For tenants in Ontario, tenant insurance can provide crucial protection for personal belongings and liability in case someone suffers an injury or material loss at their rental property. However, besides finding proper coverage for your needs and risks, it’s also crucial to know how to file a claim on your policy. Here we’ll explore the process of filing a claim on your tenants insurance in Ontario and the steps to take during it. Let’s get started!
Step One: Putting Together Your Documentation
As soon as an incident happens in your rental property, start documenting everything. You’ll need this for the incident report that you’ll present to your insurer to start your claims process. While there is no set timeframe to do this, your best chance of gathering all the relevant information is to do it as soon as you can after the event.
When writing the report, describe what happened in as much detail as you can remember, such as the time, location, and date of the event. Note all the damages, including injuries and damaged or stolen pieces of property. Include videos or photos of the location of the accident and the injuries or damages. Ideally, take these immediately after the event whenever possible.
Step Two: Notifying Your Insurance Provider
The next step for making a claim on your tenant insurance policy in Ontario is to contact your insurer. Do this as soon as you’ve gathered all the information, including a precise list of damaged or lost items and their value, or the costs of medical care for injuries.
Depending on the details of the event, your insurance provider might ask for additional information, or they might send an adjuster to assess the damage and determine the value of your claim and its relation to the insured loss.
If you have an insurance broker, you can use them to help you through this process instead of working with the insurer’s agent.
Step Three: Sharing the Details and Schedule of Loss
After you contact your insurance company, share the event details, and your broker or claims advisor confirms what happened, you may be asked to complete a Schedule of Loss. This is for the official documentation of damaged or stolen property or injuries required by many insurance companies, although it doesn’t apply to all claims.
You may be asked to verify when the damaged or stolen property was purchased, from where and for how much. This is a great reason to keep receipts and proof of ownership of valuables.
Once they have all the details, your insurance agent or broker will walk through the how-to file a claim process, giving you the necessary forms to officially file your claim. If you have questions they haven’t covered, make sure to ask them before you make your claim.
Step Four: Filing Your Claim
As a last step before submitting your claim, double-check the estimated value for repairs, replacements, or other costs. Once you’ve confirmed this information and finalized the documentation with your broker/advisor, you can file your claim.
All You Need to Know About Receiving Payment
How much and how you’ll be reimbursed depends on your policy limits, as this is the highest amount you can claim through your insurer. For example, in some cases, the value of damaged or stolen items, medical costs, or additional living expenses will exceed your policy coverage limits. This is why it can be important to get the best coverage for your needs, rather than simply choosing the cheapest quote.
This means you won’t be reimbursed for all your expenses after you claim. Whereas if the loss of the damage is within the policy limitations, you’ll have a few options for reimbursement. This also depends on your policy and insurer’s standard practices.
For instance, when it comes to reimbursement for repair work, your insurer might require these repairs to be done at their preferred companies. In these cases, your insurer will likely pay for the repairs directly to the vendor.
However, if your insurer allows the repairs to be done by a different vendor, you’ll pay to cover them initially, and your insurance will reimburse you afterward.
When seeking reimbursement for stolen or damaged personal belongings and injuries, the amount you receive will depend on several factors. For example, your policy might provide reimbursement in replacement costs or cash value.
The former entails the actual value of the items, while the latter factors in depreciation value from the time the items were purchased. When it comes to injuries, your policy provides a maximum insured amount you will be reimbursed for. Make sure to check everything covered under your policy before filing the claim to know the full extent of your coverage.
Final Thoughts
Getting the right tenant’s insurance coverage is essential for lowering your risk and protecting yourself against liability claims as a tenant. If you need to make a claim, your first step is to gather documentation supporting your case.
Once you have the necessary information, you must contact your insurer and inquire about the following steps. You might be required to gather or assist in gathering further data, but once that’s done, you can submit your claim.
You can then receive reimbursement for damages, repairs or injuries based on what’s stated in your policy. If you need further advice or are looking for a new tenant insurance policy, contact Buckler Insurance today to see how we can help.
