April 6th, 2013

Tenants Are Finding It Hard to Get Insured In Area With High Crime and Fire Rates

According to a CBC report tenants in St. John’s north end are finding if very tough to be able to get tenant insurance.

Tenant Carla Bigney tried to get insurance when she moved into the area. She explained each time she applied she was turned down with the excuse that the area was a “high crime area.” This is just another problem faced by tenants in our region.

According to advocates in the community was Bigney faced is common for tenants in the area. They admit there are buildings in the area which have been boared up and one that’s been a target for those doing arson.

Bigney says she didn’t do anything wrong and crimes happen everywhere. Her rental apartment is right across both a church and a fire department. She wonders what the rationality is behind her being refused insurance. While we often read about tenants who do bad things, in this case a good tenant such as Carla simply wants to protect herself.

Ronald Godin is the Consumer Advocate for Insurance for our province. He explains insurance companies simply aren’t attracted to areas with high crime rates and older homes. Thus, they aren’t interested in placed like the north end. This means if insurance companies aren’t attracted, the area will also not attract investors.

Godin says that tenant insurance is different than auto insurance which has rules forcing the insurance companies to provide auto insurance all over Canada.

According to Godin,”Basically if a company does not want to take you on as a client, you have to try with another company and so on and so fort. It is possible that a person will not be able to obtain insurance in those circumstances.”

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To discuss this and other Nova Scotia Landlord and Tenant issues go to the Nova Scotia Landlords Forum and network with thousands of other landlords and tenants across Canada.