More than half of the owners of old houses consulted by the Association Friends and Owners of Old Houses of Quebec (APMAQ) have difficulty in being properly insured. This is what emerges above all from a survey carried out between December and January, the detailed data of which will be made public shortly, assures the organization.
“It’s not that old houses aren’t insured,” says Noémi Nadeau, of APMAQ, who is not related to the author of this article. But often the premiums are high and have a lot of exclusions. Covers are partial. »
“Heritage must be accessible to everyone,” says APMAQ. Old houses should not only be the wealthy people who have the means to live in them when the time comes to insure them. »
worries
In recent weeks, reports about the difficulties experienced by many owners to insure old houses have multiplied in the media. Some even mention problems occurring during the sale of buildings, for lack of interested insurers.
This is a very worrying situation, says APMAQ. “We are very happy to see that the MRCs and municipalities have been denouncing the situation for the past few weeks. »
Since December, The duty noted that dozens of municipalities have endorsed official resolutions so that the government acts as quickly as possible to resolve this problem. Did APMAQ hear Mathieu Lacombe, Minister of Culture and Communications, react to this subject? “No, we haven’t heard it,” says Noémi Nadeau, while specifying that the state is far from being solely responsible for the current problems.
Accessibility
The heritage belongs to the whole of the community, but suffers, in the opinion of APMAQ, from a lack of knowledge on the part of the insurers. “There are a lot of prejudices,” explains Noémi Nadeau. There is ignorance. And when we don’t know, on the insurance side, we don’t want to take any risks… They don’t tell us, for example, if the frequency of claims is higher for old houses. »
She also observes ignorance on the part of the media. “A lot of reports on old houses mix all the categories, so that the owners are scared. The fact of not being able to find themselves on inventories of heritage houses, as is the case for some, does not ultimately serve their interests, the organization maintains.
The components of old constructions seem too often invoked by insurers for not offering insurance at a reasonable price. Thus, reports APMAQ, an insurer takes care of the protection of a traditional tin roof at most for a period of 50 to 60 years, while its lifespan is estimated at a century. Traditional wooden windows, when properly maintained, can last well over 25 years. However, an insurer only grants them the lifespan of contemporary windows.
Sometimes, it is enough that the construction dates from before 1940 to upset the insurers, indicates the survey of APMAQ. However, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the date of construction has no direct correlation with the state of maintenance or the risks incurred by a building. In a study on the condition of buildings built before 1945, the CMHC observes that only 13% “need major work”.
“Insurers don’t even ask themselves what the state of the house is,” observes the association with regret. “Sometimes, these are buildings that have all been redone”, to a point where the question of the authenticity of the premises comes into play, admits APMAQ.
Savings in preservation
“Insurers need to realize, like society as a whole, that you can’t replace everything new, that you can’t constantly use resources to throw everything away and rebuild what already exists. The costs become infinite. We fill up the dumps. Replace to replace, just to bring it up to standard, it’s not valid, it doesn’t make sense. Tearing out an old balustrade that does not have exactly the regulatory height of new buildings… We have to “average” a little and learn to calm down, as a society,” says Noémi Nadeau.
Since its creation in 1982, Friends and Owners of Old Houses of Quebec has noted a considerable increase in the difficulties of access to home insurance for the 300,000 owners of old houses. Until 2020, this association supported a form of specialized insurance that has since fallen through. However, this question, although very present in the public square, remains unresolved with government authorities. “A lot of people don’t even want to be on heritage lists because they’re afraid of what it might entail. There is a major deficit in popular education, underlines APMAQ. It is not only the fault of the government, but of the insurers too, who do not know the reality of old houses and who impose high coefficients to cover themselves. We are very pleased that the MRCs […] are concerned about it. They are the ones who find themselves between the tree and the bark, wedged between the ministry and the companies [d’assurances]. »
The people questioned by APMAQ for its survey are distributed in 14 of the 17 administrative regions. The homes of these people almost all date from before 1940. The majority of respondents say they are deeply concerned about the bad fate reserved by insurance companies for old houses, regardless of their condition.