Consumers’ storm concerns shifting to hail, wind and wildfires

Consumer concerns about NatCats are shifting away from flood and focussing on other specific weather perils such as wind, hail and wildfire, says a new study from LowestRates.ca

Conducted in December, the survey of almost 800 Ontario home insurance policyholders shows concerns about flooding declined from 8.7% in 2024 to 5.5% in 2025. At the same time, concern about damage caused by wind, hail and wildfire increased collectively by 1.8 percentage points.

More specifically, concern about wind damage increased from 6.6% to 7.2%. Worries about hail nearly doubled, from 0.9% last year to 1.7% this year. And concerns about wildfire edged upwards from 1.4% to 1.8%.

Twelve percent more homeowners bought at least one type of endorsement last year for broader protection against storm damage, the survey showed. (These included endorsements for specific types of flood damage caused by overland flood, groundwater, or nearby fresh bodies of water.)

As consumers become increasingly aware of the risks linked to other secondary perils such as wind, hail, and wildfire, brokers should be prepared to advise clients on potential blind spots in coverage, cautions Steven Harris, a licensed broker with aggregator LowestRates.ca.

He uses the various types of water damage endorsements as an example.

“Homeowners’ products are not regulated as tightly as auto…so there are more nuances to property products,” Harris tells Canadian Underwriter. “Market to market, it will be different. Some will have different packages. Some will have very different limits and deductible requirements potentially as well.”

The same is true of specific perils, Harris says. For example, brokers must remind customers about regional variations of risk and coverage for wind, hail and wildfires.

In Ontario, for example, base policy coverage may be adequate to cover hail risk. Although “you want to be mindful if you have separate deductibles attached to hail damage,” Harris qualifies.

In Alberta, however, hail is much more frequent and severe. Hailstorms in the province have caused more than $6 billion in insured damage over the past five years, according to Insurance Bureau of Canada.

And so, in Alberta, if “you think of communities like Calgary…hail usually gets spiked out [of the base home insurance coverage] more commonly with a separate deductible. And some insurance companies may have coverage restrictions you should be mindful of as well. There’s a regional impact there. Less so in Ontario.”

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Similarly, coverage for ‘fire’ damage means different things for policyholders in different areas.

Increasingly, insurers are adjusting deductibles to address the elevated risk of fires in certain areas, as Harris points out.

“If I’m in the GTA, my concern about fire is not wildfire. It’s going to be more rooted in the still fire. But in a more rural spot, where we have longer, drier summers, [wildfire] is a real risk to those communities. You always want to make sure, ‘Do your limits of coverage make sense for your dwelling?’ It’s less about the peril, more about the coverage.”

Speaking of wildfire coverage, Canada’s P&C professionals are talking more these days about the increasing expenses related to evacuations. Policy coverage exists to cover the costs of short-term rental accommodations while damaged homes are repaired or rebuilt.

It’s important to pay attention to the policy limits on additional living expenses, Harris says.

“For a lot of policies, the baseline is 20% of your dwelling value for your additional living expenses,” he says. “Have an option to increase that. So if you’re in a community that is around a wooded area, we have dry summers, and there’s a higher exposure for that type of thing. That’s something to be drilling into [with clients], to say, ‘Hey if you were to be displaced from this home, are your additional living expenses adequate? Because you could be [dislocated] for a year, or whatever that timeline is. And from a policy perspective, can you fund?”

Concern about flood risk seems to be taking a back seat to some of the more specific types of perils, the survey suggests. Harris says this isn’t because the risk of flooding is any less; in fact, it’s partly attributable to the industry’s success in public education around flooding.  

“If I look back to when I started in the industry, back in 2011, fire was kind of the main peril, top of mind for people,” Harris says. “But water is the one that’s very frequent, and quite frankly, becoming more severe year-over-year.

“I think there has been a lot of education, when we think about the industry advocating for more consumer awareness about these perils. It’s much more frequently in talking points in the media, whether it’s radio, TV spots, publications. So I think education is helping a bit.”

Also, the frequency of flood damage has made consumers more aware of how flood is — or is not — covered in their insurance policies.

“Most people know someone in their circle who has experienced some type of a flood or a water loss damage that’s been pretty severe. And I think that also gives them a moment to say, ‘Oh, you know, it’s close to home now…and this could be me. Do I have the right amount of coverage?’”

David Gambrill

David has twice served as Canadian Underwriter’s senior editor, both from 2005 to 2012, and again from 2017 to the present.