Over the past four decades, insurance claims from water damage have been rising significantly, with insurance payouts due to property and casualty issues doubling or more literally every five to ten years. In fact, water damage has increased in risk over severe weather incidents in terms of insurance claims. It’s estimated that Canada’s market sees estimated costs averaging $1.8 billion in insured losses every year due to flooding incidents. This is enough of an expense that many homeowners and property owners are now keeping a fire sprinkler shut off tool handy for accidental discharges of the fire suppression system to lower the amount of damage they would otherwise see, as property owners see double-digit rate increases in their insurance rates.
What’s Causing Water Damage Claims to Rise?
The Insurance Bureau of Canada notes several top factors causing water damage claims to rise. These include more frequent and severe precipitation, an increase in condominium and apartment living, increasing finished basement numbers, policy owners spending more time on travel or away from home and busy lives preventing notice of the issue.
Is Your Canadian Home Covered Against Water Damage?
The vast majority of Canadian homeowners aren’t certain what is and what isn’t covered in their homeowner’s insurance policy. It’s estimated that only 37% of Canadians who have a ground-level home are fairly confident about what is and is not covered in their insurance policy, with only 45% of Canadians believing that they have flood insurance while an additional 26% aren’t sure whether they have flood coverage or not.
What Kind of Water Damage Coverage Do You Have?
Even more difficult, most Canadian insurance companies have distinctions that specify particular types of water damage and the related coverage. As an example, many insurers have to actively add on protection from overland water, such as flooding from heavy precipitation or overflowing waterways. With constant updates to policies by insurance companies, many providers have raised deductibles or reduced coverage for issues such as sewer backups, or adding overland water coverage. This is why it’s so important to understand exactly what your insurance company covers and how you need to react when there’s a water threat to your home.
How a Fire Sprinkler Shut Off Tool Can Help Mitigate Your Insurance Rates
Because of these increasing rates, many Canadians are looking for ways to help lower their insurance rates while avoiding extensive repairs and expensive restoration work on their homes. Mitigating water leaks and fire sprinkler damage can lower the amount of destruction in your home, stop the growth of mold and mildew, save costs on insurance rates, avoid extensive, costly repairs, lower the time to starting restoration and construction, and getting your home back to normal more quickly.One way to do this is by keeping a Shutgun tool at your home to quickly turn off your sprinkler system when it’s accidentally started, at which point it can release up to 600 liters of water every minute. This allows you to react within a matter of seconds and reduce the water damage that the water causes in your home.