Abacus

How Home Rates Work

Property insurance products take a lot of factors into consideration when determining your home and contents insurance rates.

Some of these factors include:

The location of your home

Where you live can greatly influence your rates. City residences usually provide better fire protection but may also bring higher-break-and enter or vandalism exposures. Specific factors include:

Distance from your home to the nearest fire hydrant
Distance to the nearest firehall and whether it employs full-time or part-time firefighters
If you live in a Metropolitan area
If you reside in Southern, Northern or Northwestern Alberta

Your home itself

The construction of your house also influences your rates.

How many storeys is it?
Do you use auxiliary heating, such as a wood stove?
Age of the building?
Have you made upgrades to wiring, heating, plumbing and roof?
Do you live in a detached dwelling, small apartment, high-rise apartment or townhouse?
How many families live in the dwelling?
Do you own and maintain protective devices like dead-bolt locks, alarms and smoke detectors?
And of course, the cost to replace your home and contents in the event of a loss plays a large role in the cost of insurance.

Underwriting criteria

Underwriters look at many factors, rules and guidelines to determine the amount of coverage your home should maintain, as well as applying deductibles, discounts and services to your home insurance.

The insurance policy - additional coverages, deductibles and discounts

Additional coverages provide you with a high degree of customization — allowing you to purchase optional coverages that may help provide you with even more protection. Typical options include:

Increased liability limit
Liability extension to other properties or exposures
Personal Umbrella Liability
Rental income replacement in case a rental property is unrentable due to a covered loss
Earthquake coverage
Home-based business extension
Burglary / vandalism (optional purchase at a seasonal dwelling)
Enriched Property Protector (providing even broader coverage)
Sewer back-up coverage

Deductibles: portion of a claim you agree to pay

Typically, the larger the deductible you agree to maintain, the lower your premium.

$500 or $1,000

For a quote please call
1-877-COUNT23
1-877-268-6823