As climate-driven catastrophes reshape Canada’s property risk landscape, insurers are increasingly searching for tools that can reduce claims frequency – especially in segments they can control. While wildfire, flooding and severe weather dominate headlines, the number-one source of residential claims remains the same: water escaping from internal plumbing systems.
Jerry Fairborn (pictured), national sales manager at Moen, said insurers he speaks with are facing unprecedented uncertainty driven by the rising frequency of natural catastrophes – and many are turning to resilience technology as one of the few immediately actionable loss-prevention tools.
“Insurers are faced with almost an existential threat because of the increasing frequency of natural catastrophes,” he said. “They’re looking for solutions. One of the areas within the industry is resilience – how homes are built, what codes look like, and how we mitigate indoor water losses.”
Fairborn emphasized that while climate change dominates industry attention, the day-to-day claims pressure is still driven by internal plumbing failures.
Across North America, he said, two in five homeowners will experience a water-damage claim at some point in their lives – a statistic he notes is consistent in Canada, the United States, and likely other regions with modern plumbing systems.
“That’s 40%,” he said. “And for those who’ve experienced catastrophic water losses, they’re life changing. People are out of their homes for extended periods, there’s mold risk, possessions are destroyed, and materials end up in landfills.”
Because the peril is frequency-driven, not catastrophe-driven, insurers see it as a resilience opportunity. Fairborn said insurers are increasingly interested in technologies that detect anomalies, shut off water automatically, and reduce both claim costs and environmental impact.
“We know water can create very negative experiences for customers,” he said. “But we also know technology today can detect and prevent those losses.”
Fairborn stressed that Moen doesn’t classify or price risk – that’s the insurer’s role – but the company does observe patterns in homes that experience repeated losses.
Some risks are structural. He pointed to aging or failure-prone plumbing materials, such as older polybutylene or certain CPVC systems.
“There are about three-quarters of a million homes in Canada with that type of piping,” he said. “It’s been shown to leak prematurely, usually within 10 years of installation.”
Others are behavioural. Finished basements with washrooms, home additions, and expanded usage areas increase exposure simply because more of the home is now vulnerable to water damage.
And in many cases, the challenge is awareness.
“Homeowners need to become more aware of the risks associated with climate change and water damage,” Fairborn said. “People used to think, ‘That’s why I buy insurance.’ But insurance isn’t getting less expensive. It’s getting more expensive because of NAT cats and related losses.”
Fairborn is careful to note that Moen does not speak for insurers, but he frequently hears a common theme: pricing alone cannot solve the long-term affordability issue.
Insurance deserts – areas where property coverage is unavailable at any price – are already appearing in the United States. In those regions, insurers have begun mandating certain mitigation technologies before writing coverage.
“That doesn’t exist in Canada yet,” Fairborn said. “But in US jurisdictions where insurance deserts have developed, carriers are mandating certain technologies to mitigate claims.”
Canada could follow a similar path if resilience measures don’t improve.
Fairborn argues that homeowners have a role to play – not because insurers demand it, but because premiums will continue rising if losses continue at current levels.
“At some point, someone is going to say, ‘Is there a way I can mitigate some of those premium increases?’” he said. “Becoming more resilient is one of those ways.”
Fairborn’s perspective reflects a broader industry trend: insurers are looking for any downstream control they can exercise as climate volatility increases. While they cannot stop a wildfire or a hurricane, they can influence preventable perils like indoor water damage, which remain the most frequent – and often the most expensive – non-cat claims.
