A condominium complex in Fort McMurray worth $80 million has been denied coverage – and has been uninsured since the end of December.
Built in 2006, Lougheed Estates is a condominium complex comprised of 227 units that are spread across three apartment-style buildings and several townhouses.
The condo complex joins a growing list of condo corporations from different parts of Canada all reporting difficulty with securing insurance at reasonable rates, as insurance premiums skyrocketed at the break of the New Year.
After losing insurance on December 31, 2019, the condo board of Lougheed notified homeowners in a letter earlier this month that their properties were uninsured. The board also recommended that owners go back to their personal insurers for more coverage.
According to Kathy Bower – owner of Fort Management, the company that manages Lougheed Estates – she continued to search for new coverage for the complex after being turned down last year, but she has yet to find a willing insurer.
“Unfortunately, Lougheed does have some claims history, so it’s been difficult to find anybody to take them on,” she told CBC News.
Bowers said that the complex has had $2.4 million in claims since the 2016 wildfire, with $1.65 million of that amount attributed to the fire. She also revealed that last year, the company paid $390,000 in insurance premiums, which was already an increase from $135,000 in 2018.
Fort Management manages other condos apart from Lougheed Estates, and it has become more challenging for Bowers to handle multiple insurance increases at the same time.
“Some of the premiums have doubled,” she explained. “So it’s putting these residents in a crisis situation, where they’re just handing their properties back to the bank. They have no other choice.”
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) western director of consumer and industry relations Rob de Pruis said that Lougheed is the only condo complex he knows of in Alberta that is currently without insurance. He also stated that the bureau is hard at work finding a solution, but cautioned that condo corporations need to mitigate risks to avoid things such as bursting pipes.
