Insurance adjustors ready to deal with increased demand from Fiona

With hundreds of Islanders making insurance claims over the last couple of weeks the Insurance Bureau of Canada maintains there are enough insurance adjustors available to deal with the demand following Fiona.

The exact volume coming in from P.E.I. is still unknown but claims for everything from lost food in freezers and fridges, to entire homes damaged by flooding have been pouring in.

"We expect it'll be a couple of weeks until we have a better sense of just how large in terms of dollars and cents this particular event is going to be," said Amanda Dean, the vice-president Atlantic with IBC told Island Morning's Laura Chapin.

"But we do know that everyone in the insurance industry has certainly been working hard to respond to the many claims."

Pre-planning for Fiona

An adjuster is responsible for looking at the current damage, seeing what needs to be done to prevent additional damage and laying out what the claims process is going to look like moving forward.

Dean said in the weeks leading up to Fiona, arrangements were made for temporary adjustors from other parts of the country to help on the ground or remotely if necessary.

"From what we've heard, those processes were absolutely needed and have been used extensively at this point," she said.

Right now, Dean said simple claims are being handled over the phone when photos and detailed information can be provided.

"We recommend taking pictures and we also recommend just jotting down a few notes on everything that you've lost due to Hurricane Fiona," she said.

"Once you're on the phone with your claims professional or adjuster, you could sometimes forget things, so it's a great idea just to take a couple of notes."

'Claims drive premiums'

Questions have also been raised about if it's worth it to file a claim when keeping in mind the impact it could have on their future premiums.

In those cases, Dean said it's best to speak with your insurance representative since "they know your policy, they know what sort of rules and benefits your insurance company offers."

In terms of whether claims from Fiona will drive overall higher home insurance premiums,Dean said one major event doesn't typically make too much of a change but if its something that happens more frequently more premiums will likely have to increase as well.

"Claims drive premiums," she said.

"So if the claims within the area that you live in increase substantially over a number of years. It stands to reason that premiums will eventually catch up as they need to catch up."

For those hardest-hit areas, Dean said moving forward it could potentially be more difficult to get insurance. But once again, that's likely if there are repeated concerns.

"If there is an area that has repeatedly experienced water damage, for example ... it could be more complicated to obtain those types of coverages because it's then not a question of if there will be water in basements, but it's a question of when," she said.

"So then it becomes a higher risk and of course insurance price based on risk of something happening."