Which insurers cover Poly B homes? The coverage tracker
The most asked, least answered question in the Poly B world. This page is our standing record of what Canadian insurers actually publish, checked source by source, dated, and re-verified quarterly. The biggest finding is what isn’t there.
The 30-second answer
Yes, Poly B homes get insured in Canada every day, but almost never on a published rule. As of August 6, 2026, no major Canadian carrier posts a Poly B underwriting policy on its own website. One insurer, Square One, publicly says it has options for most Poly B homes. Everything else the market “knows” about surcharges and refusals comes from broker experience, not published policy, which is why two neighbours with identical pipe can get completely different renewals.1
What insurers publish, verified
| Organization | Published position on Poly B | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Square One Insurer | Accepts, case by case. States plainly that many companies “view this as a hazard, and will refuse to insure your home” but that it has “options available for most homes with Poly-B plumbing.” Notes a pressure reducing valve as a risk-mitigation step. Its resource pages also warn premiums, deductibles, and renewal can all be affected across the market.1 | August 6, 2026 |
| Wawanesa Insurer | Risk warning only, no coverage position. Its own blog states Poly B “will leak — it’s not a matter of if, but when,” yet the company publishes no underwriting rule for it anywhere on its site.2 | August 6, 2026 |
| Westland Broker, national | Documents the four outcomes an insurer may apply when Poly B is present: a premium surcharge, a deadline to replace the pipe, denial of water damage coverage, or denial of any property coverage.3 Names no specific insurer’s rule. | August 6, 2026 |
| Acera Broker, national | Lists polybutylene among features that make a home “hard to insure” and confirms the mechanism in writing: options are limited and “you may have to have a plumbing exclusion on your home to get coverage.”4 | August 6, 2026 |
| BFL Canada Insurance risk engineering | Engineering facts, no coverage position. Estimates Poly B in as many as 700,000 Canadian homes, confirms the 2005 code removal, warns pipe can be “dangerously degraded but look perfectly normal,” and calls a PEX repipe the only permanent fix.5 | August 6, 2026 |
The silent majority
Every organization below was checked on August 6, 2026 and publishes no Poly B position on its own website. Not a rule, not a guideline, not a mention. If a company here quotes you a Poly B condition, it’s coming from internal underwriting guidelines you can’t read, which is precisely why a broker who knows the current market matters.
- Intact Insurance
- Aviva Canada
- TD Insurance
- Desjardins
- Co-operators
- Definity (Economical / Sonnet)
- BCAA
- AMA Insurance
- CAA Insurance
- Gore Mutual
- SGI Canada
- Cansure
- Burns & Wilcox Canada
- BrokerLink
- Hub International
- Sharp Insurance
- Surex
- RATESDOTCA / LowestRates
- Insurance Bureau of Canada
- BC Financial Services Authority
The escalation ladder, explained
Put the verified sources together and the market’s behaviour has a clear shape. When Poly B is disclosed, outcomes escalate through four rungs: a surcharge on the premium, a renewal conditioned on replacing the pipe by a deadline, a water damage exclusion or elevated water deductible, and at the end of the ladder, declination.3 Where any given insurer sits on that ladder changes with claims experience and reinsurance cycles, and it moves at renewal time, not mid-term. If you’ve already received a letter, the non-renewal action guide is the step-by-step response.
What we won’t publish
You’ll find pages claiming specific insurers surcharge Poly B homes by “15 to 25 percent,” or that carriers grant “60 to 90 day” replacement windows, or naming companies that have “stopped covering Poly B.” We traced every version of those claims and none leads back to an insurer document. They live on contractor marketing pages, quoting each other in circles. Until a claim traces to a named organization’s own paper, it stays off this tracker. That standard is the point of the page.
How to use this when you call your broker
Three questions do most of the work. Which markets will currently write a home with disclosed Poly B in my province? For each, is the offer a surcharge, a water deductible, an exclusion, or a replacement deadline? And what exactly does the documentation package from a completed repipe change? That last one has a verified answer: a full replacement with a completion certificate takes you off this entire page and back to standard terms. The cost guide covers what that takes.
Help this tracker get sharper
If you’re a broker, adjuster, or homeowner holding a renewal letter, quote, or written condition that shows an insurer’s current Poly B stance, we want to see it. Documented positions get added with a date and marked as field-reported, separate from published policy. Reach the team through the contact details in the publisher block below; documents are treated in confidence and published only in summary.
Common questions
Will [insurer X] cover my Poly B home?
If they’re not in the verified table above, nobody outside their underwriting department can tell you from public information, and any website claiming otherwise is guessing. Ask a broker to shop the current market; positions genuinely differ and genuinely change.
How much more will I pay?
No Canadian insurer publishes a Poly B surcharge number, so any specific percentage you read is marketing. What’s verifiable is the mechanism: surcharge, water deductible, exclusion, or deadline, applied at the insurer’s discretion. The only number that reliably changes the outcome is the one on a repipe quote.
Do I have to disclose Poly B if nobody asks?
Answer every application question truthfully; misrepresentation on a material fact can void a policy exactly when you need it. If the application asks about plumbing type or age, that’s the question. More on the paperwork side in the insurance chapter and the disclosure chapter.
Sources for this tracker
- Square One Insurance Services, Poly-B plumbing resource page and underwriting questions page, verified August 6, 2026
- Wawanesa Insurance, water leak response plan article, March 2024, verified August 6, 2026
- Westland Insurance, “Has your broker asked if you have Polybutylene (Poly-B) plumbing?”, September 2023, verified August 6, 2026
- Acera Insurance, hard-to-insure homes guidance, verified August 6, 2026
- BFL Canada Risk Control Engineering bulletin on polybutylene piping systems, March 2020, hosted by the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC, verified August 6, 2026
This tracker records published positions, not private underwriting rules, and it is not insurance advice. Positions change without notice; the verified date on each row is part of the data. Next scheduled re-verification: November 2026.
Published by Poly B Plumbing Guys
This library is maintained by the team that replaces Poly B every day across Alberta and BC. Red Seal certified plumbers, full remove-replace-restore service including drywall and paint, a 25-year warranty, and the completion certificate insurers ask for.
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