Canada Insurer Paid Out $190M in Water Damage Claims in 2013

Aviva Canada paid out a record of over $190 million in water damage claims in 2013, a 69 percent increase versus 2012.

If the 2013 Alberta and Toronto catastrophes were removed from the calculation, water damage would have still made up 40 percent of all property claims for Aviva Canada.

“With last year’s storms, water damage reached an all time high making up 51 percent of all Aviva Canada property claims,” states Wayne Ross, vice president of Property Claims for Aviva Canada. “The flooding in Alberta and Toronto certainly played a big part in the increase, but the general trend is upward. And as severe weather events are growing in frequency, we expect to see more situations like this in the future.”

Data also shows that in 2013, the average cost of a water damage claim rose to $20,537, a 130 percent increase versus the $8,944 that the company experienced 10 years earlier. Even with the flooding catastrophes removed, the figures have trended higher for a number of years.

“The reasons for the upward trend are rather simple,” said Ross. “The increasing investment Canadians are putting into their basements, combined with more frequent severe weather events and an aging sewer system that is unable to deal with large amounts of water within a short time period, results in a lot of homes experiencing damage.”

Source: Aviva Canada Inc.