Home Insurance Inspections
Your insurer has asked a question about your house and will not simply take your word for it. Usually it is one of four: what the wiring is, how old the roof is, what heats the place, and what is in the electrical panel.
You need an independent, licensed inspector to go and look, and you need it written down. That is what this is.
Why this comes up so often here
Because of when the North Okanagan was built. The City of Vernon’s own housing needs work puts roughly 74% of the city’s housing stock at pre-2000, about 12% of it pre-1960 and another 32% built between 1960 and 1979 — and 77% of purpose-built rental predates 1979. Armstrong and Enderby have genuinely old townsites of their own, and out on the rural parcels around Spallumcheen, Lumby and Coldstream there is a long tail of farmhouses, cabins grown into houses, and older manufactured homes.
Those are exactly the years an insurer asks about. Pre-1960 is where knob-and-tube lives. The 1960s and 70s are where aluminum branch wiring and panels of a particular vintage live. A roof on a house of that age is rarely on its first covering, and in a lot of the north the main heat is still a wood stove.
Nothing about your house has changed. The questions being asked about houses of its age have.
The four things insurers usually ask about
Wiring
Knob-and-tube and aluminum wiring are the two that trigger letters. We identify what wiring type is present where we can see it, note its condition, and record how it has been handled at the panel and at outlets. Older houses are often a mix: original wiring in one part, replaced wiring in another, which is exactly the sort of thing an insurer will not accept a verbal answer on — and in a Vernon or Armstrong house that has been added to over fifty years, a mix is the normal case rather than the exception.
Roof age and condition
Insurers care about how much life is left in a roof, because that is what determines whether they are covering a house or a claim. We look at the covering, the flashing, the penetrations and the drainage, note the condition and the evidence of age, and photograph it. On older northern stock there is often more than one covering to account for, and a roof that has spent thirty winters carrying snow load. If the roof is the whole reason for the letter, say so when you book and we will scope the visit accordingly.
Heating system
Type, age where it can be determined, condition and how it is installed. Oil tanks, older furnaces and solid-fuel appliances all attract questions, and the answer an insurer wants is a documented one. Worth knowing if you are in Lumby, Enderby or out on an acreage: where wood is the primary heat rather than a backup, it tends to draw more questions, not fewer.
Electrical panel and service
Service size, panel type and make, and the visible condition of what is inside it. Certain older panels are known to insurers and known to raise questions. We document what is there.
What you get
A written report delivered online, with photographs, notations and recommendations — the same reporting standard as any c4u inspection, produced by an inspector holding Consumer Protection BC Home Inspector Licence #78731.
We can carry this out as part of a full home inspection, or as a focused visit on the items your insurer has actually raised. Tell us which when you get in touch, and forward the insurer’s letter if you have one — it is much easier to answer a question we can read.
What we can’t do
Being straight with you saves everyone a week.
If you’ve been declined, surcharged, or told to fix something
Two things worth knowing.
The first is that “old wiring” is not one condition. There is a real difference between original knob-and-tube still in service and a house where it was abandoned in place years ago and everything live has been replaced. An owner who says that on the phone gets nowhere. An owner with a photographed, documented report from a licensed inspector is having a different conversation, whether that is with their current insurer or a broker looking for a better one.
The second is scope. If a report is going to tell you the roof needs work or the panel needs attention, you would rather find that out now, with a repair list you can price, than at renewal next year. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — and in this case it is also worth a premium.
Who is doing the inspecting
Vin McConnachie. Consumer Protection BC Home Inspector Licence #78731, Qualified Home Inspector with Carson Dunlop Canada, City & Guilds in Electrical Engineering Parts 1 and 2, and thirty years of property inspection across the UK and Canada. He has been looking at Okanagan housing stock since 2005 — including a great deal of it built well before the wiring standards your insurer is asking about, and a great deal of it in the north, where most of the housing predates 2000.
Book your insurance inspection
Send us the address, the letter, and the date your insurer has given you. We will come back to you within one business day. Call or text (250) 212-4025.