Sewer Backup Claims
Floods, water and sewer backups keep making headlines in countless municipalities across Canada. Cities with aging infrastructure are particularly vulnerable when a heavy rainfall floods the underground water systems and leads to a sewer backup situation. Our exclusive partnership with WINMAR®, Canada’s largest national property restoration network, is specifically designed to help ensure that our clients’ losses result in minimal downtime.
With intense storms and rain occurring more frequently, city councils, insurance companies, provincial governments, consumers and Canadian businesses are just some the many stakeholders who are concerned about bad weather. Business owners who’ve had water damage claims in the recent past now keep a very watchful eye on weather forecasts and rising nearby rivers.
Coverage Note: An insurance company’s response to natural or man-made-related types of claims is based on the policy coverage purchased as well as the specifics of the claimant’s situation. Talk to your insurance advocate to understand what coverage your business has in place.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada provides more detailed information about options – such as installing a backflow device – that may help to prevent a sewer backup.
Sewer Backup – A New Risk Assessment Tool
Knowing where a sewer backup situation may occur is an important component in assessing risk for your business or home coverage. According to this recent Insurance Business article, a new tool has been developed for underwriters to help them predict the likelihood of a sewer backup.
Crunching data, the tool provides “…a ‘risk score’ for a property, reflecting the risk potential of sewer backup and basement flood. The tool considers factors such as watershed hydrology, rainfall intensity and frequency, soil hydro properties, tree coverage, land depression, aging sewer systems at the structures and in the communities, combined sewer areas, land slope, elevation variances between properties and potential flood sources and sewer system patterns.”1 To learn more about how the tool works, you can read the full article here.
ALIGNED With WINMAR® – A Canadian Leader in Emergency Response Services
We know that worst-case scenarios like a sewer backup may happen someday. To help ensure the impact of losses to our clients are minimized, we’re partners with the WINMAR® restoration network. With of more than 90 service locations across Canada, WINMAR® provides 24-hour disaster and emergency response services as well as preplanning for all residential, commercial, industrial or institutional properties.
In the event of property damage related to a sewer backup event, all ALIGNED clients with silver, gold or platinum service will be given priority response for their flood insurance claim. A timely response to all claims is how we work to support your business getting back to normal operations as soon as possible.
Priority claims response is just 1 of 18 points of differentiation that we proudly deliver to ALIGNED clients. To learn more about better insurance options, solutions and support that we line up everyday across Canada, contact an ALIGNED advocate here.
Sources: CBC.ca IBC.ca IMRI 1Insurance Business WINMAR®
