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My house insurance is up for renewal. I'm busy and I don't want to spend a lot of time getting quotes, especially since this policy is tied to another one that is hard to get and that we could only get by agreeing to let them cover our house too. But this is a big bill, bigger than it's been in the past. If I could establish that it's, say, double what anyone else would charge I can call in and find out what's going on and maybe do something about it. But if this is the new normal when it comes to house insurance in Canada, well I guess I'll suck it up and invest my time into earning the money for the bill.

Searching for "Estimate house insurance costs Canada" just gets me dozens of "get a free quote instantly" sites I have no intention of using. I don't need a super accurate formula, but $x-y per thousand of house value (house only, my land isn't going to burn down) would suit me fine.

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  • For a start, Statistics Canada reported earlier this year that home and mortgage insurance prices increased 5.4% from January 2013 to January 2014. (Source; under "Shelter costs lead the rise in the Consumer Price Index"). Bear in mind that is the average increase for the entire country, and there are likely outliers. StatsCan also provides the underlying data series where you can slice & dice by region and more detailed product categories. Jun 4, 2014 at 4:09

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Your best bet would be to find an independent Property and Casualty Insurance agent and buy through him/her.

Insurance agents make a commission, yes - BUT - the cost to consumer is THE SAME whether you buy through an agent or through directly through the company.

Any P&C agent would be happy to run your numbers for you and tell you what the cheapest deal is. Just make sure you find someone who writes for several different large insurers.

Obviously, some P&C Insurance agents are slick salesy types, which can get annoying, but if you find someone nice, he or she can help you out at no cost to you (they are paid by the insurance company they place the business with). If you are straightforward with the agent about exactly what your needs, they can get you quotes quickly and save you a lot of time and hassle.

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