Homeowners in northeast Calgary are banding together to raise awareness over the massive spike in home insurance they’ve seen, and in some cases, an outright decline of coverage.

Northeast residents in Calgary’s so-called ‘Hail Alley’ – Saddle Ridge, Taradale, Martindale, Falconridge, Castleridge, Cityscape, Cornerstone, Redstone and Skyview Ranch – are reporting massive increases to home insurance premiums, deductibles and even outright refusals to provide insurance as they deal with 2025 renewals.

Harlin Kaur, 26, who has lived in the northeast her entire life, said that she paid $180 per month on one house in 2024, and around $160 a month on a second house. After an August hailstorm and subsequent $45,000 claim, she was told this year that their insurance company wouldn’t be renewing their policy.

“I was like, ‘What do you mean they’re not renewing our policy?” Kaur told LWC.

“(The insurance broker said) well, because of the number of claims that they had in the northeast last year, they are declining any policies with the T3J, T3N postal codes.”

Kaur said she called another insurance company, and they initially said they’d look at coverage, and then was later told that the company would also be avoiding T3J and T3N postal codes.

Then she went to a third insurance company, one that works with nine insurers, and they came back with an initial quote of $20,000 to cover both northeast Calgary homes. They finally found another insurer that would provide coverage on both properties for $11,000.

It was sent to the insurer’s underwriting team, according to Kaur, and they waited a couple of days before receiving a response.

“He gets back to me on the third day, he’s like, ‘yeah, they’ve declined you guys for insurance because of the number of claims,” Kaur said.

Another call to an insurance company – this time with a $21,000 quote – this time for a single home, Kaur said.

Similar experience for hundreds of residents

Facebook posts in the Redstone Community Group and other areas are filled with similar stories to Kaur’s.

In a post to the Redstone page, under an anonymous poster, they claimed they were told their deductible could be $10,000 and a 35 per cent increase in premiums.

“Insurance companies have forced me to put my house on the market,” the poster wrote.

Aman Dhillon posted on May 6 that he got his home insurance renewal, and accepted that there would be a premium increase, but the hail deductible quadrupled from $2,500 to $10,000.

Kaur, like many others, expected a premium increase due to the claims and the ever-increasing number of extreme weather events in the area. She didn’t expect declined coverage, nor did she expect insurance premiums at five times what she paid before.

Wawanesa Insurance eventually provided coverage at around $580 per month.

“They did take on our properties, and it is a higher premium, and I’m totally fine with that,” she said.

“That’s still more feasible than $1,200 or declining us for insurance altogether. I would say it was about 15 companies that declined insurance and insuring my property altogether.”

Aaron Sutherland, VP of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said he’s aware of these situations involving insurers providing coverage in parts of Calgary.  He also noted that more than $5 billion in hail claim damages have been made in Calgary over the past three years. The 2024 hailstorm in Calgary was the top insurable disaster in Canada last year, according to an IBC report.

“Those pressures are there, and they’re very real. For individuals who have seen multiple hail claims, they may be seeing some pressure on their premiums as a result of that,” he said.  

“Some carriers may be looking to reduce their coverage options or change their coverage options.”

Sutherland said that it’s a very competitive insurance market in Alberta, and he encouraged homeowners to shop around, find out the options available to them, and it might end up saving them money.

“Insurers are also looking at myriad number of ways to try to keep insurance more affordable, particularly in areas that have been hit recently by hailstorms and sometimes repeatedly by hailstorms, looking at giving more deductible options for hail coverage specifically so that people can tailor that to better meet their needs and better meet their price points,” he said.

Other changes needed, say IBC, Calgary city councillor

Ward 5 Calgary city councillor Raj Dhaliwal called the situation a crisis, as some people are being quoted more for their insurance per month than their monthly mortgage payments.

“I mean, imagine if your insurance is more than your mortgage. You might as well sell the house and go rent,” Dhaliwal told LWC.

“It’s ridiculous.”

Coun. Dhaliwal said that more needs to be done with the building codes, specifically for these areas. He noted that the new code doesn’t ascribe any specific siding material. The City of Calgary’s website doesn’t recommend the use of vinyl siding in the city.

“It is, however, the least expensive and most common siding material in Calgary,” their website reads.  

“Cheaper vinyl can be easily damaged by hail and extreme heat and can crack with fluctuating weather.”

Sutherland said that they are “emphatically” advocating to the provincial government for clear changes to the building code.

“There is no longer any excuse to continue to put Canadians, to continue to put Albertans, in harm’s way and unprotected,” he said.

“We’ve been calling on the province for improvements to the building code to reflect the type of risk facing these communities. It’s no different than our call that if you’re going to build in high-risk wildfire zones, if you’re going to build right up to the edge of the forest, you need to make sure you have wildfire resilient materials in your home.”

Kevin Lee, Press Secretary to interim Municipal Affairs Minister Joseph Schow, said that last year the province introduced a new province-wide building code requirement that included strengthened minimum standards that protect against environmental conditions such as weather.

“Homes in different areas of the province face various potential risks due to factors such as inclement weather, so we provide builders and homeowners with the flexibility to build or upgrade homes above the established minimum code requirements to account for this,” Lee wrote in an emailed response.

Coun. Dhaliwal said he’s talked to many homeowners who would pay the extra up front on their homes for resilient building materials rather than pay higher premiums for years. That would add up to thousands more in long-term costs, he said.

Sutherland also said programs like Calgary’s Resilient Roofing Rebate program are also a big help in steering people toward better building products.

Calgary city council opted not to continue with that program back in 2022. Coun. Dhaliwal tried to have it reviewed again last December.

Kaur and other northeast Calgary homeowners will hold a press conference along with Coun. Dhaliwal on May 16 at noon in Skyview Ranch to continue to raise awareness on the insurance issue.