The Best Home Insurance Quotes in Whistler

Home insurance in Whistler

Whistler is one of the most popular ski towns in the world with a population that doubles in the winter to almost 30,000.

Homes surrounding the downtown core, which locals refer to as ‘The Village’, are occupied by a combination of year-round residents and tourists.

Though home insurance isn’t mandatory in Canada, homeowners in Whistler can make good use of insurance coverage, protecting properties that in 2021 had an average sale price of more than $1.6 million, according to data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

For homeowners seeking coverage, there’s a lot to consider. Here, we break down home insurance in Whistler in easy-to-understand terms, including what protection home insurance policies offer, package types, additional coverage and flood protection.

The four key elements of home insurance coverage

Before making any purchase decisions, it’s helpful to understand how home insurance is structured.

Most policies include four key elements:

• Property coverage – Provides protection for the structure of the home (and nearby buildings such as a garage) against common perils such as fire, hail and wind.
  
• Contents coverage – Protects the contents of a home, including belongings that the homeowner may carry outside the home such as a laptop or bicycle, subject to limits.
  
• Liability protection – Includes two aspects: the first dealing with protection in the event of bodily injury, the second with property damage. Through the liability coverage in a home insurance policy, the policy holder is covered financially if someone is injured while visiting the home as well as if the policy holder unintentionally causes direct loss or damage to someone’s property.
• Additional Living Expenses – Covers costs associated with having to live elsewhere if the home is damaged and the homeowner must live elsewhere while it’s being repaired. For example, the homeowner will be compensated for the cost of a hotel stay and groceries while away from home.

Home insurance coverage types

Another decision homeowners must make is around coverage type. While most homeowners decide to purchase packages containing each aspect of the above-mentioned coverage, they also have the freedom to opt for less coverage.

For example, for those willing to go without contents coverage, a basic package is a good option. On the other hand, for those who want as much coverage as possible, a comprehensive policy with add-ons is worth considering.

Basic home insurance

Insurance providers tend to describe package types similarly with ‘basic’ being one of the most common offerings. It provides the least amount of coverage for the house and its contents. Under a basic policy, the home is protected against perils explicitly named in the policy.

As a result, this policy type is sometimes also referred to as a ‘named perils’ policy. In other instances, an insurance provider may describe it as a ‘limited’ policy.

Broad home insurance

A broad home insurance policy provides greater coverage. It protects against all perils to the home and named perils coverage for its contents. Occasionally, insurance providers describe this policy type as ‘standard’.

Comprehensive home insurance

This coverage type offers the greatest amount of protection: all perils coverage to the home and its contents – except for exclusions listed in the policy. Some insurance providers refer to this type as an ‘all perils’ policy.

Additional coverage

Regardless of what type of home insurance coverage a homeowner purchases – whether basic, broad or comprehensive – there are several perils that must be added to a policy in order to be covered.
One of the most important add-ons is water protection. Insurance providers make a distinction between different types: Overland water protection covers one while sewer back-up protection covers another.

Here, we’ve outlined the most common coverage a homeowner can add to any home insurance package:

• Overland water: Protects the homeowner financially if the home is damaged by water that has overflowed from a nearby river, stream, lake and thawing snow.
  
• Sewer back-up: Protects the home if water damages it, having backed up through a drain.
  
• Earthquake: Covers losses or damage caused by an earthquake and/or landslide. The latter is defined as earth movement due to instability in the soil or a rock slope caused by water saturation or vibrations. This add-on makes good sense for homes based in areas that have previously been affected by earthquake as well as those in mountainous regions, including Whistler, where landslides are more common.
  
• Mass evacuation: If there’s a government-issued evacuation order, this add-on covers the costs associated with having to be away from home.
  
• Identity theft: Protects the homeowner whose identity is stolen. This coverage includes covering the cost of replacing important documents, such as a passport and driver’s licence.
  
• Lock replacement: This add-on protects the home if the locks need to be replaced – for example, following a break in.

To get started on customizing insurance for a home in Whistler, BC we recommend that homeowners clarify what sort of protection they need for their circumstance and then use RATESDOTCA’s free online tool to gauge which provider can offer the best coverage at the lowest rate. It takes less than three minutes to get 50+ quotes from the most-trusted insurance providers in Canada.