Priced on what the building costs to rebuild, which is the only figure a policy responds to, and never on the $5,400,000 asking price. The second half is the part a premium calculator never mentions: the wiring, the heating and the roof decide whether a policy can be written at all, and no policy means no mortgage advance.
Your lender will not release funds on closing day without proof of insurance in place. If insurance cannot be bound, the closing does not happen and your deposit is already in trust. Get a broker to confirm insurability during the condition period, while walking away is still free.
Insurable in many cases, and expensive or impossible in others. Only an insurer can decline to write a policy, so treat this as the question to put to a broker this week, not as an answer. What each finding needs, and the inspection that settles it.
957 Smith Road, Hamilton, ON
Vacant Land in Hamilton, insured as homeowner policy
Every field here is a question on an insurance application. The bedroom count is not one of them, so it is not here. The heating fuel, the roof material and the water source are, because each of the three can move a premium or end an application.
A homeowner policy insures the cost of putting the building back, not the price you paid for the property. Every figure further down this page is a fraction of the rebuild cost, and none of it is a fraction of the purchase price.
$540,000 per square foot, land included.
$325 per square foot on 10 square feet, structure only.
$5,396,750 of the price, about 100%, is not insured by a homeowner policy because it is land, and land does not burn down. An estimator that multiplies the asking price by a small number bills you for the dirt.
$9 to $28per year
About $2 a month, which is the figure to add to a mortgage payment and property tax rather than the annual one.
A modelled range from the property's own facts, not a quote. Only a licensed broker or insurer can quote, and only an insurer can decline.
Each line is a range, because the same house is priced differently by different carriers on the same facts. Lines marked as your choice move when you change the controls below.
0.28% to 0.55% of a rebuild cost of $2,500 to $4,000. Priced on what it costs to put the building back, not on the $5,400,000 purchase price.
A private water source on the record, so a hydrant within 300 metres is not assumed. Confirm the distance and the responding station.
Priced as a registered above-ground tank, which is the only version this build prices. An unregistered or buried tank is modelled as a refusal risk rather than a surcharge, and no insurer's oil tank rule has been read here.
Against the $1,000 the rate table is built on. The saving is annual and the deductible is per claim, so compare the two before moving it up.
These lines add to$9 to $28 per year
Each of these is a question on a real application. Changing one recalculates the range on the server, so what you see here is what a broker would be quoting against. The deductible, the liability limit and replacement cost are the three a buyer is asked to decide, and they are the three here.
What is being insured, which decides the base rate.
You pay the first $2,500 of every claim. $500 through $10,000 is the whole range this app models. A higher one lowers the premium every year and costs you once per claim.
$1M, $2M and $5M are the three limits this app models, and it prices the second and third as the first plus a charge per additional million. Ask your broker what the limits and the per-million charge actually are.
Off: the policy pays to the dwelling limit written on it and no further, whatever the rebuild costs that year.
Without it: Rebuild cost above the dwelling limit stated on the policy. After a total loss, construction costs are whatever they are that year. This removes the limit rather than raising it, which matters most on custom homes where the rebuild cannot be estimated from a per-square-foot table.
This raises the ceiling on the dwelling limit. It is a different question from whether a claim is paid as a new roof or a twenty year old one, which is worked through further down under new one or used one. This switch is the same setting as the guaranteed replacement cost endorsement in the list below, so changing either one changes both.
Past 15 years the premium carries roughly 18 per cent more, and past 20 roughly a third more where a carrier will write it at all. No listing records this, so the seller's disclosure or an inspection report is where the answer lives. Leave it blank and the estimate keeps saying the age is unknown.
Turn this off if there has been one. It raises every real quote, and it is on the application either way.
The largest legitimate discount available, and it applies to the whole premium.
Central station monitoring, or a shutoff sensor. Both have to be declared to count.
Two policies with the same premium can pay a twenty year old roof very differently, and the difference is one phrase in the wording rather than anything on the quote. It is the cheapest thing on this page to get right and the most expensive to discover after a loss.
The claim pays what it costs to put the same thing back at today's prices, with no deduction for how old it was. A twenty year old roof is paid as a new roof, less the deductible.
The claim pays what the thing was worth the day it was destroyed: replacement cost less depreciation for its age and wear. A twenty year old roof is paid as a twenty year old roof, and the difference between that and a new one is the owner's to fund.
Every figure on this page is priced as if the dwelling settles at replacement cost, because that is the basis this build prices on. No policy wording has been read here, so it is an assumption about a policy nobody has issued rather than a fact, and the conditions below are the ones that turn it into a depreciated payout.
3 cannot be answered from a listing, and each of those is a question rather than a risk. The ones that do not apply are still listed, because a reader who cannot see what was checked cannot tell the difference between a clean record and a short list.
Replacement cost settlement is conditional on the building being insured at or near what it costs to rebuild. Where the limit is short, a form can settle the loss at actual cash value instead, and the reduction applies to the whole claim rather than to the shortfall.
Because: No policy exists yet, so there is no limit to check. The figure to check one against is the $2,500 to $4,000 rebuild band on this page, and that band came from a per-square-foot rate on the floor area stated on the listing.
A roof surface can be endorsed to actual cash value on its own while the rest of the dwelling stays at replacement cost, and it arrives as an endorsement on the policy rather than as a line in the quote. How often that is done, and from what roof age, is not something this build measured: the 15 and 20 years below are its own thresholds for raising the question.
Because: Nothing on the record says when the roof was last done, so this cannot be ruled in or out.
Contents are settled at replacement cost on some forms and at actual cash value on others, and the cheaper of two quotes is sometimes cheaper because it is the second kind. Certain categories are settled at actual cash value on every form regardless.
Because: Nothing on a listing says which basis a form we have not seen settles contents on. It is a question for the quote rather than a fact about the house.
This build models cover as suspending in part once the dwelling is unoccupied or vacant beyond a stated number of consecutive days, with water damage the first thing to go. No policy wording has been read here, so the number of days and what it suspends are on the form. That is not a depreciated payout, it is no payout.
Because: Priced as homeowner policy.
Not the premium: what the policy covers and who carries what. Each of these comes from a specific field on this listing, named at the foot of the note, and each ends with the question it turns into on a broker call.
A standard form pays for sudden and accidental damage to the system. It does not pay for a bed that has reached the end of its life or been overloaded, and pump-outs, inspections and a replacement bed are maintenance and capital rather than claims.
A replacement bed is priced against the soil, the setbacks and the number of bedrooms rather than against the house, and the work cannot start before the permit is issued. It is also one of the systems a home inspector's standard report excludes.
Carriers rate on the distance to a hydrant, the distance to the responding station, and whether that station is full time or volunteer. A listing carries none of the three.
The surcharge in the lines above assumes no hydrant within 300 metres. A hydrant at the road, or a full time station eight minutes away, is a cheaper policy than this page is showing, and the correction is one phone call rather than a document.
The listing states no water source, and the two possible answers lead to different policies: municipal services put a lateral you own under the front garden, while a well and a septic bed put two systems on the property that a standard form largely leaves alone.
Nothing has been assumed either way, so there is no septic or well content on this page and no lateral content either. Whichever it turns out to be changes what to add to the policy.
A standard Ontario homeowner form is narrower than most buyers assume. Water coming back up a drain, water running across the ground into a basement, the buried pipe between the street and the house, and a rebuild that costs more than the policy limit are all outside it unless added. Each of these is priced per year and shown with what the base form excludes.
Nothing added. The estimate above is the base form only, with every exclusion listed here left in place.
Water arriving by two different routes, the pipe you own under your own front garden, and a rebuild that costs more than the limit. Sewer backup is the most common large claim in the GTA and every one of these is opt-in.
Without it: A standard Ontario homeowner policy excludes water that backs up through sewers, drains, or a sump that fails or overflows.
A backed-up drain into a finished basement is expensive to put right: $25,000 to $100,000 for flooring, drywall, mechanicals and contents, which is this build's own band and not a claims record. Without the endorsement the policy pays nothing.
Without it: Surface water, rapid snowmelt or accumulated rain entering the building at or above grade is excluded separately from sewer backup.
The two water endorsements cover different paths for the same storm. Buying one and not the other is how a claim gets denied on a technicality about where the water came in.
Without it: The buried water, sewer, gas, electrical and internet lines between the street and the house, which the owner owns and the base policy does not cover.
A collapsed lateral or failed water service is $8,000 to $25,000 in excavation and restoration, more under a driveway or a mature garden. Both ends of that band are this build's own figures, read off no invoice. Cheap cover for a large exposure.
Without it: Rebuild cost above the dwelling limit stated on the policy.
After a total loss, construction costs are whatever they are that year. This removes the limit rather than raising it, which matters most on custom homes where the rebuild cannot be estimated from a per-square-foot table.
This is the replacement cost switch in your coverage choices above. Both set the same thing.
Without it: Water entering through the foundation by seepage or hydrostatic pressure.
Narrower than overland water and often bundled with it. Where it is sold separately, a seepage claim on an older foundation falls in this gap.
Without it: Mechanical or electrical failure of home systems and appliances, as opposed to damage from an insured peril.
A failed heat pump, geothermal loop or built-in appliance suite is $5,000 to $30,000, which is this build's own band rather than a repair anybody costed, and the base policy treats wear as the owner's problem.
Both of these turn on what happens at the property rather than on what it is made of.
Without it: Liability above the policy limit, which on this build's own selector is $1M, $2M or $5M.
A pool, a trampoline, a dock or a licensed driver in the household are all liability exposures where a judgment can exceed a base limit. This build prices it per additional million, off the band below rather than off any quote.
Without it: Any commercial use of the dwelling, including short-term rental.
Renting a basement suite or the whole house to short-term guests without this can void the policy entirely, not merely deny the one claim.
Contents are covered to a sub-limit per category no matter how high the contents limit is. Scheduling names the item and insures it at its appraised value.
Without it: Jewellery, watches and furs above a category sub-limit rather than up to the contents limit. This build assumes $6,000 for the group and less per item. No policy wording has been read here, so the sub-limit that governs a claim is the one on the declarations page.
One watch can exceed the entire category sub-limit. Scheduling appraises each item, and whether a deductible still applies to it is a question for the declarations page.
Without it: Art is covered as ordinary contents, with no allowance for appraised value.
Scheduled art is insured at agreed value, so a loss pays the appraisal rather than an adjuster's opinion of a canvas.
Without it: Breakage, and spoilage from failure of the cellar's cooling equipment.
A cellar cooling failure over a long weekend can write off the whole collection, and the base policy treats the bottles as contents and the failure as wear.
Without it: Firearms, coins, stamps and similar categories, each with its own sub-limit.
Sub-limits are low and per category, so a modest collection exhausts one immediately.
High-value items may need an appraisal. Whether one is required, how recent it has to be, and above what value are set by the provider rather than by one rule that applies everywhere. What is asked for is ordinarily a dated appraisal from a qualified appraiser, with photographs and serial numbers where an item has them. It is the document worth having before the policy is bound rather than after a loss: a scheduled item is insured at its appraised value, and the appraisal is what fixes that value while nothing is in dispute.
Neither pays for damage to the house. Both pay for the paperwork after something else.
Without it: The cost of restoring credit and identity records after a theft.
Small premium, and it pays the administrative cost rather than the loss itself.
Without it: Legal costs for property, employment and contract disputes.
A boundary or contractor dispute is billed by the hour whether or not you are right. This covers the hours.
Contents cover is capped per category, not only in total. A $40,000 contents limit does not mean $40,000 of jewellery is covered, and the gap is where the surprises live. Put in what you own and this says how much of it the standard form would leave out, and what to ask about each kind.
These do not change the range above. Scheduled articles are rated per item on an appraisal, and we hold no rate for that, so nothing here is priced per dollar of value. The riders themselves carry a flat band in the list of what the standard form leaves out, and that band does not scale with what you declare. Nothing typed here is sent anywhere.
Rings, necklaces, earrings, loose stones.
Timepieces, and the accessories a form groups with furs.
Paintings, sculpture, antiques, signed editions.
Cellared bottles, and the cellar's cooling equipment.
Nothing declared, so nothing has been measured against a sub-limit. The limits are worth reading even at nothing declared: a single engagement ring can sit above the per-item cap on a standard form, and the cap applies whether or not anyone has thought about it.
Derived from the build year, the heating, the roof and the plumbing on this listing, not from a questionnaire. Each finding names what underwriters ask for and the inspection that settles it inside a condition period.
2 findings on this record: 1 commonly declined, 1 need evidence before a policy is bound. 2 of them are settled by an inspection booked inside the condition period, which is the only window where the answer still changes what you can do.
Heated with oil. The tank's age, whether it is registered with the TSSA, and whether any earlier tank is still buried in the yard are all underwriting questions, and the listing answers none of them.
Nothing on the listing says when the roof was last done, and on a building this old the build year does not settle it either.
Plan the inspections these need on this listing's inspection page, which carries the lead time for each one and the last date it can be booked and still report before a condition expires. An inspection booked after that date buys a document you cannot act on.
On closing day, before funds move. Your lender will instruct their solicitor not to advance without proof of insurance, so a binder has to be in the lawyer's hands before the date, not on it. We have no closing date for you: put it on the request below and the deadline comes back with it.
