"time at risk" excuse
by tom on Jun 24, 2016
1 out of 5 stars
We had a major flood in our condo unit due to main hot water pipe break in the hallway in March 2015. We were covered by the Strata insurance and home owner's insurance (Aviva) and experienced two very different response from these two Insurance Companies. The claim issues related to the Strata Insurer not finalized yet and still we are negotiating!
Fortunately our Insurer "Aviva" had been very professional and didn't hesitate to look after us from day one. Aviva provide us with nice accommodation (not that easy in Vancouver), all the furniture were properly stored or replaced if needed, The adjuster, field service rep. made himself available all the time and acted in a kind & professional manner. I would hesitate recommending Aviva to the home owners
Last year I had my insurance with CAA (Aviva), really nice company... then they sold out to My Insurance Company Hamilton (still with Aviva).I paid my Auto Insurance in full and because they combined all 3 of my insurance to come due on the day I had to pay the other 2 insured houses with a void cheque each month... everything seemed fine, even got my two 2 renewal house policies... so there didn't seem to be any problems... 'til I received a cancellation notice...no reason given... apparently, they forgot to send me some mysterious form to sign... Sandy W knew right away what had happened and even told me I wasn't at fault, that the mistake was theirs... still no one sent me the unsigned form... then suddenly a lady named Shannon took over and I was given an ultimatum to rush up there in rush hour traffic within 2 1/2 hrs to sign a form that wasn't the original form but for something else... at 69yrs of age, I am not going to endanger my Auto Insurance or my life to sign a form that wasn't the form of their original mistake... made up orriginally by a guy named Deno... I was threatened with cancellation again and would be sorry if I had to start a whole new policy again and at a higher cost... Aviva, you should listen to your faithful clients, not some new company that took over and is goofing up my policies... the stress has been very bad for me... I will accept an apology and activation of my original policies, nothing less... the new company needs to get their act together... thank you for this opportunity to voice my complaint... Cherry A.
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Was involved in the flood in July in Chestermere with following hail damage to my roof and both cars. Have been paying premiums for 16 years and no claims, they have cancelled me for renewal for too many claims in one year and done so while the flood claim is still open so no other company will insure me based on not knowing the damage my house sustained...... I had just renewed my policy and made sure there was adequate insurance which im told is not always in your best interest to claim if needed because their best interest is to not renew you if you do....... SCAM ARTISTS AND LEGALLY!!!!!!!!
190% increase between 2015 rate and 2016 quote. The company stated that due to the insurance industry losses their underwriters found it necessary to raise some rates and decrease some customer discounts. Fair enough.
My rate went from $633 in 2015 to $1,835 in a single year. Is anyone able to inform me why it might be possibly be necessary for such a large increase in a dingle year?
Does anyone reading this post have a similar situation or explanation for such a large increase in a single year?
We have a drain backup, but were proactive and managed to prevent it from destroying our basement. We called in the plumber immediately (Drain Rescue) who dug out the basement and replaced all the drain pipes and put a backwater valve. Aviva came in during the work process. As per our plan, we have taken the maximum coverage. We acted honestly and let them know that we prevented the water and emptied buckets after buckets of grey water outside the house and had switched off using water. During the entire repair process, we also switched off the furnace to prevent it from being ruined. We lost carpets, rugs and clothes. The Aviva rep informed us that they would only cover the backwater valve. There is a $1,000 deductible and so the clothes and rugs would not be covered. The carpets would be evaluated. We are still waiting not sure what they plan on giving us. Drain Rescue informed us that other insurances cover the cost of digging and the concrete. The pipe replacement cost is ours, but our Aviva Rep informed us we are not covered. Do I trust AVIVA? My previous insurance TD was much better, I had a drain problem in a Condo in 2005 and they evaluated our loss, replaced our flooring and cut us a cheque for losses which was very reasonable.
Probably the worst insurance company I've ever dealt with. Dishonest, over priced and not cooperative.
Here's a good one. Despite my multiple inquiries with the company as to how this happened, all I've received from Aviva is that "nobody has ever experienced this before."
The following is the quintessential example of problems with companies like Aviva cutting costs wherever they can and contracting everything out.
I've had an Aviva home insurance policy in place for two years now, and have never made a claim with them. My premiums have been faithfully paid and there hasn't been any issues. That is, of course, until last weekend when I received an e-mail from Aviva asking me to do a "satisfaction survey" based on a recent claim I had made with them.
I judged this e-mail as suspicious, so I called their 24-hour claims line to obtain some information. First off, their after-hours claims folks are notoriously useless and are really unable to do anything except take details and file a new claim. They were, however, able to look at my file, and subsequently notified me that it looked as though I had made a claim relating to a basement flood I had in September 2015.
Now here's where everything gets very interesting. You see, I never made such a claim. After conveying this to the after-hours rep., she made a note and promised someone would follow up with me via phone during the next business day.
Well, nobody called. As luck would have it, I had been outside doing some yard work, and noticed that my neighbour was busy moving his washer/dryer into his garage. I asked what was going on, and he told me that after dealing with his insurance company (a different company than mine which I will not name, but will say the name of it corresponds to a common last name or a nickname for a male body part) for a month, they were finally able TO START FIXING THE FLOOD THAT HAPPENED IN THEIR BASEMENT.
Putting two and two together, I spent the next several business days trying to get in touch with someone from Aviva that could actually help me - which was a less than easy task.
In short, what ended up happening was that somehow my neighbour's home insurance claim was processed, closed and paid out UNDER MY POLICY, despite the two policies being issued by two separate and unrelated companies, associated with two different addresses and with different names on the policy.
Once Aviva management and my broker found out about this, they sprung into full-on panic mode realizing the extent of the mistake that had been made. The cheque which had been issued was cancelled immediately, and after relentlessly trying to prove my story true with this giant behemoth of a company and the associated bureaucratic inefficiencies, I've been informed that the claim was removed from my account and no longer exists.
So, I suspect you still may have one big question, somewhere along the lines of "How could this happen if the two respective policies were held by two separate and unrelated companies which would not have access to each others records?" Well you see, it turns out that in my neck of the woods, these two large insurance companies subcontract a company called "Claims Pro" to do their adjusting. Of course Aviva can't be bothered to have its own representatives in a major Canadian city with over one million residents. That just wouldn't be cost efficient. The Claims Pro adjuster would have had access to the records of each company and for whatever reason, whether it be sheer laziness or plain stupidity, opened a claim for a different property under my home insurance.
Another point to consider is that I would never had become aware of this issue had I not randomly received that customer satisfaction e-mail. Renewal would have come along, with the increased rates associated with a claim, and who knows whether or not I would ever have realized what happened. Add all this to the unauthorized disclosure of personal information and you've got quite a problem, resulting in my well-deserved one star rating.
Shortly after switching to Aviva we were broken into. Between being a new customer and signing up for a significant discount to our previous insurance we were very concerned. But we could not be happier with how the claims process went. Our third party adjuster was shocked at the level of coverage we had (the Dolce Vita plan for higher value houses), and Aviva was quick to send us advance cheques and provided fair value for all our lost belongings.
2009 we had a fire, one of the kids playing with a lighter. We were worried we would be denied insurance because it was one of our kids. He was only five so he wasn't deemed responsible thank goodness! Fire started in a lower basement bedroom, that room and the back half of our home was destroyed, nobody was hurt. Aviva gots us an advance cheque quickly because we basically lost everything, we had 4 kids, 2 adults, they paid for a rental home for us while our home was rebuilt. We selected the company that rebuilt it from one that Aviva recommended and we were happy with the work they did. We were back in our home in 6 months. I'll stay with Aviva after that. When you have a large loss and the insurance company takes care of things the way they did I wouldn't go anywhere else!
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It's bad enough that the rates from my broker increased every year that I was with them but when I found a better price for better coverage with TD, they charged me $300 for "time at risk" and marked it past due.....from the day i cancelled my insurance. So i get to pay $300 for 12 days worth of insurance and will probably end up with interest because the pretty pink past due letter came in while I was away on my honeymoon. All together, i'm dissapointed.
Because i dealt with a broker, I never had any direct contact with the company.