

The short of it. The bike was stolen and a claim was made through house insurance. The adjuster called and gave details on the steps required. Needed to provide quotes to them for a bicycle of the same kind and quality, there were no bikes in the city to purchase in August due to COVID. Received a quote for the same bike model, from two stores, both could not get the bike in as it was sold out internationally. I believed this was a fair thing to do on my end, as the value of the quote would not be inflated. After receiving the quote the adjuster would not negotiate their offer of either a cash settlement with a 30% depreciation placed on the bike. The replacement option was contingent on replacement within 180 days, I tried to communicate that I may not be able to acquire a bike within 180 days as globally there is a shortage. The adjuster would not increase this date window, allowing me to acquire a bike in the near future. I am currently waiting to be contacted by his manager.

Blacklisted and permanently denied insurance with them because we had too many questions. Beware of too many questions. Their agents are extremely rude and we are permanently flagged for asking too many questions. We were literally told they can not insure us because we called more than 3 times to ask questions. I would love to see in an emergency what they would do if we asked too many questions, NOT. No point in having cheap insurance if you have no peace of mind.

The price looks good for the first year, and it increases every year, did not make a claim yet.

Credit card billed 425 for renewal I did not ask for. Will follow up with the Fraud department of my credit card company.