# House insurance on Primary Residence - yearly premium increases



## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

We just received our new home owners insurance statement. I see an increase of 9.3% from last year which I think is extremely high. 2% is due to a lowering of our "new house" discount from 15% to 13%, which I can understand, but that still leaves a 7.3% raise from our previous year, with no claims.

From what I have read on here, some home insurance companies grab you with very reasonable premiums the first year, then slowly increase each year until it's no longer such a reasonable premium. I don't want to fall prey to this tactic.

I am going to contact our insurance broker and ask if that's the best this company (Dominion) can do, but if they can't bring it down to a reasonable increase (what do others here think is reasonable - to me 5% more is the max I would be content paying) should I start shopping around even more?


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

I just called my broker (I couldn't wait) and she said a lot of insurers have raised their premiums as much as $300 this year (not that a dollar value means much), and that an increase of less than 10% this year is reasonable. Since she is a broker I trust her more than dealing directly with the insurance company on my own.

Our broker also mentioned that the cost to rebuilt homes goes up each year and our premium is based on this (which to me is reasonable).

Still I'm not happy feeling like I'm being nickle-and-dimed each year and would appreciate any experience-based advise others have to give.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

I cannot figure it out. Two years ago we had a small claim...just under $2000 after our $1000. deductible. 

We were hesitant to take the cheque (the adjuster was going to write us a cheque there and then and told us if the work cost more to contact them) because we assumed that our insurance would go up. The adjuster said no.....and if it did everyone's would increase because of the large number of claims in our area.

Oddly enough our home insurance premium actually decreased the following year. Homeowner's where we live, in Calgary, are expecting increases next year if only because there have generally been very high cumulative claims in the area over the past few years-attributable to acts of nature. Floods, hail, etc. One of our friends has had her roof replaced once and all of the vinyl siding on her home replaced twice by insurance claims over the past 10 years. All attributable to hail. She has not had any significant increases in her premiums. That surprised me.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

our condo insurance has steadily risen over the last 10 years
they have raised earthquake deductibles a lot
this is only going to continue


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