The things you can learn

[Northern Miner]

We bought a house that we move into next week and on another post I mentioned that it has aluminum wiring - built in the 70's and the whole neighbourhood has it.

Some insurance companies do not like it at all and mine asked for an inspection . $250 later we learned that there are some issues that should be addressed - nothing fatal but there are no GFCI's in the house and it needs three. It also needs a line moved as it is too near water pipes.

Okay no biggie methinks. Wrong - after sending in report I get denied insurance until brought up to code and another assessment provided proving it. That would mean we would have no insurance until it was upgraded....hmmm that could mean a month or so without coverage. Nope- so changing companies had to happen. It did and they didn't care about having the report as long as I was prepared to upgrade and sign a statement - over and done. Saved more too.

So I get company that did report to price out the job - fix the faults and put in a new panel - that estimate was over $2400 - YIKES.

That led us to wandering into HD Saturday where a great guy in the store confirmed that to make the upgrades was something we could easily do ourselves and we can buy the panel and save more and then a good electrician can come in and do the work for about $800. That advice saved me enough to go buy the flooring for upstairs. Yippee.

He told us what to buy and what to do and even went around the store showing us. That was fantastic and sure solved a lot of the stress I was feeling over having to get this done. If he reads here he will recognize himself I'm sure. Thanks S......

[jeep]

When it comes to electrical I would spend the money and have it done by a pro. Great that thye were able to help buy what you needed now to get it put in. I found HD depot helpful when we were building our house.

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Our HD has an employee that looks like BONO always walking around looking very busy but doing nothing we always laughed about him with his Bono glasses on.

[Dustbunnydiva]

One word....permit. Get a permit, don't skip the permit, pay for and go through the hassle of a permit. You can do the work yourself or get an electrician but if you don't get a permit and have the nice little sticker to show it passed, your insurance will be void (what they told me) if ever there is a fire (and it's almost impossible to sell the house without a lot of explaining to do). Last house the insurance company even sent someone over to make sure the stickers were there once it was all done.

As for insurance companies they are getting very anal about such things but when I ran into it the last time they had a 'grace period' to allow for being able to get the work done. As long as you could show you had it booked it didn't matter but they preferred 30 days (try that in Calgary at the time when things were booming and no one would do homeowner jobs at all). With mine I had the panel and stuff done right away but the other stuff the city required before giving me the sticker took almost 6 mos. My insurance was okay with that after me showing them the invoice for the new panel and GFCIs install.

[Northern Miner]

Knew about that DBD as two contractors had mentioned it and also checked with town yesterday and they told me who I need to speak with.

To add insult to injury I got a bill from the insurance company for the interest (six months) on the premium they lost by cancelling the policy. I'm appealing that and will take it way up the ladder. I did everything I could to let them keep the policy and paid for the inspection and submitted it to them. They flat refused to insure the house and that forced me to spend two days sorting this all out and getting another company to underwrite it and they didn't even want a report.

So why should they expect to be paid for something that they cancelled. Can't have your cake and eat too.

The insurance company and broker for those who want to know is Trafalgar and Grey Power. Not happy with either now, although with Grey Power they did a lot of leg work to get answers I didn't want to hear.

[Dustbunnydiva]

Wow I'd be steamed too. Since when is the cancellation your fault if they were the ones doing the cancelling. Are you dealing with a broker or directly with the insurance companies? Deal with a broker if you aren't all ready. They can save you a lot of grief when it comes to this kind of thing as they know which companies charge what and what kind of policies and service they have when there is a problem.

You might also want to put a call into your provincial consumer department to see what rules they have in place for such things. It can be very surprising what some companies try and get away with when in reality there are often rules/laws in place. I had to use that here when I cancelled my car insurance after getting a little miffed at BCAA. They tell me a penalty is standard in the industry (they're telling this to me who just moved and had to cancel all my insurance with no penalty at all so I know that isn't true). So I asked where I would find that in all the documentation they gave me and was told it wasn't there because it's standard. Well no good. Consumer laws state otherwise (conditions of refunds or cancellations have to be stated and the customer has to be aware at time of purchase or it must be in the paperwork so you can see before you sign) so they could forget the penalty or have me file a complaint against them. That is all it took.

[Mrs.Fancy]

What a frustrating experience. Who knew that moving to the new house can lead to the chain of negative things. As my DH said those greedy insurance companies are the biggest bandits and they use all the occasions to get more and more money. Don't give up and fight back. DBD gave you good advice on where to start.
Good luck!

[denzilpaul11]

You are right that There are so many biggest bandits insurance company rumor in the market. They just want to cheat the innocent person who have enough money and also want to spent the money for new assets. I just want to say that We will not believe in certain type of insurance company and also save the money.