Solar panels lead to insurance headaches for some Canadians
Solar panels lead to insurance headaches for some Canadians
I genuinely feel like insurance companies have too much power. It's something required for day to day life but they get to set the terms on a whim and you just have to put up with it. People easily get screwed over by these companies and not a single politician or elected official brings up what's going on.
My parents got pet insurance the first day they adopted a puppy. Within a week he had blood in his urine and the insurance refused to cover it. Then he got his toe cut and infected, again the insurance refused to cover it. They also said future issues with legs, gait, walking or anything that can be linked to the amputated toe won't be covered. If pet insurance doesn't cover medical issues or injuries, what the hell does it cover?
He encourages the solar industry (and other clean-tech industries) to share their independent research with the insurance sector to speed things up.
How about the insurance industry gets their assess up off their fat sacks of cash and go find that research - it not like anyone is hiding it from them.
For TD insurance they put a checkbox on your file and it's otherwise business as usual.
To be fair, and far be it from me to defend insurance companies, but putting hundreds of lbs of extra weight on the roof of am old house that was probably barely on the edge of able to support the snow load may be where the issue lies.
I've stood on roofs where it can barely hold me up and feel it deflecting enough to make me nervous, even stepping on the places supported by rafters. A lot of these installers don't give a fuck what the structure is that they're using.
Ground mounts take up space but don't have these issues.
I'm of the opinion that if a roof can't support a few extra hundred pounds, the entire house is compromised.
Wet snow can add thousands of pounds of weight to a roof, so a solar panel (which can actually deflect a lot of heavy snow), really should be no problem at all.
That said, it's incredibly disappointing that home insurance companies are causing difficulties for people who want to adopt greener tech.
Funny thing is, CAA (the company mentioned in the article) will insure e-bikes without any issues (a fire risk in any home), but state that the risks of these solar panels would be problematic? I think they're just picking and choosing what they want to cover, without any evidence supporting their position.