Risk & Business Magazine Benson Kearley Risk & Business Magazine Summer | Page 28

WOULD YOU INSURE YOUR BIGGEST INVESTMENT?
BY: JEFF RODIN,
BENSON KEARLEY IFG
WOULD YOU
INSURE
YOUR BIGGEST
INVESTMENT?
W
ould you not insure
one of your biggest
investments? According
to a study conducted in
2013 by Abacus Data,
approximately “61 per cent of Canadian
condominium (“condo”) owners don’t
know [if] or incorrectly assume [that]
their building’s insurance will cover
damage to another unit from water or fire
that originated in their unit, potentially
rendering them personally liable and
putting them at financial risk.” 1 This
study illustrates a real and significant
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problem facing the condo community.
This issue is even harder to comprehend
when you factor in the number of
insurance companies that offer
products tailored to meet the needs
of the condominium community.
Condominium unit owners insurance
policies have been designed to fill
in the gaps of insurance left by the
corporation’s policies. The condominium
corporation’s declaration or its Standard
Unit ByLaw (S.U.B.) will define what is
insured by the corporation’s insurance
policy. Any insurable items not listed in
the declaration or S.U.B. can be covered
by the unit owners insurance policy.
This sounds simple enough, right? So
why are such a large percentage of unit
owners exposing themselves to financial
risk? The answer is misinformation.
An example of this is illustrated in the
following question that I am confronted
with at 99 percent of all town hall
meetings I attend: “If my property is
damaged by an event that I didn’t cause,
then will the individual responsible for