Council meeting Aug 6 Fire Insurance rates going down......

Here is the last issue of great importance from the council meeting of August 6, in one of his final acts before he leaves the municipality Albert Headricks Director of Protective and Community services presented the Underwriters review explaining how the Municipality did in the Insurance grading system.

"Fire Underwriters Survey is a national organization that represents more than 85 percent of the private sector and casualty insurers in Canada. Fire Underwriters Survey provides data to program subscribers regarding public fire protection for fire insurance statistical and underwriting evaluation. The last review conducted was in 1993 where at that time each Fire Station was assessed individually on their capacity to provide an adequate level of fire protection.
Since the restructuring of Crowsnest Pass Fire/Rescue in 2012/2013, the community departments were reduced from five (Blairmore, Coleman, Hillcrest, Bellevue and Rescue) to three stations and amalgamated as one operational collective. The 2013 review by Underwriters Survey focused on our ability to provide an adequate level of fire protection as a single identity and or operation.
The following Fire Insurance Grades will be published to the Canadian Fire Insurance Grading Index as a result of this assessment. Overall the results show that an improved level of fire protection is being provided within the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass with Public Fire Protection Classification (PFPC) 4 being published. This shows a marked improvement from PFPG 7 and 8 previously published back in 1993. Class 1 represents the highest grading possible and Class 10 indicates that little or no fire protection is in place.
The PFPC grading system evaluates the ability of a community’s fire protection programs to prevent and control major fires. Multi-family residential, (apt buildings, hotel, motels, B&B’s, Lodges) commercial, industrial, institutional, mercantile, buildings, and of course construction developments should experience a reduction to insurance premiums. This would pertain to renewals and new policies. Existing policies may not experience any reduction due to the fact they were determined in relation to the previous grading analysis of 1993. What also needs to be understood is that each insurance policy will vary in relation to the category pertaining to the fire insurance portion identified in the overall policy.
Fire Underwriters Survey also assigns a second grade for community fire protection. The second grading system, entitled Dwelling Protection Grade (DPG), assesses the protection available for small buildings such as single-family dwellings. The DPG is a numerical grading system scaled from 1 to 5. One (1) is the highest grading possible and 5 indicate little or no fire protection being present. The Fire Insurance Grades for the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass have improved
since the previous assessment due to improvements in the levels of public fire protection provided by the Restructured Fire/Rescue Service.
The Municipality in the urban areas is presently assigned as 3A Dwelling Protection Grading but due to the change of status from a Volunteer to Composite Fire/Rescue Service, Fire Underwriters Survey will be reviewing the coverage currently being proposed is indicative of an equivalency of a composite fire hall typically assigned Dwelling Protection Grade (DPG) 2.
They will be requesting that 24/7 staff tracking be provided to their office over a period of 12 months at which time an assignment for DPG 2 will be considered. Council and Senior Administration of Crowsnest Pass have the upmost respect, confidence in the Fire/Rescue leadership under the Direction of Fire Chief Steve Munshaw, Deputy Fire Chief Jamie Wilkinson and members. They have been a strong advocate, participant in the changes necessary to achieve the successful outcomes required. In turn home owner policy holders of single family dwellings should experience some reprieve in the very near future. To review the interim report, please visit the Municipal Web Site."

Also check out the story on the Pass Promoters site  http://www.crowsnestpasspromoter.com/2013/08/08/fire-insurance-rating-upgraded

It sounds great like we can all can expect a decrease in our Insurance rates, well you know the old saying if its to good to be true......... especially just two months prior to the election.

Very impressively our commercial  "Public Fire Protection Classification" rating when from a 7 to a 4. Well done 
Our residential " Dwelling Protection Grade" is projected to go from a 3A to a 2 over the next 12 months, also well done. 

Where will we spend all our savings? 

After doing a little research I came up with the following information, which tells us how much impact  these grading changes will have on our rates. Apparently  Insurance companies break down their customers into three categories the first being "Protected" the second "semi-protected" and the third "unprotected".

Under the "Dwelling Protection Grade" a grade of 1,2 or 3A falls into the protected, a 3B or 4 falls into the "semi-protected" and a 5 falls into the "unprotected" category.   

So I assume at this point going from a 3A to a 2 means we go from the "protected" grouping to the "protected" grouping. Does it sound like no change to you? 

Not be satisfied maybe I was misunderstanding the information I found.  I phone my Insurance broker and ask if they could check with their underwriters and see what effect this grade change will have on my personal Insurance, I also asked if she could check and see what impact it would have on commercial properties. 

Well this afternoon I get a call back and the lady tells me Dean I have to explain for Fire Protection purposes customers are placed into three categories "Protected", "Semi-protected" and "unprotected" unfortunately neither residential or commercial will see any change.

Now in all fairness Mr Headricks did say everybody should check with their Insurance companies and I would recommend you do that.      

On page 36 of the following report done for the city of Kelowna you can see how the grades are grouped http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDFs%5C%5CCouncil%5CMeetings%5CCouncil%20Meetings%202012%5C2012-06-18%5CItem%204.1%20-%20Fire%20Underwriters%20Survey%20Overview.pdf


Note: Cost of administration $4325 per day