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Claims we take
Property losses, residential and commercial, across Surrey and the Lower Mainland. We are most useful on significant and complex losses, where the scope is genuinely in dispute. We do not take automobile claims as public adjusters.
01 — Residential
Houses, townhomes and condominium units. Owner-occupied and tenanted.
Residential property
The claim most people will make once in their lives, against a policy they have never had reason to read closely.
- Fire and smoke. Including smoke and odour damage well beyond the burn area, which is frequently scoped too narrowly.
- Water and flood. Escape of water, sewer backup, and the coverage distinctions between them that decide whether you are paid at all.
- Wind and hail. Roof, envelope and consequential interior damage.
- Theft and vandalism. Including contents schedules and proof-of-loss preparation.
- Additional living expenses. Accommodation, meals and storage while you are out of the home.
Contents claims are where the largest avoidable losses happen. Insurers pay replacement cost on properly documented items and actual cash value on everything else — and the documentation burden sits with you.
02 — Strata & condominium
Strata corporations, and individual owners facing a deductible chargeback.
Strata & condominium
One in four homes in Metro Vancouver sits in a strata, and water damage is the leading cause of strata claims. These are rarely small, and they are frequently contested.
- Strata corporation claims. Building envelope, common property, and water escape that travels through multiple units — where scope, causation and betterment are all in play at once.
- Deductible chargebacks. Water deductibles on Metro Vancouver strata policies now commonly run into six figures. If the loss originated in your unit and the corporation is looking to you for it, the amount at stake is substantial and the question of responsibility is rarely as settled as the first letter suggests.
- Unit owner claims where the loss is significant and the boundary between the strata policy and your own is in dispute.
- Improvements and betterments — who insures what, under which policy, and at what valuation.
The line between the strata corporation's policy and the owner's is where most of the money is lost. It is a wording question before it is a damage question, and it is worth getting a considered reading of it early.
03 — Commercial
Retail, restaurant, warehouse and light industrial. Owners and tenants.
Small & mid commercial
A commercial property loss is rarely only a property loss. Stock, tenant improvements, equipment and the lease all interact with the claim.
- Building and envelope damage to owned or leased premises.
- Tenant improvements and betterments — often insured under the wrong policy, or under both, and disputed accordingly.
- Stock and inventory, including spoilage and the valuation basis applied.
- Equipment and machinery, repair versus replacement, and obsolescence arguments.
- Debris removal and professional fees, which carry their own sub-limits.
04 — Business interruption
The coverage that is hardest to quantify, and therefore the one most often underpaid.
Business interruption
Physical damage is visible and arguable from photographs. Lost earnings are neither, which is precisely why this coverage is settled short so often.
- Loss of gross earnings or profits, calculated from your actual financial records rather than an assumption about your trade.
- Extra expense — what you spent to keep operating, which is recoverable and routinely forgotten.
- Period of indemnity. How long the insurer accepts the interruption ran. This single question frequently moves the settlement more than anything else in the file.
- Ordinary payroll and whether it is inside or outside your coverage.
A business interruption claim is an accounting exercise built on a coverage argument. It needs the books assembled properly the first time.
Also
Stage of claim makes no difference to whether we can help.
New losses
Engaged before or immediately after the insurer's adjuster attends, so the scope is established properly from the start.
Underpaid offers
An offer is on the table and it does not cover the work. We document what the repair actually costs and re-present the claim.
Denied claims
We review the denial against the policy wording and the evidence, and where there is a case to be made, we make it.
Next step
Not sure which of these fits your loss?
Describe it in your own words. We will tell you what kind of claim it is and whether it needs us.
If a loss is in progress right now — water still running, fire crews on site — call rather than write.