Condo insurance that customers love and trust

Personal and specialty property coverages

At Square One, you decide how much protection you need for your most common personal property, which includes appliances, electronics, furniture and clothing. When it comes to specialty property, traditional condo policies include $6,000 of coverage for silverware. Don’t own any silverware?

With Square One, you choose what specialty property you want to insure so you only pay for what you need. Choose from the following categories of specialty property:

• Bicycles, sporting equipment and watercraft: This optional coverage protects any personal and portable equipment used for athletic or recreational activities. This includes cycling, equestrian, fishing, golf, hang-gliding, hockey, hunting, paragliding, shooting, skating, skiing, snowboarding, surfing and windsurfing. It also protects commercially manufactured boats, canoes and kayaks. Any watercraft must be no more than 20 feet in length and, if motorized, must have no more than 100 horsepower in total. And, it protects related property like accessories, equipment and trailers.
• Business property: This optional coverage protects any property that you use as part of your trade, profession or occupation. If used for both business and personal purposes, it must be insured as business property. Note that this coverage does not protect business operations/exposures in any other way.
• Fine arts and collectibles: This optional coverage protects visual art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, limited edition prints, and other pieces that cannot be easily replaced, like hand-woven or hand-knotted rugs or carpets made in Asia. It also protects any items collected as a hobby, for display, or as an investment, whose value may appreciate, including sports card collections, first edition books, and coin collections. And, it protects any porcelain ware, plates, cups, saucers that are used on special occasions; eating and serving utensils made of silver that are also used on special occasions; and figurines made of porcelain or ceramic material.
• Jewellery and watches: This optional coverage protects objects designed for the adornment of the body, including necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, watches and precious stones.
• Personal property: This mandatory coverage protects all the other "moveable" property you own. This includes appliances, household goods, electronics, furniture and clothing in your home, garage and storage unit. This coverage does not protect any specialty property, which includes: bicycles, sporting equipment and watercraft; business property; fine arts and collectibles; jewellery and watches; and landlord's property.

Other coverages

There are a few other coverages that are essential to any insurance policy, including liability protection.

• Additional living expenses: This mandatory coverage protects against increases in living expenses you incur because your home can't be lived in. This could be a result of damage to your home from an insured loss or an order to evacuate your home as a result of a sudden and accidental event.
• Identity theft and financial loss: Protects against financial losses resulting from the theft of your identity. Also protects against expenses incurred to fix your personal credit rating after your identity has been stolen.
• Legal protection: This optional coverage provides unlimited access to a telephone helpline through which you can receive legal or tax advice relating to any personal matter, except those relating to automobiles. In some cases, it also protects against legal costs to pursue or defend your personal rights.
• Personal and premises liability: Protects against amounts you are legally responsible to pay because you unintentionally injure someone or damage their property. Also protects against amounts you are legally responsible to pay for unintentional injury to someone or damage to their property arising from the ownership or use of your home.

Policy deductibles

A policy deductible is the amount you must pay before your condo insurance policy will respond. For example, if your $2,500 laptop is stolen and the claim is subject to a $1,000 deductible, you must pay the first $1,000 and your policy will cover the remaining $1,500. The higher the deductible you select, the lower the premium you pay on your insurance.

Listed below are the various deductibles that may apply. It’s important to note that only one deductible applies per claim even if payments are made under multiple policy coverages. The type of loss will determine the deductible that applies.

• Earthquake: This deductible applies to each insured loss resulting from an earthquake. While earthquakes don't happen often, they cause significant damage when they do. As such, earthquake deductibles tend to be higher than those for other types of loss. Depending on where you live, you may be presented with a couple options.
• Inland flood: This deductible applies to each insured loss resulting from an inland flood. If this deductible applies, you may be presented with a couple options. Please note that not all areas are eligible for inland flood protection.
• Water backup: This deductible applies to each insured loss resulting from the backup or escape of freshwater or wastewater from a sewer, storm drain, drain, sump, or septic tank. If this deductible applies, you may be presented with a couple options.
• Standard: This deductible applies to each insured loss not specifically mentioned earlier. For example, the earthquake deductible, not the standard deductible, applies to each insured loss resulting from an earthquake.

Comprehensive protection

At Square One, you get a comprehensive (or all-risk) policy. That means you're protected against all types of losses except for those types of loss specifically excluded in the policy. The most common policy exclusions include loss or damage due to coastal flood, terrorism and war. In the case of flood, some providers have started offering protection against inland flood. If your policy does not protect against flood, then you'll need to rely on disaster financial assistance programs offered by the government.

• Broad water damage insurance
• Earthquake insurance
• Inland flood
• Water backup insurance
• Wind and hail insurance

For complete details on what is and isn’t covered under your condo insurance policy, please refer to your policy wordings or speak with one of our licensed agents by calling 1.855.331.6933. You can also download sample policy wordings by visiting the next tab.

Policy wordings

If you need a law degree to understand your insurance policy, something's wrong. At Square One, we're changing that with our modern, common sense approach.

To start, we've worked hard to write all policy documents in plain language. According to our customers, our policy documents are the easiest to read in the industry. Next, we personalize your policy documents to what you've bought. That means you'll know exactly what you've insured, the limits and deductibles you've selected, and the premiums you've paid. Finally, you'll understand what specific terms, conditions and exclusions apply.

If you'd like to review the policy wordings before you buy, please feel free to download the sample policy wordings. Please note that every effort is made to keep the sample wordings up-to-date, but your actual policy documents (and wordings) may differ. In cases where differences exist, your actual policy documents will prevail.

Download sample policy wordings

Making a claim

You buy insurance for peace-of-mind, so if you do need to make a claim we believe it should be simple and stress-free. That's why all Square One customers are protected by our commitment to handling claims fairly:

• 24/7 emergency claim line so we're there whenever you need us
• For emergency claims you're guaranteed a response within 2 hours
• For all claims, you'll work with a single claims adjuster
• Quickly track each stage of your claim online
• We guarantee that all claims are dealt with fairly, transparently and quickly
• You're treated with respect and kept informed at every stage of your claim