Insurers, snow removal contractors, and commercial property owners in Ontario received some good news from the provincial government this month, ahead of the heavy snow fall season.
A section of Bill 118, called the “Occupiers’ Liability Act”, will now limit claimants from taking legal action to recover personal injury damages caused by snow or ice (e.g. a slip and fall injury), unless they provide notice of the intent to sue within 60 days of the incident.
This is a major change, as previously claimants had up to a two year notice period.
The lower notice period is expected to reduce the number of lawsuits for slip and fall claims submitted to snow removal contractors and property owners. Historically, the high frequency in legal claims has caused insurance companies to deny offering coverage to some property owners and snow removal contractors, or, if they did, the premiums were often unaffordable.
According to Canadian Underwriter, one snowplow operator had his insurance premium jump from $16,000 to $52,000. In other cases it’s not even available, as insurers didn’t want to deal with the risk of a potential claim up to 24 months later.
“Brokers across Ontario have been hearing from policyholders that availability of snow removal insurance for their businesses was scarce to non-existent in some regions, meaning some operators wouldn’t be able to secure the necessary liability insurance to cover their business this winter, and therefore would be unable to operate,” IBAO said in a media statement. “Bill 118 establishes new criteria around snow removal liability that will encourage insurance availability to return in Ontario.”
With this change to the act, it’s expected that insurance companies will be less restrictive with this coverage.
As a broker we’re optimistic that insurers will soon offer this coverage at a reasonable premium, and we will be able to provide you the best coverage for the best price available.
If you have any questions about liability coverage, want to add it to your commercial policy, or start a new quote, don’t hesitate to contact a Staebler Broker today.
Visit the Your Business Insurance page for our complete solutions to help protect your valuable assets.
Hello
I have a question regarding snow removal liability insurance.
We have a corporation that was set up to acquire a property. The property has about 26 structures on it. These ‘lots’ are primarily cottages with some year round residents. The ‘lot owners’ are the only shareholders of the company.
The corporation does not engage in any commercial business other than to collect taxes, maintenance fees and keep the books. Occasionally a major project will be undertaken by the corporation on behalf of the shareholders. Its basically non-profit although it is a registered as an Ontario Corporation
We currently have a commercial property Policy that insures the corporation for general liability along with a rider to protect the directors and and other contractual liabilities.
At issue is the high price of snow removal. We have two driveways that service the property. If we purchased a machine, and hired an “employee” to use that machine to clear the snow – can we get an additional rider to cover the company from any liabilities. The employee would be paid, applicable reporting and deductions would be made and of course WSIB premiums paid. If possible, what kind of premium would we be looking at to cover this?
Hi Christopher — thank you for reaching out. We’ll connect you with a licensed insurance broker who will be best suited to answer these questions for you. They’ll reach out shortly and you can go from there. Thanks and have a great day!