Two years after the White Rock Lake wildfire, some residents are still fighting for help from their insurance company.
Jennifer Carlson saw her entire home burn to the ground during the fire in 2021.
She says she’s been fighting with her insurance company to receive money she’s owed from them.
Carlson’s home has needed to be fully rebuilt, causing her and her family to find other accommodations while the work is done. She’s been renting since the fire, and says insurance is supposed to be paying for that rent.
“I'm having issues on them paying rent on time. They don't communicate,” explained Carlson.
“I have emails between them, if I call because I've hired a third party and they're not answering my third party, that or my person that I've hired. So if I call them directly, I'm harassing them.”
Carlson was renting an acquaintance's summer house while work was being done on her home. Now, the owners want their home back, so Carlson and her family are moving.
Insurance, she says, wants to keep paying the rent cost from the previous rental, not the new rental amount which has gone up — something Carlson points out is the norm for the Okanagan.
She’s confused about why it’s an issue, saying her rent should be covered.
“And I still have live out from them. But I don't understand when you have an allotted amount of money. I haven't burned through it yet. But why is it such an issue?” asked Carlson.
“I pay them their premium. I pay them, you know, I paid for my insurance policy. I think we should be able to have our insurance policy.”
Carlson says she’s not the only person who’s been fighting with insurance. She knows for sure 10 of her neighbours are facing similar issues, but thinks there must be more.
“Well, there's many other people that are going through the exact same situation as me. And lots of people are actually scared to come out and speak because they're scared that they're going to get screwed over with insurance,” Carlson explained.
“I would say there's probably like 10 people I know of, for sure. But there was 80 houses burned down, so I'm pretty sure that there's probably half the people are having the same issues.”
One resident asked not to be named for fear of her insurance company "screwing her over", but says she’s not been paid the money she owes either.
Both have hired insurance adjusters to help them figure out their claims, which is costing money on top of everything they’re paying out of pocket.
The woman says she can't afford to rebuild her home, and is stuck living in trailers on her property.
Carlson is with Westland Insurance and Coast Claims is the adjuster.
Coast Claims says it cannot speak about individual claims for privacy reasons. Westland said it would try to find someone to speak about the issue, but has not provided a quote or contact.
Carlson says she feels lucky that she's able to pay out of pocket for these things, and be reimbursed by insurance "when works for them".
With so many people struggling with the cost of living in the Okanagan, she says she wants to warn people about the struggles she's been having, advising people to be careful who they get insurance through.
