Are You Going Away This Fall or Winter? The Insurance Clause That Turns a Burst Pipe Into a Denied Claim

The freezing exclusion most people have never read

The wording varies by insurer, but the shape is the same across almost every Canadian homeowner policy we see. During the normal heating season, damage caused by freezing of plumbing, heating, air conditioning or appliances is excluded if the home has been unoccupied for more than a set number of consecutive days — often four in the policies we see, though some say three and some say seven — unless you did one of two things first: arranged for a competent person to enter the home regularly to make sure the heat was being maintained, or shut off the water supply and drained the pipes and appliances.

Read that again. It is not about whether you left the heat on. Plenty of people leave the thermostat where it always is, fly south for the winter, and assume they are covered. If the furnace quits in week two and nobody is checking, the damage from the pipes that freeze afterward can be excluded — not because the homeowner did anything careless, but because the conditions in the policy were not met.

We have sat in living rooms while that conversation happened. It is not one anybody enjoys, and it is entirely avoidable.

Your policy is the only version that matters

The number of days, how often the house has to be checked, and whether a remote temperature sensor counts all differ from one insurer to the next. Before you leave, call your broker and ask three questions:

• How many consecutive days can the house be unoccupied in heating season before the freezing exclusion applies?
• What counts as a check — does a person have to go inside, and how often?
• Do I need a vacancy permit for the length of time I will be gone?

Unoccupied is not the same as vacant: the 30-day line

Many policies add a second condition, often at 30 consecutive days away, after which the insurer has to be told and some coverages — commonly vandalism, glass breakage and some water damage — can be restricted unless the insurer agreed to a permit or endorsement before you left. Policies define "vacant" and "unoccupied" differently from everyday speech, and which one your insurer applies to a snowbird's furnished home is exactly the question to ask your broker.

If you are leaving the Okanagan or the Boundary for three to five months, this applies to you. Ask your broker what a permit involves and what it costs. Finding out after a loss that you needed one can cost you the entire claim.

Option one: a house-checker who actually checks

A neighbour holding a key is not the same thing as a competent person maintaining the heat. The clause expects someone to go inside, on the schedule the policy sets, and confirm the furnace is doing its job. A proper check takes about ten minutes:

• Read the thermostat and confirm the furnace is running. Not just that the display is lit — that warm air is actually coming out of the registers.
• Walk the house and listen. Running water in a house where nobody has used a tap in a week is the sound of a problem.
• Look under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, around the hot water tank, and at the ceilings below bathrooms. That is where freeze and leak damage shows first.
• Step outside. Icicles at the eaves, ice at the foundation, and snow drifted against the furnace intake and exhaust pipes are all warning signs. A high-efficiency furnace will usually shut itself down when snow blocks its exhaust — and then the house starts cooling toward the pipes.
• Write it down. Date, time, thermostat reading, initials. A phone photo of the thermostat is even better. If you ever have to prove the house was being checked, this log is your evidence.

Smart thermostats and wireless temperature sensors that text you when the house drops below a set point are worth having — they can turn a week of undetected cooling into a same-day problem, if someone local can respond. But ask your insurer whether they count as a check. Many policies still require a person to physically enter the home, and an alert on your phone in Palm Springs does not satisfy that on its own.

Option two: shut off the water and drain the plumbing

If nobody can check the house reliably, the other route is to take the water out of the equation. This is the standard way to close up a seasonal property, and it is what we recommend for anything at Christina Lake or up a forestry road that nobody will see until spring.

If you are not comfortable with any of this, a plumber can do the whole shutdown in one visit. Here is what a proper shutdown covers:

1. Shut off the main water valve. On a well, shut off the power to the pump at the breaker too.
2. Open every tap, starting on the top floor and working down, and leave them open. If there is a drain valve beside the main shutoff, open it so the low runs empty. Flush every toilet to empty the tanks.
3. Turn off the hot water tank before it can run dry — the breaker for an electric tank, or the setting the manufacturer's label calls for on a gas tank — then drain it once the water has cooled, or have your plumber handle this step.
4. Disconnect and drain the dishwasher and washing machine supply lines, and the fridge water line if you have one.
5. Pour plumbing antifreeze into every drain trap and every toilet bowl and tank. Use the pink propylene glycol RV or plumbing type, never automotive antifreeze, and keep pets away from treated bowls. The water sitting in a trap is what freezes and cracks the fixture.
6. Have the irrigation blown out and the hose bibs drained. The fall checklist covers that.
7. Leave the heat on anyway, at the temperature your insurer or broker recommends — 15 degrees is common. Draining protects the plumbing. The heat protects everything else — drywall, flooring, cabinets, contents — from the condensation and humidity swings an unheated house goes through all winter.

One system needs its own plan. Hot-water heating — baseboards, radiators or in-floor loops — is a separate water system that this list does not drain. Talk to your heating contractor before you shut the main, and do the same for anything else in the house that holds water and you are not sure about.

Tell your broker you have done this. Some insurers want it noted on the file.

Before you lock the door

• Call your broker. Ask the three questions above. Get a vacancy permit if you need one.
• Pick your route: a checker on a written schedule, or shut off and drain. Not a vague version of both.
• Leave the furnace at the temperature your insurer or broker recommends — 15 degrees is common. Replace the filter before you go.
• Open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so warm air reaches the pipes.
• Disconnect garden hoses and shut off the hose bibs. This is still the number one cause of burst pipes we see.
• Show your checker where the main water shutoff is and make sure it turns. Leave them your number and your insurer's claims line.
• Ask them to keep snow clear of the furnace intake and exhaust, the gas meter and the dryer vent — gently, with a broom or a gloved hand, never by chipping ice.

If you come home to damage

Before you go in: if standing water has reached outlets, cords, appliances or the electrical panel, stay out and have the power shut off first — your utility or an electrician can do that at the meter. Once it is safe to enter, shut off the water at the main before anything else — including before you call us. If the main is frozen or seized, that is an emergency plumbing call. Then photograph everything before you move it.

Call your insurer the same day and tell them plainly when the house was last checked. The adjuster will establish that timeline regardless, and it is far better coming from you. If the answer is not what the policy wanted to hear, do not assume the claim is dead — read what to do when a claim is denied, and talk to your broker about your options. What we can do is document the loss properly: moisture readings, photos, drying logs and a clear scope, which is what adjusters look for.

The 24-hour rule applies here as it does with any water loss: the sooner drying starts, the less has to come out. The difference with a freeze that has been running for weeks is that there is usually no saving the drywall and flooring in the wet areas. Our job becomes containing the damage to what is already wet and keeping mould out of what is not.