Assurance Goguen Insurance

General Information
Home insurance is designed to protect your personal assets (home and/or personal belongings) in the event of an insured loss, and subject to your policy deductible.

If you own your own home, you will require a Homeowner’s Package Insurance policy.

If you are the owner of a condominium, you will require a Condominium Unit Owner’s Package policy.

If you rent an apartment, you will require a Tenant’s Insurance Package policy.

We will counsel you to purchase coverage subject to Replacement Cost. With Replacement Cost, your insurer will pay to replace your damaged property (building or contents) at today’s prices, without deduction for depreciation.

Types of Policies

Homeowners Package Insurance policy
These are designed for people who own and occupy their own home. Generally speaking, the policy includes coverage on the main dwelling, outbuildings (garages, sheds, etc.) and personal property (furniture, clothing, sports equipment, etc.)

Condominium Unit Owner’s Package policy
These policies are designed for people who own and occupy a Condominium.

With a Condominium, the main building is owned and insured by the condominium Corporation. As a part owner, you are liable for your portion of some expenses.

A Condominium Unit Owner’s Package policy provides coverage for your personal property (furniture, clothing, sports equipment, etc.) and has special Contingent coverage related to your Condominium and to the building should the Condominium Corporation’s policy not be adequate or have insufficient coverage to protect your interest.

Tenant’s Package Insurance policy
These policies are designed for people who rent their homes. Generally speaking, the policy provides coverage for personal property (furniture, clothing, sports equipment, etc.). The policy also protects the tenant for damage accidentally caused to the unit occupied by the tenant.

All of the above policies also include the following coverages:

Additional Living Expenses, for additional expenses you incur following a loss;
Third Party liability coverages. This coverage applies at your home or anywhere in the world and protects you in the event you are legally liable for damages to the property of others or for bodily injury to others. Our minimum limit offered is $1,000,000.

We can also provide coverage for secondary residences, seasonal residences, dwellings under construction or vacant dwellings.

PLEASE NOTE:
Home insurance coverage is not standardized. Although the main areas of coverage may be similar, policy wordings may differ between companies. Our representatives will assist you in identifying these changes.

Types of coverage

There are normally three types of policies for Home Insurance:

Standard Form policy
Broad Form policy
Comprehensive Form policy

Whether you have a Homeowner’s policy, Condominium Unit Owner’s policy or Tenant’s Package policy, you can choose the type of coverage between these three forms.

The difference between the three forms is found in the definition of “What is Covered” by the policy, or “Insured Perils”.

There are two approaches in defining “What is Covered” or “Insured Perils”

Named Perils
Under this form, we find a listing of “What is Covered”. Any cause of loss not listed will not be covered. Although these perils may sometimes differ between insurers, we generally find the coverage for the following perils:

Fire or Lightning
Explosion
Smoke
Falling Object
Impact by Aircraft or Land Vehicle
Riot
Vandalism or Malicious Acts
Water Escape, Rupture, Freezing
Windstorm or Hail
Transportation
Theft, including damage caused by attempted theft

All Risks
This form is the second approach to determining “What is Covered”, or “Insured Perils”. Under this form, coverage is provided for All Perils and then the coverage is limited by exclusion. This form does not list what is covered, but rather what is not covered.

Coverage under All Risks is much broader than under Named Perils, and your Account Executive will recommend All Risks coverage when available or possible.

Following is the coverage found under the three forms:

Standard Form:
Named Perils coverage for building and for Personal Property.

Broad Form:
All Risks coverage for building; Named Perils coverage for Personal Property.

Comprehensive Form:

All Risks coverage for Building and Personal Property.

Comprehensive Form is the superior form of coverage and provides the best value for your dollar.

These definitions apply to all three types of policies, with insurance not applying to Building coverage under Condominium and Tenant’s Package policies.

Additional Coverages
Whether you purchase Named Perils or All Risks coverage, you need to consider the need for additional coverages.

Water Escape Endorsement:
Both the Named Perils or All Risks forms provides coverage for damage arising from sudden and accidental escape of water from an indoor plumbing, heating, sprinkler or air conditioning system; or from an indoor or outdoor “domestic appliance” on your premises, or from a water main. Coverage usually excludes damage arising from:

Sewer back-up
Floodwater such as that from an overflowing creek
Repeated or continuous water seepage (from a cracked basement, or a window, or unrepaired pipes).
Malfunctioning sump pumps, leaky gutters and downspouts.
“Water Hammers” (usually caused by loose valve stems on a tap).

The above perils are excluded. However, sewer back-up coverage is usually available for an additional premium.

Scheduled Articles or Property Floater
You may want to specifically insure some particular personal property, as the limits offered by the policy may be inadequate, or you may wish to purchase broader coverage on some items, or you may require a lower deductible.

Items such as jewelry, sports equipment, fine arts, card collections, etc. may be specifically scheduled and insured.

Replacement Cost and Actual Cash Value
When settling a claim, the basis of settlement can be either Actual Cash Value or Replacement Cost.

Actual Cash Value is defined as Replacement Cost less Physical Depreciation. Replacement Cost does not include deductions for physical depreciation. When feasible, we always recommend Replacement Cost coverage instead of Actual Cash Value.

Earthquake Insurance

All Home insurance policies exclude coverage by earthquake.

New Brunswick is considered a medium-risk zone for earthquake.

Coverage for damage caused by earthquake can be purchased as an extension to your home policy.

The deductible for this coverage is usually quite high. Coverage is designed for large losses.

Other considerations
As all policies include restrictions or limitations of coverage, we need to be advised of any of the following:

Major renovations to your dwelling
Business operations from your home
Increase in replacement value of your home
Wood-burning stoves
House under construction
Vacancy of your dwelling

Unoccupancy
A clause in every policy states that if your home is unoccupied for more than 96 consecutive hours during the heating season, coverage against water escape caused by freezing applies only if you have made arrangements for a competent individual to check your premises on a daily basis.

How to make a claim
Making a claim is what proves the worth of your insurance company and of your broker.

Your policy documents will often provide a toll-free number for the insurance company that insured your home. Although you are free to call this number, we suggest you call our office first when possible. You can report the claim to us 24 hours a day by calling 506-857-0064 or 1-888-819-7070.

Your Customer Service Representative will collect the information and report the claim to your insurer on your behalf.

In the event of a smaller claim, your representative will counsel you on whether a claim should be made or not.

Once the claim is reported, an insurance adjustor will contact you to settle the claim.

An insurance adjustor is a trained professional whose job it is to ensure your claim is handled fairly according to the terms of your policy.

As brokers, we follow the claims process. As the claim is being settled, we are available to you at any time should you have any questions or problems.

How we arrive at a premium

All insurers set insurance rates for home insurance.

Factors that impact on your premium include:

Value of your home. As most policies are written with a Replacement Cost endorsement, we must ensure that you are insured on a Replacement Cost basis. Our representatives will calculate this for you based on the Boekch Home Evaluator.
Location of your home. Rates can vary according to the geographical location of your home.
Fire protection. Generally speaking, insurers provide better rates for homes that are located in areas where fire protection exists.
Most insurers have three classes of rates:
- Hydrant protected. A hydrant is located within 500 feet of the residence.
- Fire hall protected. A fire hall is located within eight (8) kilometers of the residence
- Unprotected
- The age of your home. Depending on the insurer, an older home may qualify for newer home rates if the following have been updated in a satisfactory manner: roof, heating, plumbing, electrical.
- The number of habitational units on the residence (single family, duplex, multi-unit)

Finally, most insures offer discounts for specific thongs. Some of the more common discounts are:

Mortgage-free discount
Claims-free discount (usually 3 years)
Mature discount (usually 50 years and older)
Electric heat only discount
Smoke detector discount
Fire and/or burglar alarm discount, with higher discounts offered for monitored systems
Stability of residence discount
Multi-policy discount