Personal Insurance poor handling of Rental Insurance compensation claim Fall-Winter 2021
by AR on Dec 18, 2021
2 out of 5 stars
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I filed a claim with The Personal Insurance Company recently (fall 2021) for compensation on the loss of rent during the period our condo was damaged and was repeatedly suffering from grey-water backups into the kitchen sink and, on two separate occasions, into our unit, a situation that made the condo unfit to live in for almost four months. The floors, the walls, the kitchen cabinets were all impacted and had to be dried up, disinfected, partially removed and finally replaced. I sent names and contact information, videos, pictures, documents, the assessments made by the building insurer etc. The Personal Insurance gave me the longest and most exhausting and exhaustive runaround in the book and to this day, they have only very reluctantly compensated me for about 1/4 of my rental losses. Their definition of an unfit to live property doesn't match that of the province they are headquartered in and are serving. They say, we only compensate the property owner during the repair time, not while the property is damaged, unfit, unsanitary, unsafe and only partially usable (in this case the property was only fit for the storage of the furniture, occasional stay overnight, and the use of the bathroom and laundry facilities.) Our tenants spent most of this period staying with family and friends and coming to the condo when absolutely necessary. To compensate them for this inconvenience, I gave them a discount equal to half their rent. I also, gave them the option to break their lease and leave altogether as we didn't know when the property would be repaired since the cause of the damage had to be found and fixed before any repairs could take place within our unit. They chose the rental discount hoping that the repairs would take place soon. I thought the Personal Insurance would easily compensate me for this very straightforward case of loss of rent, minus my deductible, and as long as it didn't pass my total rental loss compensation limit stated in my insurance contract. That was not the case, and the two claims adjusters, and the one complaints division agent with whom I followed up on my claim, all found every possible way to refuse to provide full compensation for the rental losses I have incurred by following the provincial rules pertaining to compensation to tenants when the property is damaged and is inferior to what was promised in the rental contract.
This is quite sad to discover since I have been a very happy client of The Personal for decades, generally due to their respective customer service and quick handling of the few small claims my family has had with them in the past. But, I guess things have changed, and this company doesn't seem to respect its rental home insurance policy and its written promises as it ought to. I hope The Personal Insurance executives will read my comments and try to return their company to what it used to be in the past, a decent and reliable insurance company that was reflective of the clients they're serving: hardworking teachers and university instructors among others.