Water damage - to claim or not ?

[can_belle]

Hello folks

I'm based in Montreal Quebec where I own a split level house. During the heavy rains in August, we had water backing up from the drains located in the basement and the garage. This completely damaged the floor and damaged the basement and garage walls. We reported it to our insurance company who paid about 7500 CAD to restore the initial state. The restoration was completed in November 2023.

On December 19th 2023, there was water backup again due to the heavy rains. Unfortunately at this time, even the sump pump failed and we had to call a disaster recovery tram to get rid of the water and dry up the place. We even called a plumber who replaced the old sump pump. This costed us around 3000 CAD.

Now I am in a dilemma of whether I should report these damages to the insurance or not ? Would they increase the premium for reporting two claims in such a short interval ? What are the pros and cons ? What would you recommend?

Many thanks

 

[sovereignone]

@can_belle Your premiums will surely increase - they were bound to increase with the first claim alone, unless you had Claims Forgiveness which is not offered by all insurers for home insurance. They will definitely increase with the second claims, perhaps moreso. The other issue is that if they're particular risk-averse, they may even drop you at renewal or at the very lease might enforce a higher deductible in order to limit future claims and allow you to stay on-risk.

 

[hanakahiro]

@can_belle For 3000CAD it’s not worth it. Your deductible plus one year of premium increase could easily surpass that. Many companies have a claim free discount of up to/around 30%. If you didn’t see that jump the first time, you had claims forgiveness and will see it this time because you already used it. All that said, if you call and speak to a claims adjuster to get a quote for your potential premium increase and deductible, you can simply withdraw the claim if it isn’t worth it. It’s not like auto insurance where it can impact your premiums whether you submit or not