The largest investment that the average person makes in their lifetime is in the purchase of their home. Do you have a good plan in place to ensure that your investment will be protected in the event of an unforeseen loss? Our goal at Costen is to make sure that your home along with your contents are covered as best as possible to protect you from financial loss. We have policies available to you for a wide array of living situations – from renting a basement suite to high value homes or multi-unit rental properties.

There is a large selection of coverages and additional endorsements that we have available for you through our insurance companies. Below we have listed a few of these coverages for you:

1. Dwelling Building
• Limits are based on details obtained from you on your home that are plugged into our replacement cost calculation tool
• Deductibles range from $500 up to $5,000 (higher deductibles available in certain cases)
• In most cases Guaranteed Replacement Cost coverage is applied to this coverage. This means that your home would be covered to be rebuilt due to an insured loss no matter what the cost to rebuild is. So if your home is insured for $400,000 and it ends up costing $450,000 to rebuild the home, the insurance company would pay the full $450,000 as long as no major renovations or changes to the home had been done without notice to the insurance company
2. Detached Private Structures
• Limit is based on a percentage of the amount your dwelling is insured for, but can be increased if needed
• Deductible is the same as the deductible for your dwelling coverage
• Covers damage to detached structures such as garden sheds, green houses, detached garages, and more
• In most cases replacement cost is applied to this coverage
3. Personal Contents
• Limits available from $25,000 and up
• Deductibles range from $300 up to $5,000 (higher deductibles available in certain cases)
• In most cases replacement cost is applied to this coverage – i.e. coverage is based on the cost of brand new contents in the event of a loss rather than what your contents are worth at the time of a loss
4. Additional Living Expense
• Limit is based on a percentage of the amount your home or contents are insured for depending on the insurance company
• Designed to cover you for additional expenses in the event of an insured loss where you are unable to stay at your home for a period of time while your home is being repaired
5. Personal Liability
• Limits range from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000
• Designed to cover you for your negligent acts or omissions that cause bodily injury or property damage to another party. This coverage applies to your actions anywhere in the world
6. Sewer Backup
• Limits range from $10,000 to the full policy limit of your contents and dwelling. We will always apply the highest amount of coverage possible for this endorsement which is in most cases the full policy limit(some conditions can apply)
• Designed to cover loss or damage due to the backing up of sewer into your dwelling. This coverage is not automatically on the policy so we add it for you as an endorsement
7. Identity Theft
• Limits range from $15,000 to $30,000 depending on the insurance company
• Designed to cover you in the event that you are a victim of identity theft – i.e. if someone steals your credit card, sets up a false identity under your name, steals your passport/driver’s licence, etc. The insurance company will assist in recouping costs and processing documentation to rectify the situation
8. Bylaw Coverage
• Limits range from $5,000 up to the full policy limit depending on the insurance company
• Over time, bylaws in your municipality will change and thus the way your home was originally built may no longer be up to code. If you have a loss to your home that damages 70% or more of your home you would be required to rebuild the home including the current building codes. This can cause a significant increase in the cost to rebuild and increases due to change in bylaws are not automatically covered under your policy. This endorsement can be added to your policy to protect you from being potentially underinsured. In most cases this coverage is automatically added to the policy at no or very little charge
9. Claim Protector
• Designed to keep your claims free discount on your policy in the event of your first loss
10. Scheduled Items
• Most insurance companies have specified limits of coverage for certain personal contents such as jewellery, furs, coin collections, bicycles, and more. If you have any such items that are high in value we can list them specifically on your policy to ensure they are covered to their full value. Another benefit of adding a scheduled item is that in most cases there would be no (or a very low) deductible for a covered loss to that item.
11. Home Based Business
• Designed to cover your home office contents and liability if you operate your business from home.
12. Green Assure (Available only through select insurance companies)
• Limits available between $25,000 and $50,000
• In the event of an insured loss this endorsement gives you the option to upgrade the materials used to replace or repair the damaged property with more eco-friendly materials. For example – if you have water damage to your carpet in your living room you can use this endorsement to replace the carpet with cork or bamboo flooring rather than the same carpet.
13. And much, much more...!

If you have any questions at all on the above coverages or if you would like us to take a look at your current policy to make recommendations please contact us at (403) 245-2424 or admin@costeninsurance.com. Please also contact us if you’d like a free no obligation quote on your property insurance or you can click on the button below to submit your info to us and one of our brokers will be in touch!

***Please note that the above information is for overview purposes only. Refer to policy wordings for further details and clarification***