One licensed cannabis cultivator on Vancouver Island recently got a scare when they received a letter telling them their home insurance would soon not be renewed because of their small, outdoor cannabis farm on the property. Reports Stratcann
The couple say that although their long-time insurer originally gave them coverage on their home and the rest of their farm, as long as they got third party coverage for their new, small 200m outdoor cannabis farm, they received a letter in mid August telling them their coverage for their home and farm would end by September 15.
We followed all the rules, talked at length with multiple brokers to make sure that we were covered. Our insurance company said ‘We will cover you if you do X, Y, Z’, and we did it all. And now in the middle of our harvest season they’re cancelling our insurance.
KATY CONNELLY, SEA DOG FARM
Shawn and Katy Connelly own and operate Sea Dog Farm, growing cannabis as well as fruits, vegetables, berries, eggs, herbs and producing yarn from their alpacas on their five acre home property on Vancouver Island.
When the couple received their cannabis cultivation licence in November 2019, initially the company who was already covering their home and farm, Western Coast, had declined to cover the cannabis business. They told the Connellys they would still insure the couple’s home as long as they received commercial insurance coverage for their micro cannabis business from another insurer.
The Connellys were then able to get liability insurance for their cannabis covered by a third party, and say everything went fine for the first four and a half months. Then they received a letter in August telling them they would be canceling their insurance in one month because their operations exceeded the insurance underwriter’s current guidelines.
Western Coast did not respond to requests for comment.
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“We did our due diligence. We got everything lined up. We have it in writing from our insurance company. We gave them six months notice before we even put a seed in the ground to make sure that everything was in place. We followed all the rules, talked at length with multiple brokers to make sure that we were covered. Our insurance company said ‘We will cover you if you do X, Y, Z’, and we did it all. And now in the middle of our harvest season they’re cancelling our insurance, or technically not renewing it, and I just don’t have time to do the paperwork and run a farm.”
Kyle Mons, a Commercial Insurance Account Executive specializing in cannabis insurance with HUB International Insurance Brokers in Victoria, BC says the issue facing the Connely’s will only become more common as more small farmers look to supplement their farm income with a small cannabis operation, especially micro cultivation licences.
Part of the challenge, he says, is that some companies offering insurance for commercial cannabis growers may not fully understand the distinction between a legal personal medical grow and a commercial licence. While many of these personal or designated medical grows are covered under existing insurance plans because they have been around much longer, commercial growers operating on the same property as their home is relatively new since the implementation of new licence categories in 2018.
Full article & source : https://stratcann.com/legal-cannabis-farm-in-bc-to-lose-home-insurance-because-of-cannabis/#
