A West Kelowna family who had three of their properties impacted by wildfire in 2023 are now faced with a soaring insurance bill.
Chelsea Childe and her husband Kris own a property at Traders Cove in West Kelowna, which was heavily damaged by the McDougall Creek wildfire.
They also own property in the Shuswap, which was threatened by the Bush Creek East wildfire. The Childes say a home neighbouring their own burned to the ground.
The couple have a third property near the Okanagan Golf Club that was evacuated for three days due to the wildfire in Kelowna.
"We made claims on the three properties and then our insurance company, Westland Insurance, dropped us because of that," Chelsea Childe said.
They went shopping for other providers and only one company was willing to insure them — at $28,000 per year for just the home in Traders Cove. The home is valued at about $2 million and was previously insured for about $6,000 per year.
"If we don't pay it, we don't have insurance," Childe said.
"Our insurance company, Westland... we have got paid out one payment of $10,000 and we have been out of our house since August. So we are fighting a fight with them. It has been crazy. They just considered us too high a risk," Childe said.
The couple says they eventually agreed to the $28,000 insurance fee for the Traders Cove home, but quickly realized it was going to be too much to take on.
"We are still out, we are footing the bill of our rent.... we couldn't afford it. They just said if you don't pay the $6,000 right away and then can't catch up on your payments you won't have insurance at all."
"We chose to have a place to live and not have a place to insure," Childe added.
She says other insurance companies have since told them $28,000 would be the going rate to insure the property.
"I can't see that being right. I understand a little bit of a jump, but three times the rate is insane. We might have to go uninsured and pray nothing happens. It is very stressful," Childe added.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), this summer’s wildfires in the Okanagan have resulted in over $720 million in insured losses.
The McDougall Creek and Bush Creek East wildfires are now the most costly insured event ever recorded in British Columbia and the tenth costliest in Canada’s history.
IBC says a single wildfire event typically does not automatically impact premiums, but multiple events over a period of years can have an impact.
"Fundamentally, insurance is about risk. These are areas where, particularly in the Okanagan 20 years ago there was a fairly major fire in the area and 20 years later we are dealing with the exact same situation," said Rob de Pruis, national director, consumer and industry relations with IBC.
"It almost feels like in the last 20 years there wasn't enough work that was behind the scenes in order to reduce that risk, because these homes are still burning," he added.
De Pruis says the best option for the West Kelowna family is to shop around and explore other brokers and insurance providers.
"As most people would expect, a $400,000 home would have one insurance price and twice the value or an $800,000 home you would be paying more for insurance. So that could be a part of it. Plus contents... when you start adding boats and vehicles and jewelry those costs can add up," de Pruis added.
